Posted on 10/05/2011 4:18:19 AM PDT by 1010RD
Excellent and true.
Fascinating, but what’s the upper limit on resources? I mean as we go toward demographic winter wouldn’t that free up additional resources or does it do the opposite limit human innovation and ingenuity (see: Julian Simon)?
Thank you! I agree. :)
It doesn’t take much training in logic to see the incredible leaps from observed data to conclusions that many “studies” make. It’s annoying on FR sometimes, because there will be threads with 200 replies discussing some “research” result that’s the next thing to pure fiction.
“I met a guy in a bar who didn’t like blondes, and that proves an evolutionary disposition drink while looking at redheads.”
I read where the increase in drownings at the beaches correlates with increased ice cream consumption.
Therefore, I conclude, we need to ban ice cream sales in the summer months. I mean, people’s lives are at stake here! Where’s my grant to further study this remarkable result, and when will the politicians and public wake up and DO SOMETHING? Think of the children.
I don’t know the upper limit on our resources, as it is determined by our populace. However under this theory, a K-selected Human (Competitive Conservative) will be more productive than an r-selected human (think Liberal welfare sloth).
When a society begins, as at our founding, the chaos at the beginning is a K-selected enironment and produces a K-selected populace. This is a very productive, competitive populace, and their excess will eliminate any need for competitive selection among the less productive.
This will produce a gradual increase in r-selecteds, and a slide towards Liberalism within the society. This slide will increase, until there are not enough resources produced by the K-selecteds to support the r-selecteds. At that point, there will be a collapse of the r-selected social order, as competiton returns. Think Rome.
I suspect this is why every nation begins free, and becomes more liberal, until there is a collapse. The collapse is a forceful, and painful reassertion of the competitive environment, and it will K-select the population (through mortality, absence of breeding, or emmigration of r-selecteds) all over again.
Once the balance of K selecteds to r-selecteds is restored, things will go on as before, and the cycle will repeat.
It is for this reason I think a Demographic Winter is not that important to the big picture in our species, long term (though it may cause considerable pain in the short term).
Evolution will always favor a productive, competitive specimen that reproduces at a healthy rate. Those who violate this standard (devote too much to production/not enough to reproduction, or not enough to production/too much to reproduction) are not contributing to the future of our species, over the long term, regardless of contribution to the next generation.
Those who produce, but don’t reproduce are ultiamtely culling themsleves, and those who reproduce but don’t produce will be taken care of by periodic periods of resource scaricty and K-selection pressures.
In the short term, you can skirt Darwin, but nature will catch up with you eventually, when competition is reinforced.
I am not that familiar with Julian Simon, but as I understand it, he never differentiated between different types of humans (ie. highly productive/slowly or moderately reproducing humans vs Low to no productivity/high reproduction humans). Had he done so, I suspect he would have modified his stances somewhat, or at least introduced a more cyclical influence into his views.
See the PDF in my tagline for a lot of research on r/K selection, reproduction, and political ideology.
After researching this more I think you are right: smart women having less children will make both sexes less smart. This is doing major damage to average intelligence for all. A child's intelligence is more strongly correlated with the mother's. A smart woman married to a below average IQ man can have smart children, but a below average woman married to a smart man is much more likely to have below average IQ children. Smart women having fewer children is having a profound impact on our children's intelligence.
I recently discovered that termites have been eating my house. Does that purported correlation apply to termites?
Cordially,
The statement, "whatever's selected is selected" is a meaningless tautology.
And do you not see the impassable gap between "whatever’s selected is selected, and what’s morally bad.."?
I would like to see you validly derive a moral "ought" merely from what "is". Go ahead. Give your best shot. Otherwise you don't get to presuppose or smuggle in any "morality".
Cordially,
I think I saw on some nature video that a termite queen can pop out a termite every nine seconds.
Cordially,
“And do you not see the impassable gap between ‘whatever’s selected is selected, and what’s morally bad..’?”
Do you lack the reading comprehension skills to see that I was making the same Hume’s Guillotine argument as you? Or was I merely the nearest convenient straw man available in your rush to beat the dead is/ought horse? Seek elswhere.
It was the previous poster who implied a moral import to evolution by suggesting natural selection isn’t anymore in operation because the “lower” outbreed the “educated” and “successful” classes. I took the opposite position.
“I would like to see you validly derive a moral ‘ought’ merely from what “is”. Go ahead. Give your best shot.”
There’s at least one. We call it “might makes right.” Though I admit it really is a sort of anti-morality.
“The statement, ‘whatever’s selected is selected’ is a meaningless tautology”
Tautological, yes, but not meaningless, especially rhetorically
If anything, they are devolving.
And the proof is on the interwebs. These fellas amuse themselves by self-injecting saline solution to temporarily deform themselves.
Researchers should follow their progress to see if their "plumage display" attracts females leading to pro-creation. Might or might not be an even money bet that they in fact do find mates and eventually produce off spring. Unless their experiments include other body parts that could affect fertility.
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