Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
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Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
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Re: Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
#2Reprinted from a news release at http://www.shef.ac.uk/mediacentre/2012/darwin-evolution-natu..., but still no actual data.
It would be nice to know what current selection effects actually are; otherwise, it seems like kind of a "well, duh" announcement. After all, everyone knows that some people still have more grandkids than other people do.
Re: Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
#3What I found most surprising was learning that controversy surrounds the assertion that we are still evolving! The alternative hypothesis -- that technological and social innovation have arrested genetic evolution -- seems fantastical to me. The sun does not revolve around the earth; evolution does not bow to mankind.
Re: Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
#4What I found most surprising was learning that controversy surrounds the assertion that we are still evolving! The alternative hypothesis -- that technological and social innovation have arrested genetic evolution -- seems fantastical to me. The sun does not revolve around the earth; evolution does not bow to mankind.
Think of all the people you know who couldn't function without glasses or medication, and imagine a world where they all died. Evolution does not bow to mankind, but we've thrown sand in the gears for sure.
Re: Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
#5What I found most surprising was learning that controversy surrounds the assertion that we are still evolving! The alternative hypothesis -- that technological and social innovation have arrested genetic evolution -- seems fantastical to me. The sun does not revolve around the earth; evolution does not bow to mankind.
Think of all the people you know who couldn't function without glasses or medication, and imagine a world where they all died. Evolution does not bow to mankind, but we've thrown sand in the gears for sure.
It's like squeezing a balloon. We haven't alleviated the pressure of evolution, we've only shifted it. While science and medicine have ameliorated many of our biological weaknesses -- genetic or sporadic -- other cues have taken there place. What is (temporally) being selected for is a more interesting question.
Re: Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
#6Earlier quoted context omitted.
Think of all the people you know who couldn't function without glasses or medication, and imagine a world where they all died. Evolution does not bow to mankind, but we've thrown sand in the gears for sure.
It's like squeezing a balloon. We haven't alleviated the pressure of evolution, we've only shifted it. While science and medicine have ameliorated many of our biological weaknesses -- genetic or sporadic -- other cues have taken there place. What is (temporally) being selected for is a more interesting question.
Evolution can be increased or decreased easily. Natural selection is a result of death. More death means more natural selection, and less death means less natural selection. We've reduced death tremendously, and hence reduced natural selection.
Sexual selection is quite a different animal, but we can't take as a given that sexual selection increases as natural selection decreases. It might; I just don't know any reason that it would. And there are reasons that even sexual selection would diminish--for various reasons, I don't think anyone today could have nearly as many children as Genghis Khan did.
Re: Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
#7What I found most surprising was learning that controversy surrounds the assertion that we are still evolving! The alternative hypothesis -- that technological and social innovation have arrested genetic evolution -- seems fantastical to me. The sun does not revolve around the earth; evolution does not bow to mankind.
Think of all the people you know who couldn't function without glasses or medication, and imagine a world where they all died. Evolution does not bow to mankind, but we've thrown sand in the gears for sure.
At the same time, any traits that helps you maintain a birth control regimen are now strongly selected against.
Re: Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
#8What I found most surprising was learning that controversy surrounds the assertion that we are still evolving! The alternative hypothesis -- that technological and social innovation have arrested genetic evolution -- seems fantastical to me. The sun does not revolve around the earth; evolution does not bow to mankind.
Evolution is not an irreducible law of the universe. It will very likely stop one day for humans e.g. once we achieve immortality[0].
Re: Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's like squeezing a balloon. We haven't alleviated the pressure of evolution, we've only shifted it. While science and medicine have ameliorated many of our biological weaknesses -- genetic or sporadic -- other cues have taken there place. What is (temporally) being selected for is a more interesting question.
Evolution can be increased or decreased easily. Natural selection is a result of death. More death means more natural selection, and less death means less natural selection. We've reduced death tremendously, and hence reduced natural selection. Sexual selection is quite a different animal, but we can't take as a given that sexual selection increases as natural selection decreases. It might; I just don't know any reas…
My original claim was that it was fantastical to suggest evolution was arrested, not slowed; however, your point is more nuanced and interesting than mine. With this in mind, I'd refine my original statement.
I find the idea of a stable rate of evolution curious. With respect to your argument, we are in agreement: there is reason to suspect that evolution as a reaper has become more tolerant; on the flip side, I'd argue that genetic diversity is increasing, as a consequence of with an unbridled phase of expansion. In this sea of diversity, the genetic victor exists, to be revealed during some future event of punctuated equilibria.
Re: Darwinian selection continues to influence human evolution
#10In other news, gravity continues to work, but geometry takes a tumble when a regular polygon is discovered that has four and a half sides...