Posted by SLS on September 10, 2005, at 18:38:31
In reply to Re: 'Proof' our brains are evolving, posted by Ilene on September 10, 2005, at 17:44:05
> > > The changes presumably confer a survival benefit
> > > University scientists say they have found strong proof that the human brain is still evolving.
> >
> >
> > What might be sad about the process of natural selection at work on the human brain is that it is now being driven by cultural and socioeconomic factors that select against the poor, uneducated, unwanted, and "unintelligent".
> >
> >
> > - Scott
> >
> Selection against these people would only be working if they had fewer children than the rich, educated, desirable, and intelligent. Lots of poor people have children.Several questions arise. Are the poor more likely to breed with the poor? If so, this becomes a closed breeding population separate from the rest of society wherein there might be less demand for intelligence to perform the jobs offered it. There is less selective pressure for the development of intelligence. Wow. That almost sounds like racism to me. Do the same percentage of children of the poor go on to successfully breed and raise similarly successful breeders? I don't know. All I do know is that evolution is not a universal teleological process of improvement. Not all breeding populations will have bestowed upon them the same progression of advantages and disadvantages simply because they are Homo Sapiens. I think much of what can be inferred from the article posted is that culture is indeed a modulator of evolution, and that the differences between the cultures of the poor and the wealthy might be different enough to act as modulators.
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:552873
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050909/msgs/553344.html