Lamarck, Wolfe and Exultants

Jack Smith · 05 Aug 2010, 10:22 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: jack.smith.1946 at gmail.com (Jack Smith)
Date: Thu, 5 Aug 2010 06:22:20 -0400
Subject: (urth) Lamarck, Wolfe and Exultants
In-Reply-To: <0A589998-8CB7-4024-A68A-F47FFB410726 at liftingfaces.com>
References: <0A589998-8CB7-4024-A68A-F47FFB410726 at liftingfaces.com>
Message-ID: <AANLkTinR5XkCAe5qOnY+ynt4=BCFfqEcWUPMwt4fUZer at mail.gmail.com>

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'.

I used to live near David Robinson (7'1"), the center for the NBA Spurs.
Once I was walking past his house and he and his two sons (about 10 or 12
years old) were outside his gate.  The sons were taller than me.

On Thu, Aug 5, 2010 at 12:52 AM, Ryan Dunn <ryan at liftingfaces.com> wrote:

> Wolfe is quoted as thus...
>
> "I didn't know that anybody was working in the Lamarckian area, today to be
> honest with you. I think somebody should be because I have never been
> convinced that Lamarck was wrong."
>
> Lamarckism states that acquired traits are inherited.
>
> This led me to a question that may have been covered...
>
> Are exultants a product of Lamarckism? It could explain the lingering
> height as a physical character trait, and might take less time than
> Darwinian theology to see an affect.
>
> If so, were the original exultants genetically modified to be taller, more
> idealized, and more hierogrammatesque, and their offspring through a few
> iterations thus took on some of those genetically mutated characteristics
> into their own genes?
>
> ...ryan
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-- 
Best wishes,
Jack
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