destroying the genepool?

[chesters1]

Could we put up with the smell of countless rotting corpses ,those with a lack of smell could just take a leap up the genetic scale

Should we be saving people from themselves

I have just spotted the exact thing i am hinting at ,i bought a pair of those overshoes you wear on ice to stop you slipping ,good thinking if i had been young my ice walking fraction of a gene would have been passed on for the next ice age ........but on the box is written a warning i quote "warning do not use while operating a vehicle" should we let these stupid enough to do it do it? Cheaper on ink better for the genes? Not so good for those they may hit but using the car but it may benefit those that never go near cars

Edited December 8, 2012 by chesters1

[corydoras]

Could we put up with the smell of countless rotting corpses ,those with a lack of smell could just take a leap up the genetic scale

Should we be saving people from themselves

Another common misconception. There is no evolutionary ladder or scale. You are not yhe culmination of anything.

[chesters1]

In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king

Not sure i am talking about eugenics that seems to be removing "bad" (whatever that is its in the eye of the beholder) genes or deliberately breeding "good" ones ,why not just let nature do it as nature tends to without our interference,man learns pretty fast but it forgets just as quick

Edited December 8, 2012 by chesters1

[corydoras]

In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king

Not sure i am talking about eugenics that seems to be removing "bad" (whatever that is its in the eye of the beholder) genes or deliberately breeding "good" ones ,why not just let nature do it as nature tends to without our interference,man learns pretty fast but it forgets just as quick

Can I hear an Amen?

[Leon Roskilly]

If a predator suddenly gained a gene that suddenly made it able to run considerably faster than its prey, there would be a fairly rapid increase in it's population, until there was no more prey, followed by no more predator.

 

A fairly short while ago, following 3.5 billion years of evolution, and many more billions of different adaptive life forms, one creature became 'intelligent'.

 

Cue loss of biological diversity, habitat diversity, changes to atmosphere and climate systems.

 

If we are lucky as a species we will lose the 'intelligence' disease.

 

Signs that might just be happening.

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/...ce-8307101.html

Edited December 8, 2012 by Leon Roskilly

[robtherake]

Have the rules of evolution changed, inasmuch that for the most part (as Ken has already stated) direct environmental pressures are no longer the sole deciding factor for an individual's chances of survival.

 

As wonderful as modern medicine is, it enables those who are genetically maladapted to survive and pass on "weak" genes to future generations . Those who would surely have died without intervention are free to procreate. I'm not suggesting that we should embrace the Aryan ideal, and sterilise and dispose of the people falling into this category; just that under normal environmental conditions these folks would have been unlikely to thrive and so the surviving gene pool/human organism would be expected to be stronger as a result. Is that not the case?

[Ken L]

Suggestions that anyone is genetically "predisposed to laziness, low IQ or crimiminality" are psuedo science. This is social Darwinism, Something that Mr Darwin cautioned about in the Origin of the Species.

 

See what I mean about emotional hair triggers ?

OK, so I knowingly used "spiky language" but the fact of the matter is that even after correction for environment and socioeconomic factors, we have long known that intelligence, like most other traits, is partly genetic..

 

Traits would include criminality.

[chesters1]

If a predator suddenly gained a gene that suddenly made it able to run considerably faster than its prey, there would be a fairly rapid increase in it's population, until there was no more prey, followed by no more predator.

 

A fairly short while ago, following 3.5 billion years of evolution, and many more billions of different adaptive life forms, one creature became 'intelligent'.

 

Cue loss of biological diversity, habitat diversity, changes to atmosphere and climate systems.

 

If we are lucky as a species we will lose the 'intelligence' disease.

 

Signs that might just be happening.

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/...ce-8307101.html

Foxes and rabbits

Not sure what inteligence is ,what is the comparison ,a single cell critter has is and will live far longer on earth than anything else ever has ,perhaps intelligence is the opposite of what we hope it is

Is the great span of human life those without what we refer to as intelligence will survive better if our so called advances disapear

Edited December 8, 2012 by chesters1

[Worms]

Have the rules of evolution changed, inasmuch that for the most part (as Ken has already stated) direct environmental pressures are no longer the sole deciding factor for an individual's chances of survival.

 

As wonderful as modern medicine is, it enables those who are genetically maladapted to survive and pass on "weak" genes to future generations . Those who would surely have died without intervention are free to procreate. I'm not suggesting that we should embrace the Aryan ideal, and sterilise and dispose of the people falling into this category; just that under normal environmental conditions these folks would have been unlikely to thrive and so the surviving gene pool/human organism would be expected to be stronger as a result. Is that not the case?

Yes, partly true although possibly somewhat simplistic (no offence meant ) The current fad for removing 'unwanted' genes could backfire terribly. Adaption of a species to habitat change or behavioural change for example through genetic 'leaps' is how species may 'attain' a perceived benefit. Some of those genes may be disadvantageous to some members of the species but may combine with benefits from other genes to allow a percentage of the species to increase the overall 'fitness' of the species in its current niche or to adapt to another. Those that are less well adapted fail the test and those that are better adapted survive and tend to pass on the gene that benefits them. To some a "weak" gene may cause individual extinction (death), to others that "weak" gene may contribute to a stronger individual in that other genes present may override or have a controlling effect on the "weak" gene to allow greater fitness potential

 

Basically, all responding to the post are correct, The Human gene pool is running the risk of damage or perhaps more accurately, not being allowed the potential to advance by our misguided attempts to artificially manipulate what 'we' think is the ideal. It is basically an attempt to halt the Human species at its current 'position' thus possibly preventing further speciation events or simple smaller changes that, if left alone would inevitably sort themselves out. Unfortunately, our 'advanced' social structure and way of thinking doesn't find this acceptable...e.g. support for Movember etc.

 

My guess is that our own interference will backfire at some point in the future, whether by removing genes from the gene-pool or by damage to the planet. Then we'll see (or not) which way our species will go!

 

Evolution is not static and, the mechanism by which it works means that it can never be so. If it ain't broke don't fix it!

[corydoras]

See what I mean about emotional hair triggers ?

OK, so I knowingly used "spiky language" but the fact of the matter is that even after correction for environment and socioeconomic factors, we have long known that intelligence, like most other traits, is partly genetic..

 

Traits would include criminality.

I am not impressed with the psyco-babble of psycologists, When evolutionary biologists like Dawkins, Myers et al start to publish papers citing their publications I might pay a bit more attention. Edited December 8, 2012 by corydoras