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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (27382)	4/27/2002 2:23:38 AM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 281500

<Evolution is so darn slow. CB@howmanymorethousandyearsofthis.com > Actually, evolution is a function of mutation rate and size of population and humans have now got the most mutations per second ever by a long, long way [for humans]. The mutation rate per person is about constant [despite environmentalist claims about chemicals wrecking our DNA and nuclear waste smashing it up too] but there are 6 billion of us, all being environmentally challenged in a big way. So the rate of evolution is the fastest it has ever been, by a long way - especially as the complexity of the world now challenges everyone severely. The availability of contraception has dealt a major blow to most people's fecundity for a start. Most baby attempts don't make it past a rubber or hormonal barrier [or re-engineered tube] and the poor little things never make it past the egg or sperm stage - it's a tough life out there in the evolution stakes these days. On the other hand, the early death rate has reduced dramatically due to disease control and many fewer of the constant wars for conquest of territory and tribal dominance. Women used to have 10 offspring of which only 2 could go on to reproduce [to maintain a stable population] so 8 of 10 were helping evolution [or, more accurately, only 2 of 10 were picked to go on to the next generation]. Now we have about 1 of 3 go on to produce the next generation. What is amazing is that despite the statistical risk for every one of our ancestors before they got up to the age where they conceived and gave birth to the next generation, not a single one of our ancestors, all the way back to chimpoid times and right back to and beyond the first fishy thing which slithered up onto land with a view to producing me and you, not a single one of them died before finding a mate and getting our next progenitor on the road to success. What is the chance of not a single one of our ancestors being killed before our lineage was produced? A casual glance would suggest vast billions to one. Yet, here you are, right here, right now, reading this. Therefore we can only conclude that the probability of you reading this is in fact 1.00000000000000000000000 not 0.0000000000000000000000001. Be that as it may, when I inspect my hairy arms and prehensile paws, I think we are a good way from the evolutionary nirvana we fantasize that we occupy. I'm in favour of some genetic engineering to speed the process, with a turbo boost from cyberspace development to take over some of the sentient processes such as memory for example - Google is already great for memory. Want to know something? Can't remember? Ask Google and bingo, all the facts at your fingertips without a senior moment to intercede. Mqurice