Re: Bet Hedging, Risk Aversion, Sex, and the Unit of Selection


"William Morse" <wdmorse@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:drccbo$1ko0$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> "Perplexed in Peoria" <jimmenegay@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in news:dr1gik$80f
> $1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:
>
>> A man sits down at a roulette wheel with $100. How should he
>> distribute his bets?
>
> That's way too easy. He should give it all to me. Now if I were French,
> that would make me The Selfish Jean :-)
>
If laughter is the best medicine, this one has healed me to the point of
abdominal pain.
Oh, brother... Ohhhhh.


>> 1. Sex exists because it provides a mechanism for bet hedging.
>
> Interesting conjecture - but if that is the only explanation for sex then
> I would think more organisms would have mechanisms for multiple parents
> of different offspring. While a number of species (e.g. domestic cats)
> have evolved such mechanisms, I don't think they are particularly
> numerous.
>
>
>> 2. But this only makes sense if the unit of selection is seen
>> as the gene-clone, as in a gene's eye view justification
>> of Hamilton's rule. A gene clone can spread its bets
>> evenly among the alternatives - it has a 'stake' that is
>> divisible. Organisms, for the most part, do not.
>
> The organism "tries" different combinations of genes to see which ones
> will work out.

The last time I tried out a gene combination to see if it would work out, I
got a son who did not go to college. He was making too much money to want
to. The time before that I got a computer whiz who married a lawyer, and
they made more money in three years than I made in thirty. The time before
that I got an accountant who makes a good living with a big employer in a
big city. Can't win 'em all.

I had a dog once that tried out seven different things in one litter, and I
don't even know whether one of them worked or not, because I don't know what
it was she was trying to do. Was she trying to invent a gene combination
for immunity to rolling automobile tires, immunity to parvo virus, ability
to climb trees and poke a long, barbed tongue into a squirrel hole and pull
that sucker out... ? How do dogs know when to try things out, and what to
try?

Me, all I've ever done is just shoot and hope for the best. First time, I
got an accountant. Time after that I got a Summa Cum Laude computer whiz
who made more money in three years that I made in thirty.
Things were lookin' good. But then the last time, I got a high school
graduate who didn't go to college because he was making more than most
college graduates in his own business already. I gave up after that,
because I didn't know how dogs and bacteria figure out what to try, instead
of just shootin' and hopin' it won't grow up and make somebody sick or bite
the mailman.

g


.

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