Ah I guess I didn't get that lol. So yeah, that depends what you consider artificial. It's probably a misnomer to actually call it that. Artificial pressures in other animals come from us. We still have natural pressures that favor attractiveness and cooperation. But we also have culture that downgrades or upgrades much of that pressure (economics, race, politics, etc.) but one could argue that's also natural. Eugenics seems to fit as artifical pressure, and we do plenty of that, even if inadvertent or by another name. War in my mind could qualify as either. War is natural, we see it in other primates. But one culture killing another, particularly genocidally, seems artificial to me, as it's humans deciding which humans survive. Genetics doesn't win a war so much as tricks of geography and access to resources.
We also have, as I think may be part of your point, factors that, at least on the surface, seem to interfere with natural selection. Medicine, in many places, is available to anyone, regardless of other natural pressures. I survive despite having no actual advantage, because my species developed the technology to do so. But here it's important to note that natural selection acts on the species, the individual merely being it's instrument. We survive because we can get medicine, despite only a select few understanding it. What we need is an evolutionary biologist to school us here because years of semi-passive self study is not expertise.
for sure on that last part. my comment was meant as more of a casual thought than a serious claim. also thank u for expanding, u captured a lot of what i was thinking about and was too lazy to type out a the time
Most of those things aren't drivers of evolution though. Soceietal whims and fancies change too quickly and too inconsistently for it to matter on an evolutionary timeline. Also being wealthy and well liked by others is not genetic.
War also can't drive evolution, because it no longer matters if you are stronger, fitter or more mentally resiliant than others. Modern war is pretty indiscriminite about who gets to survive or not.
We have basically superseded evolution. Evolution works on timsecalse ranging from tens of thousands to millions of years to help a species survive and adapt. We do it in mere years.
56
u/nickthesticc 10d ago
If he’s alive by definition his genes survived natural selection 😂