(urth) Lamarck, Wolfe and Exultants
Jeff Wilson
jwilson at io.com
Thu Aug 5 08:51:43 PDT 2010
On 8/5/2010 5:22 AM, Jack Smith wrote:
> Exultants could result from Darwinian evolution alone, without any
> genetic engineering. According to Wolfe, Severian is about 6' or 6'1",
> and Thecla is a head taller (around 7' or 7'1"). Male exultants seem to
> be about 7'6" to 8'. Such heights are uncommon for us, but still
> within the range of the possible. The tallest NBA player is 7'6" and
> the tallest WNBA player is 7'2".
>
> Imagine a planet colonized by NBA and WNBA players. Given 10 or 20
> generations and sexual selection in favor of height, you could get a
> population where the average height could be 7' to 8'.
The initial population would involve such extreme artificial selection
from across a huge pool that I would hesitate to call it Darwinian
evolution alone. you'd also need genetic screening at the least to make
a go of it to avoid reinforcing the pathological sources of height, and
it would need to be a pretty hospitable world to make sure big appetites
did not have trouble being fed long enough to reach sexual maturity and
survive mate selection.
There could also be counter pressure from smaller colonists who were un
chosen and get stuck mating with the poor and the equally short, unless
the cagers practice wasteful culling. Maybe you could get two groups
of the few talls and the many shorties who avoid intermariage, presuming
the talls retain some advantage they can leverage to offload their
greater support requirements onto the shorties in the form of tribute.
But breeding for tallness and prettiness and good loud voices, without
lots of residual variation, is hard to work out, esp when human sexual
selection has always been bent in favor of wealth and power.
--
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >
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