an illuminating metaphor for the process of biological evolution

[ogelioholde921r]

I want this video on my e949/L1 phone.

[lxTheDukexl]

too bad it didn't slowly change back into a straight line. that would be hilarious

[specialeddie11]

1:10 ... jackass

[JustThisFor]

What is the name of the song?

[frogsoda]

This is a perfect metaphor for evolution. There were no beneficial mutations here, just like in nature. Perfect.

[TheJohnnylloyd]

@frogsoda Define "beneficial" in the context of a line. Why are squiggly lines worse off than straight ones?

[frogsoda]

@TheJohnnylloyd Depends on what it's used for. If it is marking the center of straight road, then I should not have to explain the benefits of having a straight line.

[TheJohnnylloyd]

@frogsoda Sure, but you don't know what these lines are doing. You have no idea whether the shape they've taken is beneficial or not.

[Stinukli]

@TheJohnnylloyd That's a good point. However, say that a "mutation" causes it to resemble say a knife, and that it therefore would be beneficial.

[TheMrSlap]

Well it was all fucked up by the second retard who traced it. None of this would have happened if it wasn't for Mr Arthiritis.

[revergo]

Il professore si chiama Valla.

I see what you did there, Nocoldiz! :D

[viicISrotcib]

Favorited, Shared and liked.

[Spicysquidsauce]

the second line wasnt even trying.

[kamerystka]

Anyone knows what the music is? Love the video, but music even more! :)

[Keres93]

This fails to illustrate the dynamics of evolution.

However, it'd be a great metaphor for how information may change when it is passed to the next person, e.g. storytelling.

[CerndMihailov]

Shit metaphor. Cool video.

[download333]

"metaphor for the process of biological evolution"

So... where is the selection pressure? This has nothing to do with evolution.

[fr0nage]

@download333 METAPHOR.

[PsychoticSnake]

@download333 Yes, it does. It's change over time.

[download333]

@PsychoticSnake Change over time pushed in some direction by a selection pressure. This was more of an example of genetic drift, if it were not held in check by the increased mortality rate that would be a consequence of destructive changes to a genome.

[696timbo]

It's like watching Michael J Fox trying to write his name!

[BORATPWNU]

ARE PEOPLE THAT SHITTY AT TRACING?

[RandomPro2011]

Excellent metaphor.

[grokcalvin]

This is a terrible illustration of evolution; but it is a great illustration of how a story changes as it's passed from one generation to the next. You know, like Genesis.

[SENORMEBS]

"Everything evolves"? Oh, how this video insists upon itself.

[hank87]

God damn are people bad at drawing lines....

[MattTrevett]

Didn't this go from order (a very straight line) to disorder (many broken semi-random lines)? The only order we see in this example is what people put into it from their perspectives of what the line might be..

[Dentarthurdent54]

@MattTrevett Not really... The original line could have started out being "disorderly", and evolved to a straight-ish line. At any rate, this is meant to demonstrate descent with modification. It doesn't incorporate the elements of natural/sexual selection.

[camycam178]

I think the people that add lines in the middle of nowhere for no reason just did it to fuck with the survey.

[chukas88]

While you might see an S some people might see a V

o.O

[sh3aty]

I can understand the message, but Christ was it a bad example. There are some lines there that are just so off, it seemed to be on purpose to troll or mess up the study. For example, there's a period of time where the line is in about 5 pieces in some form of an "S" later, someone makes a complete and solid "V." That doesn't make any sense.

[crazyNirvana]

@mgshadow45 This video is meant to show that very gradual changes can eventually lead to something entirely different from the initial form.

[Larz334]

It's interesting how the lines slowly shift to the right at the beginning. Maybe most people are right handed and a traced line will naturally be slightly to the right?

[funnychoccookie]

the second person sucks shit

[AlyxInvalid]

The first person to trace fucked everything up for everybody.

[wnnw98]

what the hell kind of retards participated in this?  they obviously fucked the lines up on purpose...

[dojosnail]

gay

[sisuo2]

@dojosnail just like your face

[Ghost8492]

TIL people suck at tracing lines.

[7thBillionPerson]

So here is a question; if the result of evolution is chaotic, how is everything so precise now ?

[SamuraiSammich]

@7thBillionPerson First, I don't think evolution is chaotic, really. This video wasn't showing that. It was showing that tiny changes can add up to very extreme ones. And second, things aren't precise now. They're just considered precise by people because if they were any other way, they'd be considered foreign and strange. Example, if everyone were to grow up with three feet, the thought of anything else being perfect would be absurd. Sorry if this answer's inadequate, it's just my 2 cents :)

[7thBillionPerson]

@SamuraiSammich That is not to say that evolution is random - far from it. But the neat concept of adaptation to the environment driven by natural selection, as envisaged by Darwin in On the Origin of Species and now a central feature of the theory of evolution, is too simplistic. Instead, evolution is chaotic. This is "new scientist"

[SamuraiSammich]

@7thBillionPerson Sorry, I misunderstood you. But I still wouldn't call Darwin's theory too simplistic. It's a very intricate process, and (to further add to your first question of preciseness) it's only so "precise" now because it's had millions of years to prevent creatures with bad mutations from reproducing. Creatures are sure to further improve. I haven't done much research on the matter though, so I should probably end my part of this discussion here before I begin spouting total nonsense.

[7thBillionPerson]

@SamuraiSammich I haven't done much research either, I read a lot ( I cant remember everything I read ) and am truly fascinated by science. I loved science naturally from since I was a child. I am also religious, Muslim. There are very convincing arguments on both sides. I do believe in evolution and do not ignore facts. By precise I actually meant, the relationship of the planets and stars. Like the sun, moon and earth have a very precise relationship, no?

[SAbowser]

@7thBillionPerson As for the sun, moon and earth, think about it in another way. If all those things were not the way they were, then it's likely that life would have never developed on Earth. No life means no humans wondering how those things are so precise. Long ago, scholars thought the Earth was at the center of the Universe and there were only 8 planets, all part of God's design. We now know that that isn't true. Life only developed on Earth because it meets the criteria.

[SAbowser]

@7thBillionPerson Evolution consists of:

1) Random mutations

2)Natural Selection - if a mutation makes an organism better suited to its environment or has no effect, it will stick around. If it has any negative effects, the organism will be less likely to pass on its genes and thus the genes best suited for a given environment at a given time are the ones that become the most common.

[7thBillionPerson]

@SAbowser This means then that we will soon have to evolve further as humans as the planet's environment is becoming more unstable. We had two days of very light snow fall this winter in NY. For those who still believe that the climate on Earth is not being affected in some way, I seriously ask you to reconsider. If we do not have the time to evolve then we die. Adapt or die, right.

[SAbowser]

@7thBillionPerson So for example, Ancient aquatic organisms are the ancestors of both modern fish and human beings. Although we might think we are more advanced than fish, both humans and fish are adapted well to their respective environments. Fish are able to breathe underwater, lay many eggs, swim well, etc. while humans have developed a great mind.Keep in mind mutations are random so the fish MIGHT have human-like intelligence if they had the right mutations but they didn't.

[7thBillionPerson]

@SAbowser I read somewhere that Dolphins are incredibly smart, or are Dolphins not considered fish, because they are mammals.

But back to the original question, about the video, it seems the first line was straight and drawn in the shape of a line, perfect already, why then after drawing over it does it become deformed, if the video was a metaphor for biological evolution, it did not bring that point home to me. It merely showed me that it took something already perfect and turned it into chaos.

[SAbowser]

@7thBillionPerson About the line, yeah I guess this video is only meant to show how small changes can lead to vast differences over time. Remember, most bacteria can reproduce every ~30 minutes and the first life developed ~3 billion years ago. That's a lot of time for changes! Some of the changes in the video were big. In real life, this can occur with large duplication or deletion mutations. In real life there is no 'perfect' line, they are can only be adapted better or worse

[7thBillionPerson]

@SAbowser I thank you for your responses, Reddit brought me here, every day there I am learning new things, I will be reading up more and more. On a not so serious note, if we are to evolve because of climate change, I want to be WOLVERINE.

[SAbowser]

@7thBillionPerson I thank you for having an open mind and being willing to consider to views different from your own. Many people don't do that. Keep on doing research, there is so much cool stuff to learn about our world and the universe. By the way, do you mean the animal wolverine or the mutant superhero from the comics? Both are pretty cool :P

[7thBillionPerson]

@SAbowser I meant the one from the comics. Although I never got to read the comics, I did see all the movies. I always had an open mind. I was 8 years old when I found a light switch in school, I took it home and attached a socket, wires and screwed a bulb in the socket to make a circuit. I blew the fuse. That is the day my Dad thought me of polarity, and we made the bulb work. Been hooked ever since, I work in IT now.Amazing considering I came from a place where there was no X-Men comics.

[SAbowser]

@7thBillionPerson You've got a good dad, mine would have shouted at me for playing with electronics. In regards to humans evolving due to climate change, keep in mind that humans build tools to adapt to our needs. Since we build houses and fires to keep warm, we don't need fur. Likewise, we'll probably be able to adapt to changes in climate (to a certain point). Many other animals won't be able to do that, and that loss of biodiversity plus erratic weather will be a big problem

[7thBillionPerson]

@SAbowser I honestly loved it when the internet community came together and fought off SOPA ( Not that made any difference at all ), but I feel the time is now that we should unite on this topic precisely to affect change in the way we abuse the earth. I swear, 2 days of light snow all winter in NY, and everyone around me is like, yay no snow to deal with. I don't get it. I honestly don't.

[SAbowser]

@7thBillionPerson For sure...it's a tough battle when the guys doing all the worst abuse have so much money which they use to influence politicians and public opinion.

[TechXMarine]

@7thBillionPerson Because anything that doesn't work dies and doesn't have a chance to reproduce, so the variations we see now are the chaotic forms that were a benefit. Evolution seems chaotic to us but it can be seen as more of a system.

The water drops you see on your window during a rainy say seem absolutely random but really the path they take down your window is a system in which they follow a path of the least resistance, seem random on the outside but its not.

[ldoug9]

DAMN IT CJ ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS FOLLOW THE DAMN LINE

[Mezecs]

Some dumb motherfucker drew a "V" at around 1:10.

[JSalesFilm]

This is a good example of people #1 being rebellious and #2 not being able to trace a line.

[joecooper18]

actually its the result of people messing up, suddenly a line appears at 1:22 (along with other times) where someones obviously screwed up a simple line

[UndiePatrolz]

Random Ip man soundtrack is epic

[Belka1077]

How did it become five random squiggles? Someone must write with their feet while blindfolded.

[glutinousriceproduct]

@Belka1077 The subjects were only asked to trace over the last person's trace. Person number #255 would not have known that the original drawing was a straight line.

Just like birds not spontaneously turning back into single-cell organisms when they reproduce!

[thundershock713]

Music from Ip Man

[TheVideostash]

1:10

Remember the 5th of november....

[patofinn]

...Ip man anyone???



[nuklearwinter]

@patofinn

nice, yeah I knew I had heard that soundtrack before. Great movies

[animeengineer]

i cant tell if the person who put the V was fucking retarded or got hit by a car half way into drawing the line

[Goldbloodeddragon]

Wow, people suck at line drawing.

[moonorc]

fake: nobody draw a penis

[SteveCoxsey]

Flaw in the metaphor. Here every errant copy survives and is copied errantly. In DNA most replications are exact, and the errant copies (mutations) results in death or sterility nearly all the time. This suggests a lie - that DNA frequently throw little errors that survive into the next generation and are then copied poorly.

[Nightdrone]

@SteveCoxsey Especially when the drawing changes dramatically. Like around 1:10 some idiot draws a 'V'. In biology that would have been like missing half a genome and being too broken to develop. However I don't recall any metaphors that match exactly the the thing being described with no flaws.

[Hinduspy]

@Nightdrone Oh, you think you know more than 150 years of biologists and chemists? I would like to see your PhD sir.

[Nightdrone]

@Hinduspy Not at all, I'm just saying that the metaphor doesn't take into account of the dying off part of evolution. Other than that it is an excellent demonstration of change over multiple generations. Don't hit me >.<

[thesedoman]

@Nightdrone Actually that can happen too. When people think of mutations sometimes they overly simpify it. You can have single nucleotide changes but you can also have entire genomes multiplied. You can have genes multiplied and reversed. You can have nonfunctional, random, sequences of DNA become activited because of a promoter sequence that happened to appear. Big changes occur just as well as small changes.

[felicianomiko]

Was this done on an Etch-a-sketch?

[dammit525]

ip man theme?

[mgshadow45]

This doesnt represent evolution... this represents how shitty people are at making a line and then having someone trace it. The kind of deviations that people make on a line do not even remotely correlate to mutations and evolution. The kinds of even minor changes you see here reproduced in evolution would just result in sterile mutant babies...

[foodlovingpig]

Did they use children to trace the lines?

[SingleCrow]

I want to know who the idiot was that drew a giant V for no reason over half way through the video.

[neuraljam]

This isn't even *close* to being similar to evolution.

Evolution is the change of a species due to external pressures, i.e. the members of a species best suited to survival in their environment are more likely to pass on their traits to the next generation. This, whilst interesting, is in no way analogous as there is only one 'member' of this line 'species' in each generation to pass on traits.

[Vinifera7]

@neuraljam

It's not an exact metaphor, otherwise it would just be called an explanation. Each line isn't a single generation. Rather, each line represents a population once it adapts a novel feature.

[sttwigg]

In the words of Spock "Fascinating"

[carrollbarn1026]

Odd responses for this video again.

[beltedDEEP]

Perfect metaphor, easy to understand for even those who have just a basic understanding of it all. Thanks for the post.

[T1shaL]

500人集めてまともなやつばかりにはならないという証明

[nyantama]

This is a perfect example of information entropy!

[higegin]

アーク放電みたいだ！

[Ravengaurd6]

some people can't draw for shit,yo!

[sachiehiasa]

500人いると明らかにルール無視するやつが度々出てくる証明？­

[KuronekoTom]

@sachiehiasa 言えるー！(⌒ω⌒ ) 突っ込みたくなるよねっ

[yensama]

0:20 this dude is everything that went wrong with the world :p

[takuyann93]

ボツ

[secret70022]

amazing

[YH678]

明らかにルール無視してるやついるし

[mb7hl]

日本のすべての私の友人にハロー! ありがとう!

[reikaikaika]

たまに適当すぎる人がいるな

[ComboJumbomumbo]

this is like the history of religion. what jesus or buddha or muhammad said were twisted as the time elapsed.

[mb7hl]

@ComboJumbomumbo

That's an interesting thought, but I wanted to point something out. Unlike Jesus or Muhammad, we can definitively state that Buddha existed. Jesus and Muhammad are idea. Their supposed lives and teachings are events and philosophies borrowed from dozens of deities, hundreds and thousands of years, before them. So in a way, they represent "twisted" versions of other religion's stories.

[noodlezombie]

@mb7hl

Uh...ever read a history book? Jesus and Muhammad most definitely did exist. If anything there is less evidence for Buddha than for the other two.

[nobunaga123]

@noodlezombie

history book LOL good one

[noodlezombie]

@nobunaga123

Yeah, knowledge and education, who needs it?

[KyleAvenariusMusic]

@mb7hl Haha, just saw this and would like to say that Jesus and Muhammad are as real as Gautama. Whether or not you believe them to be deities is irrelevant.

Christian (Christ): Tacitus (A.D. c.55-A.D. c.117, Roman historian) mentions "Christus" who is Jesus - Annals 15.44

Muhammad: I'm not as well versed on Muhammad but the Qur'an and Hadith are people's accounts as well as the stories they heard and witnessed.

[mb7hl]

@KyleAvenariusMusic

(sigh)

[henriquecinema]

@mb7hl Why bother if wikipedia solves it all? :o)

Try "Historicity of Jesus" on their search engine..

Maybe, wheter we like it or not, the man existed...

[escudero231289]

@mb7hl girl, look at that body!

[TheGiggity456]

@mb7hl I could have sworn that we had written evidence of the existence of both Jesus and Muhammad. For instance, we know that Jesus was a student of the Rabbis, and we also know that Muhammad raised an army and conquered Mecca 

[TrolltasticLogic]

@mb7hl

Actually, there is historical documentation they they did exist, there are even birth/death dates on Muhammad. The religion comes in when they claim to be a messenger or a deity.

[reijio]

凄いなコレ

５００人もよれば事実も歪みうるということじゃないかな。

ネットの発達で僕達は情報共有の速度が１６正規の王たちよりも遥­かに増したけれど

情報発信源その過程の歪んだ意見で受け取る側は歪みうるというこ­となモカもしれない！

[kerorin25]

Vの後またすぐに汚くなるのはなぜだ？

[skdae]

ひどすぎｗ

[ryuppppn]

2人目がダメだった

血液型別とかやってみたら色々と面白そうだな

[dkakf807]

日本人に同じ実験をやらせてみたい

[Takami448]

@dkakf807

I will.

[okomekenseto]

これが人による伝聞の限界か...ってか、やる気が無い奴とかふ­ざけてる奴いるだろｗｗｗ

[AritakaHVA]

どうしてこうなった

[mopuis]

This video is a nice example of organizational theory : Only a single eccentric in a group can mess up everything.

[damiencaze]

1:11 ???

[yosi6tokyo]

because of art

[hanpenseizin]

second person must be blood type O.

[7tejsc]

エントロピーの増大ってやつか

[yumeyume1221]

適当にシュッって引いちゃう2番目の奴とか突然に”V”書いた奴­とか線を切れさせちゃう奴とかやる気なさ過ぎだろｗｗｗｗｗｗ

[hirosirataki1222]

自分で500回やったら完璧な直線になった

[pandaheadlimit]

戦犯は２人目

[sobako2]

V...

[AritakaHVA]

ええええええええええええええええええええええええええええええ­えええええええええええええええええええええええええええ

なぜそうなったしｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗｗ

[mizouyuu]

supernova

[hagsuri]

国別でやってみたら国民性が現れて面白いかもな(笑)

[yusukeaoki1234]

lol the second person fucked everything up

[ihsotih]

突然「-V-」とか描く人こそイノベーターなんだろうなあ。

[osakaboyz]

So What...?

[mb7hl]

For those who do not understand the metaphor, its because you have a novice understanding of biological evolution. Its the change of inherited characteristics within successive generations. Hope that helps.



[MKirro]

Without a selection process it's just mutations, not evolution. The experiment is interesting, but the title of the video is just wrong.

[neomp5]

i'd like to see this repeated with an artificial selection process. start with a vertical line, and reject all tracings that are not closer to a horizontal line

[TheKitsuneKunoichi]

Some people didn't give a shit. I don't think that's evolutionary. "A line? HAVE A 'V!'"

[mb7hl]

Remember, all the people drawing the lines, have no idea what its for. A fact that a lot of people seem to overlook is, even if one or two are people are intentionally changing what the line is suppose to look like, that doesn't explain why the line gets to erratic.

[canucklehead70]

what'd they get monkey's do do this or something? some of these people didn't even complete the line jesus

[phoenixelixir]

Well I can't speak spanish but ty Spanish dude and Google translate. It's from Ip Man. Awesome movie btw. Everyone should see it.

[phoenixelixir]

What is this song? I've heard it before somewhere...

[vicentebf]

cuanto troll xDD sobre todo el que dibuja la V

[edgartaor]

A eso se le llama entropia. Y es quizas el origen de la evolución y no la selección natural. Aunque la selección natural exista.

[mb7hl]

@edgartaor

La evolución es el cambio en el tiempo en la proporción de variando los rasgos heredados.

[edgartaor]

@mb7hl Tal vez no me exprese bien. Te invito a leer este paper para que veas a que me refiero.

home.iitk.ac.in/~osegu/NonEqui­lThermo.pdf

[Auringal]

Que tema musical es?

[mb7hl]

@Auringal

es de una película china llamada "IP MAN"

[Auringal]

@mb7hl Muy agradecido!

[czyzyk14]

1:11 WTF?

[PBJ6U]

Pero... como puede mutar una simple linea a varios segmentos raros?.... cuando lo más sencillo de copiar una linea es eso, que siga siendo una linea.

[Ferghy]

@PBJ6U se trata de trazar una linea, no se especifica que sea recta, el primero la hace recta por obvias razones, los que le siguen tiene que tener como referencia la anterior.

[PBJ6U]

@Ferghy Por eso mismo... porque (bajo mi punto de vista) si me dan una linea, la copiaré más o menos mejor, pero lo que le da "su significado" es que es un solo segmento y eso seguirá. Por eso me extraño cuando veo que en algún punto alguien decide que no es un solo segmento, si no que son dos y evoluciona de nuevo a partir de ahi. Para mi es, cuanto menos, raro.

[mb7hl]

@PBJ6U

Esto es cierto para la genética. Los enlaces químicos en los genes nunca se convierten en sustancias químicas diferentes. Varían en la sincronización.

[payasosridiculos]

El segundo que trazó la línea sufre de parkinson o que?

[mb7hl]

@payasosridiculos ha ha ha

[panchordza]

Chingón!!!