Stick to your day job. "Everything" is *not* what evolutionary biology is about. In order for evolution to work there has to be a *lot* of random variation in the gene pool. The variations that aren't as good eventually are weeded out and the key word there is *eventually*. There are any number of sub-optimal genes running around in the gene pool that will take some 100's of thousands of years to be replaced. Evolution works slower than Congress.
-- Rick C
If everybody was rational all the time, there might be something in that.
As it is, most people are somewhat irrational, and almost everybody is irrational some of the time. Start by considering the effects of alcohol...
Its true, because I qualified with "roots".
We *only* exist because of evolution. Everything else is window dressing.
Sure, but it is very, very, difficult for anyone to do something that they don't consider is in their best interest.
People evaluate what are the options, and chose what they determine is the best for them. Only the truly mentally ill goes, will that option is truly the worst for me, so I will take that one. They may of course have some irrationality that tells them that the worst option, is the one to take, and do so, but then that means what they consider their worst , is their best.
Like, when people say "I had no option, I had to do it, even though I didn't want to". It just means that they had looked at all the other options, and concluded that that was the best one for them, no matter how nasty. If they thought they had a better option that they were able to take, they would have done so.
Evolution, for the most part, acts at a very deep, subconscious level. It is so ingrained in everything you think and do, that most are quite blind to it. For example, free will just don't even exist :-)
-- Kevin Aylward
It pretty much is all about evolution. Period. Your brain and body is evolutionary designed, to maximise replication of its carrier genes. Without evolution, we wouldn't exist. Its that simple.
Sure, there are many sub optimal genes, but don't really matter in explaining the *core* behaviour of us humans. Huge number of genes in us have been selected for 100s of millions of years. They vastly outweigh the later mutated ones. Like, you have a heart, so did a dinosaur...
I use Occam's Razor, you know, the simplest explanation is usually the best. For example, one can invent all sorts of socio-economic twaddle to explain why in some cultures they might kill girl babies but keep male ones. The simplest explanation, is that males can have more offspring then females, so that's what we observe, mostly.
-- Kevin Aylward
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afaiu it was just as much that she dared to say what she saw
"much domestic violence was reciprocal, with both partners abusing each oth er in roughly equal measure. She reached this conclusion when she asked the women in her refuge about their violence, only to discover most of the wom en were equally as violent or more violent than their husbands."
That really got the feminists angry, harassing and campaigning against her
I wouldn't want to discount that either!
But that came after her observations and understanding of the relationships.
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other in roughly equal measure. She reached this conclusion when she asked the women in her refuge about their violence, only to discover most of the women were equally as violent or more violent than their husbands."
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yeh broken people from broken homes beating each other because that is the only way they know, and the circle continues
Common sense and evolutionary biology tell us this, Kev, but this doesn't seem to apply to certain females from the (ooh, now let's see....) Basildon area. ;->
Den fredag den 14. april 2017 kl. 09.10.17 UTC+2 skrev Kevin Aylward:
before modern welfare there was another reason to be choosy, picking someone capable of providing
Unfortunately, Occam's Razor prompts you to select the simplest of a number of potential explanations.
You want to emphasise that male thugs have more mating opportunities - and Genghis Khan certainly did - but reproductive fitness is about how many of your kids go on to have kids of their own.
Humans have to invest a lot in their off-spring to keep them alive until maturity. Genghis Khan could deputise people to do it for him. Regular thugs don't have those kinds of resources.
The strategy that works is to have one kid at a time , with both parents helping to keep it - and any elder sibling - fed. Humans have a low frequency of multiple births, like all the other great apes, because the survival chances of twins aren't great.
So Occams's Razor has lead you to ignore what's actually going on. Pity about that.
-- Bill Sloman, Sydney
If you think that's what Occam's Razor says, I'm not surprised that you believe the twaddle you wrote.
In this context we can deduce that either you don't go downtown on a Friday/Saturday night, or that you aren't very observant, or that you suppress observations that don't fit your beliefs. Or all three.
Those sort of women are irresistibly drawn to violent men like moths to a flame. God help any children they have. :(
Which sorts of women? The kinds of feminist who got angry with Erin Pizzey?
The category of women who are irresistibly drawn to violent men - as oppose d to being grabbed by them with sufficient force to make escape difficult - may exist, but I can't say that I've encountered any (not that I would, no t being all that enthusiastic about violence myself).
-- Bill Sloman, Sydney
Essentially, all of them. The men are are called "Knights in shinning armour". Do you know what a Knight is?
Its a just a statistical fact, that females prefer to mate with authoritative, strong, large men that don't get pushed around by wimps.
Of course, they would prefer that the violence is not against them, but for them.
Have you actually tried picking up a woman at a bar? Guess what techniques always fail.
The reality is, at the core, humans are just like other animals evolutionary wise. Many live in denial of this, i.e. the lefties and the PC.
-- Kevin Aylward
Well yeah, Sharon and Tracy are examples that traits are usually Gaussian distributed. There are always probabilities that there are those that don't follow the norm, much. I can't say that I will complain in this specific instance, it ups my chances no end....
-- Kevin Aylward
Its a simplified interpretation of what it says. I am well aware of the exact text.
In what way is the core of what I wrote twaddle?
You either believe in gods, or that we exist because of the results of the replication, selection and random variation algorithm. There is no other rational option. The later means that we are, essentially, a biological machine, that does what ever it can to maximise the numbers of its constituent genes and memes.
In support of your allegation of twaddle, what actual argument are you presenting as to why you believe that you have free will?
-- Kevin Aylward
Indeed, well as a quasi rock star in a glam-rock tribute band I'm sure you can get all the tail you want in your neck of the woods, Kev. ;-)
There are /many/ other explanations; you are falling into the Sherlock Holmes trap of thinking "when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains must be the truth" (yes, that's paraphrased from memory).
In particular, there is no requirement that human (or other animal) behaviour is rational.
I'm kind of inclined to believe in *gods* (plural) as in a team of white- coats in a parallel universe that created life artificially in the first instance, from which we evolved into the destructive, nihilistic f*ck-ups we see today. I'm not inclined to believe DNA just arose as a result of the 'monkeys and typewriters' theory. That's a bit to much to swallow.
What sort of armour, Kev? ;->
Well you won't get an argument with me out of that lot, since I agree with it all 100%. :-> BTW, what are the techniques that "always fail", though? Just curious....
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