On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 02:44:43PM -0500, John Clark wrote: > On Thu, Jan 22, 2015 at 7:33 AM, Telmo Menezes <[email protected]> > wrote: > > > > >> So yes, Evolution invented the brain that invented condoms, and if > >> Evolution had any foresight it would have certainly taken steps to ensure > >> that the brain never even thought of the idea of a condom; > >> > > > > > We don't know that. In fact, evolution creates all sorts of mechanisms > > to limit procreation in response to environmental conditions. Maybe condoms > > increase the survivability of our species, by allowing us to be more > > selective on the moment when we invest our resources to procreate. > > > > So you think that somehow random mutation and natural selection came up > with some deep convoluted plan that humans can not understand and will take > many generations to implement, that is just ridiculous, evolution has no > foresight, it can only see one step ahead and is only interested in what > gets the most genes into the next generation, it neither knows nor cares > about the generation after that. > > The vagus nerve connects the brain to the larynx, in a giraffe the two > organs are less than a foot apart, but the vagus nerve is more than 15 feet > long, it runs all the way down the neck and then double backs and goes back > up the neck to the larynx. If Evolution could think ahead that would never > happen, but it can't and it can't backtrack either and start over because > every change it makes must improve things *right now* > > A jet engine works better than a prop engine in an airplane. I give you a > prop engine and tell you to turn it into a jet, but you must do it while > the engine is running, you must do it in one million small steps, and you > must do it so every single one of those small steps immediately improves > the operation of the engine. Eventually you would get an improved engine of > some sort, but it wouldn't look anything like a jet. If the tire on your > car is getting worn you can take it off and put a new one on, but evolution > could never do something like that, because when you take the old tire off > you have temporarily made things worse, now you have no tire at all. With > evolution EVERY step (generation), no matter how many, MUST be an immediate > improvement over the previous one. > > >> But that is not a reproductive strategy, with a condom sex no longer has > >> anything to do with reproduction. > >> > > > > > Well, it still has something to do with reproduction... > > > > Not that I can see. And in addition to condoms is lifetime celibacy also a > reproductive strategy, or homosexuality, or vasectomies, or infanticide or > suicide?
In biology, there is a range of reproductive strategies from r-strategists (breeding like rabbits) to K-strategists, such as elephants or blue whales. Humans are more K-strategists than r-strategists - it is better to invest lots of resources in bringing up a few kids, than to have many kids that are not looked after by the parents. In times past, humans needed to be more r-strategists, because of high infant mortality. Now, with lower infant mortality, K-strategy works better, and contraception, in general, tunes us more towards the K end of reproductive strategies. Evolution will favour whichever strategy is better in the long run, but right now, there is no evidence that subpopulations limiting their levels of breeding (eg educated first world people) are being outcompeted by the higher breeders (eg populations in islamic countries, where women have few rights, and contraception is discouraged). So I agree with Telmo, condoms do have something to do with reproduction. As for homosexuality, apparently genes promoting homosexuality are kin-selected, so its a somewhat different mechanism to contraception. Infanticide could be considered a form of contraception - it is practised as such in certain Amazonian tribes, I believe. Don't know about suicide, though. It may have some adaptive value if it happens late in life, but more likely it is just natural selection's way of weeding out defective individuals. -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.
