Re: Are will still a natural system?

On 26 Sep 2006 19:14:45 -0700, "Gearoid" <gearoid_carey@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Is natural selection still ultimately controling how we develop
physically, psychologically, and culturally as it did for millions of
years by culling those genes associated with the least fit
physiologies, psychologies and cultures?

There are some 6 billion humans on earth now. Even with "large scale"
genetic engineering that some people fear, only a tiny fraction of the
most highly developed world will produce babies that way for a very
long time, leaving virtually all babies born being produced the "old
fashioned" way. So we humans are not likely for a very long time to
alter the natural flow and mix of genes in circulation and being
mutated as we speak. Is that what you mean?

What has changed is selection. Human ecology is largely controlled by
cultural and social activities -- agriculture and animal husbandry,
construction, manufacturing, economic and political structures. This
changes what is considered "fit" which is always relative to the
environment that an organism lives in. Our environment is social and
cultural so purely biological evolution has become entwined with
social and cultural evolution. Is that what you mean?

You can also consider the notion that the development of human
language and culture and the development of cultural evolution is all
part of the natural world and so is, itself, natural. Is that what
you mean?


.

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