Pandoran-March wrote:
Exclavius wrote:
That being said... We have stopped Evolution by Natural Selection dead in it's tracks. It is our responsibility to find an alternative. Otherwise we will breed pure random change into our genome. 99% of genetic mutation is negative. (i'm sure it's higher than 99%)
It's called sexual selection. In the absence of the infirm dying off, it's a matter of who is willing to sleep with who, that decides where our gene pool is headed.
The question we should be asking ourselves isn't whether natural selection is working (It'll work regardless), but rather what sort of conditions natural selection is currently running under. Whatever people are getting laid the most are a pretty good indication of what our next generation is going to look like.
Yes, sexual selection is still present and active, I cannot debate you on that point. However it is no longer in the hands of the genetic evolution. It has moved into what Susan Blackmore coined Memetic Driving, in "The Meme Machine" Ideas control our evolution now, not what is best for the genes... instead it is what is best for our "ideas" which she calls memes, that decides which way the genes go.
The reason that memes can over-power genetic evolution is that they can change so fast whereas genetic evolution takes countless generations to affect the overall genepool and "select" what is best for their reproduction.
Simplified example: If the colour blue becomes the fad, then people who are "genetically prone to liking blue", and thus would be more apt to wear it, will be more likely to reproduce.
(that example does assume that people can be more genetically prone to like a colour, which has somewhat been shown to be true)
Certain things will go hand-in-hand with those genes to like blue though, ideas (and the genes to make one more prone to accept those ideas as well) as well as "side-effects" or riders on that same gene. That gene that makes you like blue might be on the same gene as the one that makes you have certain type of eye, or a certain brain wiring that affects other aspects of your personality. It'll likely select people who prefer sunny days (blue skies) vs rainy days (gray skies) etc etc. But the face is, these trends can change on a minutes notice... genes cannot. Therefore genes cannot keep up with the changes in memes, and memes take the drivers seat... kinda the colloquial dog walking the person.
This is why I say "evolution by natural selection" has been stopped dead in its tracks.
And the memes that have stopped it, care nothing for us humans (though, to be honest, neither do genes which tend to favour traits which increase their chance of replication, not their host's happiness, health etc) Nor do the memes care about our genes... The reason genetic driving is better, is that there is more correlation in what is best for our genes with what is best for our bodies than there is correlation between what is best for our memes vs what is best for our bodies. (positive correlation that is)
As our species no longer has the benefit of genetic evolution for the "good" we have to adopt memes which will suffice to at least maintain our genes. Some take this to the next level with ideas such as transhumanism and such, but that's a long ways off.... I hope.
The truth about sexual selection now, is that it no longer is about choosing the partner that holds the "best genes" it is instead about choosing the partner that holds the best "memes"
Consider the peacock... growing the male's tail is extremely costly, and it makes the male very visible to predators.... Yet the female chooses the brightest bird.
This creates waste and inefficiency, and it makes the males life more dangerous and in the long run "worse off"
Though this is not truly memes, it is a very good parallel.
If we can affect our memes so that the most "popular" people are the strongest, fittest, "best genetic samples" then we are laughing.
However that is not the case.
Back to the OP topic though... if we start using genetic testing to cherry pick certain genes, other attributes may arise of those genes, and if our memes dictate something to be desirable, that is not genetically desirable, it's a bad path we choose to tread. To eliminate say, cystic fibrosis or other genetic disorders (NOT ASPERGER'S THOUGH!! ! Keep us alive!! !!) then perhaps we've done something good... but the door opens to horrible potential.
If you want to learn more about memes and memetic driving, blackmore's book is on google books, and a google of "memetic driving" pulls up great resources both for and against memetics as a whole.
I may open a thread about memetics in general.. giving a brief synopsis of the topic... will likely be a few days though before I do.
27 May 2010, 11:38 am
