Originally Posted by Stearns et al

Why humans continue to evolve despite the many benefits of hygiene and modern medicine

Within a decade of the publication of On the Origin of Species, the misconception developed that modern hygiene and medicine have caused natural selection to stop working on human populations. This was fuelled by another misconception: that selection operates only through differences in survival. We now know that natural selection on traits occurs whenever there is variation among individuals in fitness and in traits and when the variation in traits is correlated with the variation in fitness. A response to selection will then follow if some portion of the variation in the traits is heritable.

A good proxy for fitness is lifetime reproductive success (LRS) or number of children per parent per lifetime. LRS has both a survival component — one must survive to reproduce — and a reproductive component. Good hygiene and medical care that reduce prenatal, infant and child mortality rates reduce the variation among individuals in the survival component but that does not eliminate natural selection, as substantial variation among individuals in the reproductive component remains. For example, consider an extreme case in which medical and public health measures were so good that everyone who was born survived to age 80. This would not eliminate natural selection, as individuals would still differ in their LRS and that variation would drive natural selection.

The potential for natural selection only vanishes when all individuals have exactly the same reproductive success or when no trait is correlated with the variation in reproductive success that still exists. These states are unlikely ever to occur in any population. The effect of culture on biology raises interesting issues. Birth control, assisted reproductive technology and the increased prevalence of late marriage and divorce complicate the evolutionary genetics of reproduction. These factors can be dealt with by regarding them as part of a changing environment that is changing selection intensities. A more fundamental solution awaits the development of methods of analyzing gene–culture co-evolution that can be applied to large, longitudinal human data sets.

Originally Posted by danny8 (Post 23264388)

Particular heritable traits have been identified in women which are correlated with having more children, such as being slightly shorter, reaching menopause later etc. Traits like these will become more common if these people continue to have comparatively more children.

Originally Posted by JayTeeMe (Post 23264762)

But that's the entire point, this isn't happening. Most everyone that is born now reaches sexual maturity, as opposed to the strongest 25% a few hundred years ago.

Originally Posted by PsiCloneB (Post 23273638)

We are in a process of unnatural selection. Morons procreate like rabbits, intelligent people have max two children & ûberpeople have one or no children at all. Morons vote for morons, get pawned by brainwash & fold to physical intimidation.

Idiocracy the movie is the most probable expectation of the future.

My best guess is that in every generation there is a shift towards mediocrity that may be roughly 70%. Meaning that if there are 30% people adding value to humanity as a whole the next generation will have 9%. We are probably already as low as 1-5% value adding humans with maybe 30% neutrals who basically sustain themselves waiting to die.

There is still hope! ******s can make prodigal babies. Hard work can level ANYONE. Laws,rules & regulations make it very hard for people to level efficiently and reach their potential though.

PUT IN WORK, CONSUME LESS & FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. YOU ARE FAR FROM AS GOOD AS YOU THINK!

Sorry to rain on the humans parade, but mankind is going busto from a natural resource, evolutionary, philosophical & spiritual perspective. Still gambling on massconsumption, brainwash and aggression with everyones lives in the balance...

Ps. Taxes is just a PC term for free range slavery. The state is just the biggest mafia in a geographical location. Religion is just the easter bunny on steroids for grownups.

Originally Posted by PsiCloneB (Post 23273638)

rant

Originally Posted by Karganeth (Post 23310758)

If you think that natural selectioin doesn't occur then you probably don't understand evolution at all. Everything goes through the process of natural selection, even non living things.

Originally Posted by runninfiend (Post 23335545)

yeats put it like this:

though leaves are many, the root is one
through all the lying days of my youth
i swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun
now i may wither into the truth

Originally Posted by wazz (Post 23258813)

of course it's still happening.

Originally Posted by runninfiend (Post 23335545)

e.o. wilson once put it like this:

"the brain exists because it promotes the survival and multiplication of the genes that direct its assembly. the human mind is a device for survival and reproduction, and reason is just one of its various techniques."

yeats put it like this:

though leaves are many, the root is one
through all the lying days of my youth
i swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun
now i may wither into the truth

Originally Posted by Ryanb9 (Post 23379417)

Wtf are you talking about?