Both imprecision and gross fallibility can plausibly be blamed on the insufficiency of genetic information, since either could be reduced by adding more information. It is universally accepted among information theorists that codes and languages can be made mistake-resistant by incorporating redundancy. However, since the amount of space available in any information system is limited, increased redundancy results in decreased precision. For example, when written incorrectly in English, three point oen four two, can be understood correctly even though a typographical error has occurred. More precision could be gained, however, if those 24 spaces were filled with Arabic numerals ; then could be expressed to 23 significant digits , although any error would significantly change the meaning. There exists a trade-off , the more precisely a system is specified, using a given limited amount of information, the greater the danger of gross mistakes. The overall scheme by which genetic information is rationed out in organisms, therefore, must involve a compromise between two conflicting priorities: precision and the avoidance of gross mistakes.
17. Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?
Although studies of isogenic organisms have shown that all organisms are subject to developmental variations, there is still scientific debate over the exact causes of these variations.
Because of limitations on the amount of information contained in the genes of organisms, developing nervous systems are subject to two basic kinds of error, the likelihood of one of which is reduced only when the likelihood of the other is increased.
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