On first watching, I didn’t see where was Eliezer coming from at the end. My thoughts were:
The genetic code was produced by a optimisation process. Biochemists have pretty broad agreement on the topic. There are numerous adaptations—including an error correcting code. It did not happen by accident—it was the product of an optimisation process, executed by organisms with earlier genetic substrates. Before DNA and proteins came an RNA world with a totally different “code”-with no amino acids. It is not that there is no evidence for this—we now have quite a mountain of evidence for it.
The modern ecosystem is the product of a designoid organism containing the first DNA. That creature conquered the world with its descendants—and was massively successful at pursuing its goals, and spreading them everywhere. Accidents might have been involved along the way, but the results are purposeful—to the same extent that other things in biology are purposeful [insert your favourite teleonomy justification for teleology here if so inclined].
On first watching, I didn’t see where was Eliezer coming from at the end. My thoughts were:
The genetic code was produced by a optimisation process. Biochemists have pretty broad agreement on the topic. There are numerous adaptations—including an error correcting code. It did not happen by accident—it was the product of an optimisation process, executed by organisms with earlier genetic substrates. Before DNA and proteins came an RNA world with a totally different “code”-with no amino acids. It is not that there is no evidence for this—we now have quite a mountain of evidence for it.
The modern ecosystem is the product of a designoid organism containing the first DNA. That creature conquered the world with its descendants—and was massively successful at pursuing its goals, and spreading them everywhere. Accidents might have been involved along the way, but the results are purposeful—to the same extent that other things in biology are purposeful [insert your favourite teleonomy justification for teleology here if so inclined].