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The Role of Human Culture In Natural Selection
gollum123 writes with this excerpt from the NY Times: "... for the last 20,000 years or so, people have inadvertently been shaping their own evolution. The force is human culture, broadly defined as any learned behavior, including technology. The evidence of its activity is the more surprising because culture has long seemed to play just the opposite role. Biologists have seen it as a shield that protects people from the full force of other selective pressures, since clothes and shelter dull the bite of cold and farming helps build surpluses to ride out famine. Because of this buffering action, culture was thought to have blunted the rate of human evolution, or even brought it to a halt, in the distant past. Many biologists are now seeing the role of culture in a quite different light. Although it does shield people from other forces, culture itself seems to be a powerful force of natural selection. People adapt genetically to sustained cultural changes, like new diets. And this interaction works more quickly than other selective forces, 'leading some practitioners to argue that gene-culture co-evolution could be the dominant mode of human evolution.'"
So I guess natural selection is failing in your eyes, since we still have "Religious Neanderthals." And you seem to put atheism as a tenant and pillar of intelligence.
Pretty interesting. Some of the darkest moments in history, it seems, were when a culture or country put emphasis on single belief systems as determining whether someone was "good enough" to live... or at least, live at the same standard as those "privileged" people. Atheism is a belief, since God has not been disproven. Sure, you can argue it's more or less logically sound, makes more or less sense, but when it come down to it - since God is not something you can taste, see, feel, touch, etc., it's hard to be proven or disproven by science.
And yet it seems you would consider atheism to be a mark of intelligence and higher thinking/learning... hum.
From TFA:
Most people switch off the gene that digests the lactose in milk shortly after they are weaned, but in northern Europeans -- the descendants of an ancient cattle-rearing culture that emerged in the region some 6,000 years ago -- the gene is kept switched on in adulthood.
Like, totally.
See? Hitler WAS right after all. There ARE Superior humans, and they are North Europeans.
Or is it actually more like their milk-gene is stuck, unable to switch off later in life?
So Hitler was actually wrong, because North Europeans are unable to alter their DNA, but he was right because that genetic "flaw" makes them superior cause they can feed off a cow for longer than the humans that can't eat milk products?
No... wait... I got it...
Nicholas Wade (The author of TFA) thinks that "enzyme" and gene" are the same thing.
That's it. Yet another mystery solved. Thanks to my superior genes.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
(With tongue in cheek) Well that is what you get when your group kills off its own young.
But honestly you could see this in some other ways...
The people that you mention tend to be real jerks and very unlikable.
Extreme Liberals, everything you do is bad, It will hurt the environment, or is the cause for all the problems in the world. In general a real downer after a while. Besides if you are that politically motivated it is hard for you to shut up and except the general culture, when you are part of the general culture you tend to reap its benefits. "The Man" isn't trying to hold you back, however if you fight with him he will not help you out much.
Atheist, A lot of them don't seem to respect other peoples beliefs, you meat a nice girl and tell her she is a fool that she believes in a god that will be a big turn off. Simple fact There is no solid proof for or against God... So arguing with someone who does believe in God will just create more conflict. Besides Religions are a group where people can join as a sub-comunity and gain benefits from it
Male Sexual Exclusivity lined to IQ... You mean being an Elitist bastard... For one IQ isn't the only way to measure smarts and two it in itself is a measurement of potential but not of actual use. I have seen a lot of really stupid people with High IQs. Espectily after they learn they have a High IQ because they think if they have a High IQ they know more then everyone else and is superior. So they end up being a jerk. Leaving the people with lower IQs who are nicer and are willing to listen to people who know more about stuff then them on different topics makes them far more approachable.
It isn't the fact that they belong to these groups but the fact that they are unable to adapt to cultural norms, thus not reproducing.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Susan Blackmore has written more than a bit around it, and her TED talk about this and the future is pretty interesting.
No offense, but I'm in the position to know the financial dealings of some tens of thousands of wealthy individuals, and I can tell you flatly and honestly that the primary purpose of the vast majority of those "donations" is to dodge taxes.
That is so moronic as to be laughable. You cannot donate $1 and get back more than $1. So, I doubt you really deal with the financial dealings of "tens of thousands of wealthy individuals".
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Not since FDR, at least. Now we are filling the population with people with genetic illnesses - saving any person we can regardless how their eventual reproduction will just make us weaker as a species. Both physically and intellectually. In addition, government is now dictating diet regardless of what an individual needs/wants, and to accommodate for those with allergies or other health problems. Brave New World has transformed from a fictional warning to future generations to a 'how to" manual...