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Originally Posted by Dumar  you're still misunderstanding.
it's a subtle difference in what i'm asking here. the answer to my question is not outside stimuli.
organisms respond to those outside stimuli by changing themselves to better adapt, yes okay. so what about the organism causes it to know about this change and how does the organism know to respond? to put another way, where, how, or by what or whom does the information exchange from the environment to the organism occur for the organism to 'know' to change? yes, variations in genetic code exist, but that still begs the same question: namely, WHY does variation exist?
ps, hopefully with that you can understand better. |
No organisms do not respond to outside change to change. Organisms (by which I assume you mean species and not individuals) change all the time regardless of any change outside or not. The only factor is whether that change actually helps them survive longer or mate more or not. If not then the change for changes sake dies out and the species remains in its "base" format. If the change does increase the individuals chance at survival or reproduction then that change will tend to increase in the species OVER MANY GENERATIONS as the new genes breed marginally more then the old.
The question "why does variation exist" has the answer that variation allows life to evolve to fill all the available ecological niches around it. More importantly though is the understanding that variation is an intrinsic part of life. No two humans are 100% alike, even twins. Even cloned beings will have micro biological differences based on events as they develop in the womb, maybe the blood supply to one womb was slightly warmer or more oxygenated for example.
