As someone else has already pointed out none of the above mean that
natural selection is not taking place. For instance Eye Glasses could
signal that the man/woman wearing them are more into "traditional" values
then the people who where contacts. It may enable the people with glasses
to connect and breed GREAT BIG HAPPY FAMILIES. In addition fertility drugs
certainly select for the people who can afford them. The traits being
selected FOR may not be natural: i.e. they might not have much value on the
veldt, but that does not mean that Natural Selection is not taking place.
One could also argue that medical costs put a break on reproduction.
In third world countries more carriers of defective genes may be bread ...
even though the children who express the trait die ... their brother's and
sister's may carry it. In the first world the financial & emotional burden
of maintaining a sickly child may limit the family size.
Nathaniel Hall <natehall@worldnet.att.net> wrote:
>>Natural selection is still here but it's now
>> called progress and the marketplace, that's all. The evolution
>> of genes is nearly obsolete, get use to it.
THERE IT IS!!!
>I've said this before, but I'll say it again -- memetic evolution
>PRESUPPOSES an adequate base.
I think you're comparing apples and oranges ... the very fact that
there are 4 billion people on earth provides an adequate memetic base. You
gave the example of EVERYONE on earth dieing .... but how likely is that?
As other people have pointed out reasonable healthcare makes such
catastrophes even LESS likely since it maintains a more diverse gene pool
then might be found in the wild.
>For this reason, it is important that we pay attention to gene --
in the
>same way that a computer user pays attention to his supply of
>electricity...
You have not proved that the genetic selective pressures are leading
to extinction ... and certainly not at the same rate that memetic pressures
are <i.e. which is more likely: humanities hegemony being destroyed by
mutation or environmental collapse?>