"Survival of the fittest" disputed

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Psi Wavefunction
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Re: "Survival of the fittest" disputed

Post by Psi Wavefunction » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:02 am

Actually, 'survival of the fittest' is indeed technically incorrect. It's more like 'survival of the good enough'. Also, selection is neither the sole nor necessarily even the dominant 'force' in evolution. Equally important are drift and mutation, both of which can provide directionality as well; as well as recombination in sexual species. People like Dawkins have been disconnected from the actual research for a long time, and also have a pretty poor grasp of evolution. Or at least do a poor job at conveying it properly to the public.

And then there's a bunch of philosophers rambling on about evolution – I ignore all of them :coffee: if you don't work with actual data of some sort, chances are, you have little to add to the debate, sorry.

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Psi Wavefunction
Cекси техническая лаборатория
Posts: 1880
Joined: Thu Feb 26, 2009 10:06 am
About me: I kill threads WITH SCIENCE!

I like Crascuits. :coffee:
Location: Vancouver
Contact:

Re: "Survival of the fittest" disputed

Post by Psi Wavefunction » Tue Oct 19, 2010 11:03 am

Also, drift affects EVERYONE, not just species on the brink of extinction. That is a rather annoyingly common fallacy perpetrated by people with an even poorer grasp of population genetics than mine...

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