From: Keith Elis (hagbard@ix.netcom.com)
Date: Thu May 01 2003 - 06:28:07 MDT
Here's my take:
GTS is arguing that of all possible environments, an organism is best
adapted to the one it evolved in. This does not follow from correct
reasoning. First of all, an organism is never in the environment in
which it evolved. The idea borders on meaningless because all organisms
evolved in many, many differing environments. Second, no matter how well
adapted an organism is to the current state of its environment, it is
always conceivable there is some other environment in which the same
organism would be even more successful. Third, a selection pressure
occurs only when an organism is *not* adapted to its environment. To be
fully adapted to the environment is to stop evolving. No environment is
static, nor does evolution occur in static environments.
GTS is not saying, for example, that an organism may be considered an
optimal solution to the problems posed by its environment. He is saying
the contrapositive: that the optimal environment for an organism to live
in is the one in which it is the solution to the problems posed by the
environment. The Panglossian error (more of a category mistake) in the
latter is assuming the category 'optimal environment' is coextensive
with 'ancestral environment'. Eliezer rightly suggests that GTS'
argument is broadly applicable to the whole of the ancestral
environment. If it is best to re-create a paleolithic diet then what's
stopping us from re-creating a paleolithic lifestyle as well? Surely we
are better adapted to living in small tribes of hunter-gatherers?
Fortunately, this conclusion is specious.
Keith
GTS:
> Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
>
> >> By "best adapted" I mean "genetically adapted best to the
> >> organism's own environment vs some other environment in which the
> >> organism did not evolve."
> >
> > Yes, that's exactly what Eli is saying you mean, and is the classic
> > logic error.
>
> No it is not. I am simply using the word "adapted" according
> to its concise definition as it relates to evolution. It is
> impossible for an organism to be genetically adapted to an
> environment in which it did not evolve. Adaptation is a
> process that happens only in the context of an environment.
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