• ryannathans@aussie.zone
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      2 days ago

      Natural selection is driven by pressures that affect reproduction chances. Like a genetic mutation that makes you sicker

      In nature it’s what cleans the genetics of a species of disease over time, preventing infinite accumulation of negative mutations

      • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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        7 hours ago

        Natural selection is driven by pressures that affect reproduction chances

        Oh, like dying of old age at 28 of a broken foot or a fucked up tooth?

        Like a genetic mutation that makes you sicker

        In nature it’s what cleans the genetics of a species of disease over time, preventing infinite accumulation of negative mutations

        If you think that’s all that natural selection is, you’re woefully uneducated on the topic. Because natural selection does in fact include external pressures like predators, disease, and accidents, along with genetics. Genetics can absolutely make a difference in making it to reproduction, but environmental factors are just as big of a factor, if not bigger, in making it that long.

        • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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          6 hours ago

          If you think that’s all that natural selection is

          Are you just arguing for the sake of it now? What’s your point here? There replies are so incoherent and riddled with strawmen

          At no point did I claim this to the exclusion of all other factors and you gotta be willfully misinterpreting to come to that conclusion

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        2 days ago

        That’s a little simplistic and forgets one thing: natural selection only cares until you’re old enough to procreate, biologically, and there’s nothing it will do for humanity after that age.

        So yeah, natural selection is totally cool with you dying of a splinter at 16.

        Sorry to bust your eugenics bubble.

        • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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          1 day ago

          That’s almost true. I said natural selection only impacts odds of reproduction but there’s a few things that occur after reproduction age in a population that have been studied to be naturally selected tooo

          Behaviours of gays and the elderly are selected for to an extent because they help raise children in the tribe/community/group whilst not affecting reproductive pressures

          Improving survival odds through nurturing children/others leads to groups with those genes doing better, which selects for those genes via natural selection

          If the older members of the group are fitter and can help gather food/hunt then those genes are selected for too through increased survival of their offspring

          • TheEighthDoctor@lemmy.zip
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            1 day ago

            That only matters if the children and the elders share the same genes right? I don’t see how people from a different tribe (for example) taking care of children (of another tribe) would make their genes pass on.

            • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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              18 hours ago

              It’s a little complex in reality with men being able to reproduce for pretty much their whole adult lives (raising children that support the tribe, allowing elders to live longer and then reproduce with younger women)

              But essentially yes