3 ms·
Short-term gains are likely to produce long-term negative effects. Hormesis and natural selection have been driving factor of evolution for a long time.
by userbinator 2mo ago
Short-term gains are likely to produce long-term negative effects.
Hormesis and natural selection have been driving factor of evolution for a long time.
- alansaber 2mo agoWhat is this, eugenics from first principles?
- userbinator 2mo agoBetter than dysgenics for sure.
- sublinear 2mo agoAsthma is so common that this is not only easy to test, but has been. That's what the article was about. Anyway, by your own line of thinking, wouldn't sensitive lungs be an advantage? The incentive to find cleaner air is also breaking away from the pack. Since humans are social creatures, that's more likely to look like new leadership for followers who have their own reasons to break away. Every civilization in history has started out that way. It takes more than mere brute force to beat the competition. Survival is just as much about picking your battles and working smarter.
- rsynnott 2mo agoAre you suggesting that it would be advantageous for humanity to evolve to live in London circa 2000? Larry Niven played with this in one of his stories; a time traveller from the far (and highly polluted) future has to use mechanical breathing assistance, because the levels of CO2 in the air in the past weren't high enough to prompt the breathing response properly (human breathing is controlled largely by blood CO2 levels).
- inigyou 2mo agoAnything you can do externally will tend to evolve out. That's why humans can't make their own Vitamin C and half of them need glasses. Keeping a trait in the population does require keeping up the selective prrssure, which is eugenics.