On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 01:51:22PM +0200, Telmo Menezes wrote: > Hi Alberto, >
> So who knows what our biological program looks like or how complex it is? > There are compelling reasons to think that it is very complex indeed. For > example: a counter-intuitive empirical observation is that the propensity > to procreate diminishes with prosperity. This simple observation already > falsifies the algorithm you propose. It could be that we have several modes > of operation: under scarcity try to have as much offspring as possible, > betting that some will make it -- this would be survival mode. Under > prosperity, bet on a high likelihood of survival of any offspring, and > instead avoid diluting the resources, in an attempt of maximising the > quality of the partners that your offspring can find. All of these is pure > speculation of course -- just like yours. > Biologists call your "survival mode" r-strategists (for r-selection). The other mode, involving extensive investment in offspring are known as K-strategists. Humans are inveterate K-strategists. Rabbits (or cockroaches) are r-strategists. The r and the K come from the logistic equation dx/dt = rx(1-x/K) where r is the reproductive rate (net of births & deaths) and K is the environmental carrying capacity. Cheers -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prof Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders Visiting Professor of Mathematics [email protected] University of New South Wales http://www.hpcoders.com.au Latest project: The Amoeba's Secret (http://www.hpcoders.com.au/AmoebasSecret.html) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
