genes

The evolutionary impact of modernity

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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The evolution of Homo Sapiens is still taking place.  It will not end until we are extinct.

That almost everybody now survives to adulthood does not alter the fact of evolution, though it does change the way that it happens.  Unless every man and woman has exactly 2.1 children, the species will be pulled in one direction or another.  And even under that unlikely scenario, genetic drift would occur.

Not everybody is breeding, and those that are, are having different numbers of children.  Much has been made of such continental differences, and high immigrant fertility rates, but less consideration has been given to in-group reproductive phenomena.

First, who is not dying in their infancy these days, who previously would have?

People like Read More

r/K selection as adaptation

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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When I was a spotty teenager, like all other spotty teenagers, I desperately tried to figure out what was cool.  Being smart wasn’t, nor was working hard.  Sporting prowess was helpful but not essential.

I looked around and identified the characteristics of the coolest kids, both boys and girls: Read More

Why penguins are stupid

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

If you think about it, penguins are adapted to be stupid.

Not completely stupid.  They need to do several tricky thinks.  They have to swim around and find food.  They need to socialize with other penguins.  They have to care for their young.

Penguins could never develop human-level intelligence without completely changing their form and habits.  Think about it.  Penguins have to sit on an egg in the freeing cold for ages.  Once it hatches they have to take turns to either sit on the chicks or go swimming in the icy water finding food for themselves, their mate and the kids.

Any penguin with a massive, intelligence-creating mutation would think, ‘eff that’.  He might Read More

Blood and Tribe

Posted on by Nikolai Vladivostok

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I recently attended the funeral of a close family member.  A miserable service but in the midst of all those closest to us, a reassuring and comforting one.  We are not alone in our grief and there are many who support us, even if from a great distance in space and time.

Old friend were there.  Very old friends from childhood, old neighbours long since moved away, old cousins and great-uncles who I had heard news of but not seen in decades.  A scattering of newer friends, introduced to the old.

With only a couple of exceptions, everyone there was Read More