Evolution

Evolution

See also

A quick summary to use in passing:

[…] there is already a consensus that people are adaptation executers, not utility maximizers. Evolution gives us random adaptations which contribute to fitness (1) on average (2) in an ancient jungle.

  • nonintuitive
    • group selection
  • kin selection
    • true altruism proportional to genes shared
      • 1/2 (??) for siblings, 1/8 for cousins
  • ant workers enslave queen
  • adaptation-executers, not fitness-maximizers
  • unit of selection
    • gene, cistron, etc
    • certainly not bodies
      • disposable
      • aging is deterioration of body after reproductive years
    • not corporations or nanodevices: Corporations don't "evolve"
  • phenotypes of genes
    • vehicle
    • environment
      • a beaver dam is 'part of' the beaver
    • other vehicles
      • two species can sometimes co-evolve
      • the microbiota in a human gut
      • parasite hosts
  • can't plan ahead
    • suboptimal results: see human airways
    • retina backwards
  • evolutionarily stable state
  • an example of an unsympathetic optimization process
    • doesn't bother to anesthetize fatally wounded and dying creatures, even when their pain no longer serves any reproductive purpose, because the anesthetic would serve no reproductive purpose either
  • thou art godshatter

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Created (3 years ago)