I'm not a biology wiz by any means of the imagination. However, the first thing that came to mind was designing virophages to wipe out things like aids and other stubborn viruses. Basically, it would be the exact same concept as bacteriophage cocktails that are used a lot in other countries to cure infections.
Granted, such things are very specific to a certain strain of a virus and I imagine there are lots of strains of something like AIDS. Still, it seems possible, even if currently out of reach, to engineer one of these guys to mutate and adapt to counter the different strains of a virus it might encounter. Just like these viruses mutate into seperate strains, your bioengineered virophage might do the same thing.
I would agree with you. I never mentioned that natural selection is the only mechanism put for to explain how evolution occurs. I'm also not well aquinted enough with modern biology to speak of "natural selection" as anything more than the very generic idea of it. As you so well pointed out, there are many additional factors to consider for a complete look at the picture. While I do agree that this mechanism by which evolution occurs is a very strong argument, I just wanted to point out that it's not 100%, nor is anything in science. Personally, I find that to be a favorable characteristic.
Fwiw, evolution happens. However, the mechanism by which it happens is still up for questioning. The mainstream science community holds to the notion of natural selection as that mechanism. Proponents of ID say "god did it". Scientists say "lets examine what we know, and come up with some good guesses". Natural selection is one of those good guesses, and while it doesn't plug every hole and answer every question clearly, that is a rare occurence in science as a whole. Theologians desire absolute answers to everything, but science is about accepting the fact that there are some things we don't know, and then trying to find good answers to those unknowns. So while natural selection may not be perfect, it's still pretty decent. Maybe someday, someone will come up with a revised theory.
As for your last question. In a way, I think computers and software have already evolved. The human brain for instance is a huge parallel processor, light-years more evolved than present day computers.
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I'm not a biology wiz by any means of the imagination. However, the first thing that came to mind was designing virophages to wipe out things like aids and other stubborn viruses. Basically, it would be the exact same concept as bacteriophage cocktails that are used a lot in other countries to cure infections. Granted, such things are very specific to a certain strain of a virus and I imagine there are lots of strains of something like AIDS. Still, it seems possible, even if currently out of reach, to engineer one of these guys to mutate and adapt to counter the different strains of a virus it might encounter. Just like these viruses mutate into seperate strains, your bioengineered virophage might do the same thing.
I would agree with you. I never mentioned that natural selection is the only mechanism put for to explain how evolution occurs. I'm also not well aquinted enough with modern biology to speak of "natural selection" as anything more than the very generic idea of it. As you so well pointed out, there are many additional factors to consider for a complete look at the picture. While I do agree that this mechanism by which evolution occurs is a very strong argument, I just wanted to point out that it's not 100%, nor is anything in science. Personally, I find that to be a favorable characteristic.
Fwiw, evolution happens. However, the mechanism by which it happens is still up for questioning. The mainstream science community holds to the notion of natural selection as that mechanism. Proponents of ID say "god did it". Scientists say "lets examine what we know, and come up with some good guesses". Natural selection is one of those good guesses, and while it doesn't plug every hole and answer every question clearly, that is a rare occurence in science as a whole. Theologians desire absolute answers to everything, but science is about accepting the fact that there are some things we don't know, and then trying to find good answers to those unknowns. So while natural selection may not be perfect, it's still pretty decent. Maybe someday, someone will come up with a revised theory. As for your last question. In a way, I think computers and software have already evolved. The human brain for instance is a huge parallel processor, light-years more evolved than present day computers.