Darwinism and You

[Kibagari]

So something happened earlier that got me thinking, but before I go into what happened:

Where's natural selection fitting in nowadays?
What happened to Darwinism?

I swear people are getting more and more stupid as time goes on...

Mobile Sterilization Unit. We need one. I'll volunteer for it. -.-

Alright, so here's what stemmed my crusade against people who can't use common sense (I was forced to rewrite this because my browser screwed up as I was typing it):

I was in my car at an intersection, behind a few other cars waiting for the light to change for a left hand turn. The light changes, there's no traffic coming directly at us, so the cars ahead of me start to turn. As I begin my turn, I look through the intersection and here comes this broad in an SUV, no older than 25, TEXTING SOMEONE. I know she was doing this because I looked right through that windshield and her head was facing DOWN at her lap, and she had one hand on the wheel. Mind you, she's barreling through that red light at 45 mph and not even LOOKING at the road.

Thank heavens I had the wits about me to be paying attention to her. After she realized she almost got herself horrendously maimed, she pulled over to the side of the road. I took my turn, pulled over to the side of THAT street, marched the 200 feet to where she was calming herself down and in tears, knocked on her window...

And I gave that stupid woman the worst tongue-lashing I've ever given a person. I mean this girl was a mess after I was done with her. And she deserved every single damn thing I told her.

Here's the kicker: She KNEW she was wrong, and she kept trying to tell me that she just didn't see me. No, really?! I KNOW you didn't see me, you weren't even looking at the F-ing road!

....Red Grand Prix. Middle of the day, sun shining.

How you miss that when it's almost directly in front of you is beyond me.

[storysunfolding]

Actually natural selection has been disproven to some degree by recent articles. While the fittest survive to breed, there is no guarantee that the offspring will be equally or more fit. I can't remember who wrote it but there was a study in the last year about deer in England if I recall correctly. They studied the fitness of breeding pairs and discovered that the offspring of very fit parents were on average less fit than their parents.

It's a scary thought when you think of all the stupid people in America. Yay for the ongoing idiocracy of the United States! School? College? math? the? don't be cruel, hate your school.

[Fast Eddy B]

I like Police.

I ain't talking about your corrupt, cowboy, attitude, jerk water bullies though.

You need Police who aren't afraid to give the sh*t where its needed most. Texting while driving? Impound, impaired driver training, full-on dress down- f*ck up.

Here we got the jack-boot squad, full auto-sub-gun, fancy uniform patrol. If you're from the wrong family yer fukt. If yer white, they leave you alone.

Car accidents? Horrific. And regularly occuring.

I like Police.

[Fast Eddy B]

Actually natural selection has been disproven to some degree by recent articles. While the fittest survive to breed, there is no guarantee that the offspring will be equally or more fit. I can't remember who wrote it but there was a study in the last year about deer in England if I recall correctly. They studied the fitness of breeding pairs and discovered that the offspring of very fit parents were on average less fit than their parents.

Sorry about this, this sounds a bit off.

Evolution does not guarantee that (even on average) that fitness will increase in all situations. There can be long periods of stasis, in low stress times, followed by periods of selection due to a catastrophic event. In fact, due to mutation, a population may become less fit (on average) over a period of time, only to be selected for in the time of said event. The peppered moth in the time of the Industrial Revolution in England is the standard example. Punctuated equilibrium describes this possibility.

You're not talking about natural selection; this is more about inheritance. Inheritance would be a scientifically valid explanation of how characteristics move through a population even if natural selection and evolution were not (but they are!).

I think also, that you've swapped 'fitness' for 'phenotype'. The most tall organism may not be the most fit. How to measure 'fitness'? But we can measure phenotype.

For your example about fit breeding pairs not being able to produce (on average) more fit individuals, the reverse is true for the other end of the phenotype (physical characteristic) range. Breeding pairs of one low extreme phenotype produce offspring with a more median (higher) phenotypic value. This is a feature of polygenic inheritance, covering things like height, weight, skin colour, metabolism, excluding environmental factors.

Recent evidence has not changed any of this. Disproven, to any degree, no.

[Brackstone]

I just wanted to share this video.

Kids Rolling Boulders: Darwin Stalks his Prey

http://blog.videosift.com/video/Kids-Rolling-Boulders

[dablade]

Hahahahahahaha roflmao! Love the video.
That was classic.

About three days ago, I felt like I had a bullseye painted on me. People were driving like idiots. Was "targeted" by distracted or impaired motorists three times, and once by kids on bicycles. Fortunately, I was paying attention on all accounts. Notably, someone in an SUV pulled out in front of me across 3 lanes of traffic, and I had to switch lanes to avoid customizing both of our vehicles. I could have made it on foot faster than this thing moved. The sad part, is that they probably never knew I was there. And I was driving a red truck at the time (about 50 mph).
And as for the lane changer in the infiniti, I hope they dodo themself. They almost killed both of us.
There are other times that I feel like I can be seen very well, like I am always in the right place at the right time. Do any of you feel like things go according to moon phase, or some other force that we don't understand or cannot measure?

Happy and safe motoring

Perry

[NorthernPete]

heh....I love it when people get taken out of the gene pool, if only temporarily....

bless you boulders!

[Shiv]

Actually natural selection has been disproven to some degree by recent articles. While the fittest survive to breed, there is no guarantee that the offspring will be equally or more fit. I can't remember who wrote it but there was a study in the last year about deer in England if I recall correctly.

Well no that's how natural selection works actually. The offspring isn't guaranteed to be some prodigy just because it had two fit parents. It has a BETTER chance of being more fit, due to superior genetics, but if the chromosomes recombine the wrong way, then it's not more fit and thus it falls in with the rest. But given time the better genetics will shine through as the worst pairings from that may still be a bit better than the average of the inferior specimens.

They studied the fitness of breeding pairs and discovered that the offspring of very fit parents were on average less fit than their parents.

Well that's just regression towards the mean. They've known about that for quite a long time. They may be less fit then the parents, but they're still better off than the others.


Edit: I forgot to comment on this:

Where's natural selection fitting in nowadays?
What happened to Darwinism?

We've effectively stopped natural selection dead in its tracks. Sure some stupid people still get knocked off the wagon by standing on train tracks or have genetic defects that simply don't let them survive/be a desirable choice for a mate, but over all, there's nothing to really keep the better genes from mating with a 'lesser' pair of genes. The inferior genetics set no longer dies out.

Not saying we should impose a regime of who's allowed to live and die (Hello Gattaca; awesome flick by the way), just saying that natural selection doesn't apply to humans any more unless it's a drastic disability (AKA trisomy 13, 18, or 21).