[snas (Stuart)]

Why would Strep pneumoniae start down a path that may kill its host and therefore kill itself? You and I would make a risk assessment and decide that this is a bad thing to do. But bacteria do not have the benefit of foresight. They can only respond to the current stimulus but cannot not know what may happen as a result. The bacteria are not intentionally setting out to kill us, they are simply doing what it takes to survive, even if that may, without them knowing in advance, kill off their host and therefore maybe themselves. Actually, the death of the bacteria is not guaranteed just because the host dies, as long as they have a suitable environment in which to continue.

So Craig, I agree with Bojan that there is no paradox here. Maybe just an unhappy result of a bacterium trying to survive.

Bojan: Are mutations random and meaningless/purposeless? Well, some mutations (many?) are totally random, a simple, accidental error in gene transcription. So we cannot therefore ascribe any foresight of purpose to such a purely random event. Other gene mutations are not so random. At some point in its evolution, Strep pneumoniae developed the genes to allow it to beef up its defences against our immune systems. There is a very small chance that this was a random accident but more likely was a result of it responding to what it was faced with. And clearly this mutation was not purposeless. Not withstanding this, the vast majority of mutations, which I would point out occur in all of us every day, are totally random and many of them are purposeless.

Stuart