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Related: I've had this hunch for a while that the way we teach evolution in high-school biology is flawed because it still tends to implicitly be presented in p
by vanderZwan 5y ago
Related: I've had this hunch for a while that the way we teach evolution in high-school biology is flawed because it still tends to implicitly be presented in progressivist terms. That is to say: as if things evolve towards something "better", and will eventually reach some kind of global optimum. And I think a part of that is that people aren't used to think in non-transitive properties, outside of Rock-Paper-Scissors and Pokemon perhaps. Maybe these dice could be used as an abstract demonstration of ecological niches being context-dependent.
- AbrahamParangi 5y agoJust because evolution is not monotonic doesn’t mean that progressivism isn’t a good “low resolution” model.
- vanderZwan 5y agoIt's not usually taught as a "low resolution" model though, it's taught as a global model.
- AbrahamParangi 5y agoLow resolution meaning coarse, like if you had to choose to believe if evolution was progressive or completely directionless, progressive would be a better model.
- vanderZwan 5y ago> if you had to choose to believe if evolution was progressive or completely directionless We don't have to limit our choices to those two options, and there is a better third one, which undermines the argument before it even got started. But even if we did limit ourselves to these two options (and I cannot stress enough that there is absolutely no reason to do so), one can still argue that "completely directionless" is a better approximation: evolution has no agency or goal to work towards, it just selects for whatever happens work in any given moment/context. It is the stability of the context that is providing the selection criteria that causes a consistent "direction" to emerge, but as soon as you introduce this explanation we've basically already picked our third option that I mentioned.
- OscarCunningham 5y agoThere is this species of lizard whose forms use different mating strategies which compete in a rock-paper-scissors style. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_side-blotched_lizard#Mating https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_side-blotched_lizard#...
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- freemint 5y agoThe term you are looking for is Pareto front.
- vanderZwan 5y agoThank you! Knowing what to search for helps a lot :)