From: Chris Hibbert (hibbert@mydruthers.com)
Date: Fri Aug 03 2007 - 14:42:05 MDT
> Byrne Hobart wrote
>> I suspect that there's some kind of evolutionary constraint that
>> makes new adaptations a lot easier to lose or forgo than old ones.
Byrne Hobart responded:
> To my understanding, the chances of any adaptation being lost rest
> with the chances of the environmental trait it exploits disappearing.
> You'd be correct if civilization were about to collapse :^)
Another piece of it is that new features won't be spread as thoroughly
through the population, so it doesn't take as many unfortunate incidents
to lose all traces of them. features that have become standard are
inherited from both parents, and so it takes more accidents to dislodge
them.
Chris
-- I think that, for babies, every day is first love in Paris. Every wobbly step is skydiving, every game of hide and seek is Einstein in 1905.--Alison Gopnik (http://edge.org/q2005/q05_9.html#gopnik) Chris Hibbert hibbert@mydruthers.com http://mydruthers.com
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