No. That wasn't me that said that. It was Jochen. I added the content-less post quoting Ehrlich.
Thus spake Nicholas Thompson circa 10/13/2008 11:18 AM: > Glen Said ====> > > The idea of expansion and contraction is interesting: rapid expansion > of populations (when selection is relaxed) vs. rapid contraction of > populations (when selection is intensified). > > The human population went indeed through a phase of rapid expansion > in the last decades while natural selection was released through > cultural and technological progress. > > Seed Magazine has an article about human evolution and relaxed > selection, too > http://www.seedmagazine.com/news/2008/10/how_we_evolve_1.php <=== > > Nick Replies ===> > > I think this is a confusion between carrying capacity and selection. > When, for some reason, carrying capacity is increased, the whole > population can expand, but this does not stop selection. It may > change the nature of selection from tracking how well individuals can > make use of limited resources to how fast they can reproduce when > times are flush, but there is no reason to think that raising the > carrying capacity should "relax" selection. -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-219-3846, http://tempusdictum.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
