So does this mean that the End of the Human Race is nigh?
Professor Jones added: "In the old days, you would find one powerful man having hundreds of children." He cites the fecund Moulay Ismail of Morocco, who died in the 18th century, and is reputed to have fathered 888 children.
So proving or disproving the speed of evolution has now come down to stories people tell about crazy people? I mean, even if that man really had 888 children (oh what a conveniently beautiful number), does Jones really believe that he represented a typical male in the 18th century world? It's been a while since my last history lesson, but I don't remember anything about the typical family size in 18c Western Europe to be anything near 800 people. 10 to 12 would be a good guess in the countryside, but half died before they reached adulthood. There is also one guy in China who is over 3m high, but that doesn't mean we're all evolving into giants.
Decreasing randomness is another contributing factor. "Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be [...] Small populations which are isolated can evolve at random as genes are accidentally lost. World-wide, all populations are becoming connected and the opportunity for random change is dwindling."
Well, that just might prove that evolution slowed down, not that it stopped. Also, people commonly assume that we are less isolated than we were a hundred/a thousand/ten thousand years ago. And yet the Romans imported grain from Egypt a couple of thousands of years ago and they probably had illegal children with their African/European/Middle-Eastern slaves. Isolated communities only exist on islands or in mountains, and even there there is often interaction. There is proof for trade in the Pacific going back thousands of years to the late Neolithic. If those peoples were traveling to get some stone tools, they probably would have mixed and exchanged brides.
- If Google pixelates some sensitive government sites, people start yelling that it's censorship and it's bad and how dare they trample on our democratic rights
- If they drive around with their Street-View mobile, shooting pics of numberplates, front gardens, underpants and men walking into seedy shops, all newspapers are yelling it's a disgraceful intrusion in people's privacy.
So they can't protect sensitive government information, but they have to make sure they don't embarrass a guy going to his favorite video shop?
Eehm, it's not exactly the sensationalist media that are telling us all these things. People actually do research on crime rates and crime rates in general do appearto be lower in Taiwan than they are in the US.
Like MaWeiTao I have been living in Taiwan, and I can tell you, it is a lot safer (in terms of crime, at least) than the US or Europe. If you don't believe me, we can do a comparative study: I walk with my flashy new notebook in my hand through the back alleys of Taipei at night, you do the same for Harlem. Wanna try?
I've also never seen any form of "brutal policing" in Taiwan. I might of course have been deceived by their friendly smiles, their evil considerateness and their unwillingness to speak English to me. Just to remind you: although China claims Taiwan as a part of its territory, it de facto actually has a separate democratic government, which nobody in his right mind would call authoritarian.
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Professor Jones added: "In the old days, you would find one powerful man having hundreds of children." He cites the fecund Moulay Ismail of Morocco, who died in the 18th century, and is reputed to have fathered 888 children.
So proving or disproving the speed of evolution has now come down to stories people tell about crazy people? I mean, even if that man really had 888 children (oh what a conveniently beautiful number), does Jones really believe that he represented a typical male in the 18th century world? It's been a while since my last history lesson, but I don't remember anything about the typical family size in 18c Western Europe to be anything near 800 people. 10 to 12 would be a good guess in the countryside, but half died before they reached adulthood. There is also one guy in China who is over 3m high, but that doesn't mean we're all evolving into giants.
Decreasing randomness is another contributing factor. "Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be [...] Small populations which are isolated can evolve at random as genes are accidentally lost. World-wide, all populations are becoming connected and the opportunity for random change is dwindling."
Well, that just might prove that evolution slowed down, not that it stopped. Also, people commonly assume that we are less isolated than we were a hundred/a thousand/ten thousand years ago. And yet the Romans imported grain from Egypt a couple of thousands of years ago and they probably had illegal children with their African/European/Middle-Eastern slaves. Isolated communities only exist on islands or in mountains, and even there there is often interaction. There is proof for trade in the Pacific going back thousands of years to the late Neolithic. If those peoples were traveling to get some stone tools, they probably would have mixed and exchanged brides.
Now here's something I don't get:
- If Google pixelates some sensitive government sites, people start yelling that it's censorship and it's bad and how dare they trample on our democratic rights
- If they drive around with their Street-View mobile, shooting pics of numberplates, front gardens, underpants and men walking into seedy shops, all newspapers are yelling it's a disgraceful intrusion in people's privacy.
So they can't protect sensitive government information, but they have to make sure they don't embarrass a guy going to his favorite video shop?
Eehm, it's not exactly the sensationalist media that are telling us all these things. People actually do research on crime rates and crime rates in general do appear to be lower in Taiwan than they are in the US.
Like MaWeiTao I have been living in Taiwan, and I can tell you, it is a lot safer (in terms of crime, at least) than the US or Europe. If you don't believe me, we can do a comparative study: I walk with my flashy new notebook in my hand through the back alleys of Taipei at night, you do the same for Harlem. Wanna try?
I've also never seen any form of "brutal policing" in Taiwan. I might of course have been deceived by their friendly smiles, their evil considerateness and their unwillingness to speak English to me. Just to remind you: although China claims Taiwan as a part of its territory, it de facto actually has a separate democratic government, which nobody in his right mind would call authoritarian.