[extropy-chat] Re: evolution again

[Kevin Freels]

  IOW, are there
> traits in any population that will persist or intensify regardless of
mating
> strategies and environmental changes?

This has been my thought for some time now. Unfortunately I have little to
go on other than intuition and a few sparse facts. We are already aware of
random mutation and genetic drift. We also know how allele frequencies
change due
to such things as the Founder Effect. I don't know why it is so difficult
for some people to accept that there may be a mechanism which allows traits
to become established on a totally random basis with no "cause" whatsoever.
I even spent a good deal of time once writing a grossly oversimplified
fictional scenario that goes something like this:
(A simplified version of the oversimplified scenario), or (Simplified^2)
Red and yellow flogs were running around the forest floor. The reds were
more common. The yellows were few. The yellows were regularly run out of
camp because they were different. They reds all slept together at night. One
night, a fire erupted and all the red flogs died. The yellows, who were a
minority, now took over.

As you can see, the yellow had no real contribution to their survival. In
fact, the yellow in the longer version was actually a drawback since the
ground was brownish-red. Now it is true, and even likely that the yellows
still carry red flog genes and eventually  through selection pressures, red
can re-assert itself, but that is just a statistical probability. The
yellows are capable of having yellow offspring that have no red genes as
well. My point was that it is luck, it is random, and it can happen. If it
can happen this way, then there are probably many things we now call
adaptations that are in fact exaptations. Big buns and large penises could
both fall into this catagory.

Kevin Freels