On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 8

NASA: "Hand of God" supernova

Current theories of abiotic evolution (a.k.a. "cosmology" or "cosmic evolution") tell us that supernovas, like the one depicted in the photo to the left, take place when large stars explode.

They then eject molecular clouds into space, including carbon that they have produced internally.

Those molecular clouds are then manipulated by gravitational forces that once again conform, collapse, and condense that vast molecular cloud into yet another star with planets that will eventually be in orbits around that star.

Eventually, the third iteration of this abiotic replication phenomenon will bring about the evolution of a different star like the Sun, and will bring about the evolution of planets, some like the Earth.

Our current solar system is one of those third generation abiotic evolutionary results (see On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 5, On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 6).


One thing that was mentioned in previous posts still remains to be addressed in this series:

Yes, abiotic evolution via abiotic mutation and abiotic-selection (before Darwinian "natural selection" yet existed) is to be explored further in future posts ...

(On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 4). To give the general idea of "abiotic selection", I will modify the following natural selection text accordingly:

Natural [Abiotic] selection is the gradual process by which biological [abiological] traits become either more or less common in a population [of cosmic abiotic entities] as a function of the effect of inherited [replicated] traits on the differential reproductive [replicative] success of organisms [abiotic entities] interacting with their environment. It is a key mechanism of evolution. The term "natural selection" was popularized by Charles Darwin who intended it to be compared with artificial selection, now more commonly referred to as selective breeding. [abiotic selection was not considered by Darwin because he was in reference only to the biotic evolution on Earth which followed ~10.21 billion years of abiotic evolution which produced the Sun and other abiotic entities that biotic evolution requires. Abiotic evolution preceded all biotic evolution.]

Variation exists within all populations of organisms. [abiotic entities, whether they are forces, atoms, molecules, stars, planets, etc.] This occurs partly because random mutations occur in the genome of an individual organism, [atoms and molecules,] and these mutations can be passed to offspring. [replicated.] Throughout the individuals’ lives, their genomes [existence of abiotic entities, they] interact with their environments to cause variations in traits. (The environment of a genome includes the molecular biology in the cell, other cells, other individuals, [abiotic] populations, species, [etc.,] as well as the abiotic environment.) Individuals with certain variants of the trait may survive and reproduce more than individuals with other variants. [Cosmic abiotic forces such as gravity act on abiotic entities.] Therefore the [abiotic] population evolves. Factors that affect reproductive success [of replication] are also important, [such as stellar formation,] an issue that Charles Darwin developed in his ideas on sexual selection, for example. Natural [Abiotic] selection acts on the phenotype[type], or the observable characteristics of an organism [abiotic entity such as a star, altering its longevity eventually, through several iterations of formation and restructuring.] but the genetic (heritable) basis of any phenotype that gives a reproductive advantage may become more common in a population (see allele frequency). Over time, this [abiotic evolutionary] process can result in [abiotic] populations that specialize for particular ecological [cosmic] niches and may eventually result in the emergence of new species [of white dwarf stars that are more stable than their predecessors over a longer period of time]. In other words, natural [abiotic] selection is an important process (though not the only process) by which evolution takes place within a population of organisms [abiotic entities, such as forces, quanta, atoms, molecules, molecular clouds, stars, and planets]. Natural [Abiotic] selection can be contrasted with artificial selection, in which [such as Dyson Spheres and Dyson Grids, where] humans intentionally choose specific traits (although they may not always get what they want). In natural [abiotic] selection there is no intentional choice. In other words, artificial selection is teleological and natural [abiotic] selection is not teleological.

(With apologies to Wikipedia, "Natural Selection"). The gist of it is that abiotic evolution through abiotic mutation, and abiotic selection of various sorts, always precedes biotic evolution.


Biological evolution may or may not take place prior to the evolution of a fourth generation white dwarf star in a given solar system during abiotic evolution.

A white dwarf is a type of star that offers orders of magnitude more time and abiotic stability for biological evolution to take place on a planet near it, than does the first, second, and third generation stars produced during the abiotic evolution of a solar system.

Our Sun and its planets in our solar system are the products of a third generation in the sequence of abiotic evolution.

Thus, if biological life does evolve prior to the fourth generation, when a stable white dwarf evolves, as it did in our solar system, it is a premature mutation in an important sense (e.g. What Kind of Intelligence Is A Lethal Mutation?).

Further, that premature mutation presents very substantial difficulties for the continued existence of that biological realm which evolved by biotic evolution too early in the stellar sequence (see The Tenets of Ecocosmology).

Thus, all species on the Earth, in order to continue to exist as species, must avoid the solar induced death, which abiotic evolution is slated to bring to the inner planets, when further evolution of the third generation star takes place (ibid, The Tenets of Ecocosmology).

Any continued existence of biotic species produced by such a mutation, as has happened on Earth, involves those biological species becoming space nomads.

It involves traveling to another solar system, or instead it involves risky hiding-out from the Sun in our solar system.

Hiding out on planets and/or moons further out from the Earth (further away from the Sun), in our own solar system (the risk is guessing which planets will be safe from the affects of the Sun during that time frame).

This nomadic existence is non-negotiable when the Sun begins to evolve into a Red Giant, and then destroys the inner planets including the Earth (see On The Origin and Future of Nomads).

Eons later, when the Sun has finally evolved into a White Dwarf, a more stable solar system is thereafter in the offering (see On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 5, On the Origin of the Genes of Viruses - 6).

The previous post in this series is here.

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This is still National Poetry Month ... so ...
 Kodachrome
by Simon & Garfunkel

When I think back on all the crap I've learned in high school
It's a wonder I can think at all
Though my lack of education hasn't hurt me much
I can read the writings on the walls

Chorus:
Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colours
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah
I got a Nikon camera, I love to take a photograph
So mama don't take my Kodachrome away
...

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