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The most simplistic scenario in which a change could happen in "one generation" is if there is one man today born with a mutated gene that protects him against
by corin_ 13y ago
The most simplistic scenario in which a change could happen in "one generation" is if there is one man today born with a mutated gene that protects him against X, and tomorrow X happens which kills all men in the world except him, leaving him to impregnate many women, and all future generations would be descended from him. Not saying that has ever happened (I've no idea, for all I know it might have but does seem fairly unlikely), but in theory it's possible.
- eli_gottlieb 13y agoThe question is how you would get a single allele that gets you from lower apes to fully sapient humans in one mutation, in one individual, that also protects against something which killed off everyone else.
- corin_ 13y agoIt wouldn't have to be a single mutation, but let's say intelligence is linear from 1 (apes) to 5 (humans). At some point an animal mutated from 1 to 2, then 2 to 3, etc. Each step the more intelligent version ended up killing off the weaker version (either through violence or just through better survival in nature), and we ended up where we are at 5, which all humans begin at and our surroundings (i.e. nurture not nature) can modify that 5 down to 4.9 or up to 5.1 I'm incredibly not an expert on evolution (it shows I'm sure!), but from a logical point of view that seems like it's feasible at least - whether it's incredibly likely or incredibly unlikely I've no idea.