class ramblings

[kodalai]

Embryology (studying in physiological psychology) is fascinating. All of a sudden, genetics make sense. The human genome is a giant cheat-guide for evolution. It's the parent cells telling the little baby one-celled organism, "Psst, here's a list of everything we've been doing for the last ten million years that works. Go by this and you'll get way ahead of all the other organisms!"

Something of a cringe-moment in Philosophy of Science today. We're going over -- very rapidly -- the history of astronomy. Professor pulls up the Aristotilean model of the solar system, with the earth at the center of the universe surrounded by concentric crystalline spheres. Guy in the back puts up his hand and says "Wait, how could they have come up with something like this? Didn't they think the Earth was flat back then?"

*sigh*

Comments

[zalia.livejournal.com]

The human genome is a giant cheat-guide for evolution. It's the parent cells telling the little baby one-celled organism, "Psst, here's a list of everything we've been doing for the last ten million years that works. Go by this and you'll get way ahead of all the other organisms!"

Damn, why did no-one ever put it like that when I did genetics in Biology? Would have made it a whole lot easier!