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It doesn't have to have adaptive benefits. The critical path is molded by natural selection but the rest grows wild, mutating as it pleases until it either help
by mLuby 5y ago
It doesn't have to have adaptive benefits. The critical path is molded by natural selection but the rest grows wild, mutating as it pleases until it either helps or hinders gene replication.
For example, if humans exploded like a bomb when we died the way some insects do to protect their colony, that might be selected for or against by evolution. Or if somehow eating the deceased's heart or brain actually transferred their strength or memories to the consumer, as some cultures believed. But no, death by old age just doesn't interest evolution.
- progman32 5y agoTrue! That was my initial thought too. I'm trying to find a possible adaptive benefit to flashbacks in near death (not actual death, but how would the body know the difference, really), but there may be none. Hard to say. I've certainly heard stories of people "cleaning up" and improving their lives in some way post-flashback, but who's to say the flashback was part of the cause.