[ExI] 'capitalism' genes was breeding cats

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Keith Henson
> Subject: Re: [ExI] 'capitalism' genes was breeding cats
> 
> On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 5:00 AM,  BillK <pharos at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > In case you didn't notice, the 1800s century is the same time that 
> > Keith believes that the UK population evolved 'capitalism' genes.
> > Obviously wrong. It was the cats organising the economic system for 
> > their own benefit...

Haaaaahahahahaaaa!  {8^D  See why I still hang out on ExI?  People here come
up with ideas like that one.  {8-]

Keith's notion of a capitalism gene is intriguing.  I buy it.  The
implications are far ranging too.  Capitalism is a political notion, so it
seems reasonable to me that political leanings are to some extent genetic.
No doubt political notions are influenced greatly by environment, but I have
long suspected there is a genetic component to our political leanings.  If
so, most political debate becomes racism.

> ...Tame foxes differ in gene expression in only about 40 genes.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox
> 
> It took about 20 generations of foxes to breed these hyper tame
foxes...Keith

Cool!  This reinforces my notion that an organized effort to breed behaviors
into cats could be done in a reasonable time span.  Twenty generations of
cats would fit in a single human lifespan.  It is difficult to explain *why*
exactly one would *want* a cat who drapes its inert self over one's
shoulders, but no more mysterious is this than why it is that so many
otherwise sane people feed the useless beasts daily.

spike