Lamarck, Wolfe and Exultants

Jeff Wilson · 05 Aug 2010, 15:51 · from 2010-August.txt.gz

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From: jwilson at io.com (Jeff Wilson)
Date: Thu, 05 Aug 2010 10:51:43 -0500
Subject: (urth) Lamarck, Wolfe and Exultants
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinR5XkCAe5qOnY+ynt4=BCFfqEcWUPMwt4fUZer at mail.gmail.com>
References: <0A589998-8CB7-4024-A68A-F47FFB410726 at liftingfaces.com>
	<AANLkTinR5XkCAe5qOnY+ynt4=BCFfqEcWUPMwt4fUZer at mail.gmail.com>
Message-ID: <4C5ADE0F.3000307 at io.com>

On 8/5/2010 5:22 AM, Jack Smith wrote:
> 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'.

The initial population would involve such extreme artificial selection 
from across a huge pool that I would hesitate to call it Darwinian 
evolution alone. you'd also need genetic screening at the least to make 
a go of it to avoid reinforcing the pathological sources of height, and 
it would need to be a pretty hospitable world to make sure big appetites 
did not have trouble being fed long enough to reach sexual maturity and 
survive mate selection.

There could also be counter pressure from smaller colonists who were un 
chosen and get stuck mating with the poor and the equally short, unless 
  the cagers practice wasteful culling. Maybe you could get two groups 
of the few talls and the many shorties who avoid intermariage, presuming 
the talls retain some advantage they can leverage to offload their 
greater support requirements onto the shorties in the form of tribute.

But breeding for tallness and prettiness and good loud voices, without 
lots of residual variation, is hard to work out, esp when human sexual 
selection has always been bent in favor of wealth and power.

-- 
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at io.com
IEEE Student Chapter Blog at
< http://ieeetamut.org >

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