Re: evolution by mate selection, gene manipulation

From: spike66 (spike66@attbi.com)
Date: Thu Apr 17 2003 - 21:33:06 MDT

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    gts wrote:
    > spike,
    >
    > A few days ago I posted a message here about the conversation I had with my
    > girlfriend about your bulbous head theory (the interesting theory that 1)
    > modern mate selection in humans is driven mostly by females, and that 2)
    > women are attracted to men with large heads because their babies have large
    > heads, and that 3) this has caused the evolution of larger heads and larger
    > brains.)

    Yes g, but we are viewing the field long after the game
    is over. The notion is that females choosing large-headed
    males because they looked a little like children is a
    mechanism that would have been a factor when human heads
    were much smaller than they are today. I entertain the
    idea that the mechanism caused a positive feedback loop:
    an isolated population of the human/chimp ancestor
    decided for some odd reason to select for big headedness.
    immediate result is individuals capable of actions that
    can be considered secondary sexual ornamentation, such
    as singing, for instance. Then the females would choose
    the singers, a group that might be slightly larger-brained,
    who gave rise to a subset capable of hurling stones, which
    allowed them to bring home more meat, etc. Pimp juice
    gave rise to more and better pimp juice. The process pushed
    hat sizes up until it reached a limit: the size of the
    female pelvis limited infant head sizes. A negative
    feedback loop kicked in: big headed babies slew their
    mothers (and often themselves) childbirth.

    It is the positive feedback loop I am primarily interested
    in, for I need to understand this in order to get an idea
    what things we should be looking for in the developments
    that precede an AI or singularity.

    > We'd likely still be living in caves if it weren't for the female thirst for
    > pimp juice. :)
    >
    > -gts

    After I thought it over, I am no longer convinced that
    it matters so much if the mating is female-choice driven
    or male-choice. As Lee Corbin pointed out, we have a
    current situation where the females can have as many
    children as they want and males have little say in
    the matter really. Does that have a specific and
    model-able effect on the path of evolution? Furthermore,
    if we get gene modification, that throws the mate-selection
    mechanism for evolution into high gear. Or perhaps it
    needs to be modelled as a completely separate mechanism,
    neither survival selection nor mate selection.

    spike



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