Re:When sexual selection can lead to a decline in the capaci...
by dekhn on Saturday May 06, 2017 @10:41AM
(#14280435)
I think you're trying very hard to fit the real world into a hypothesis that doesn't make any sense.
Re:When sexual selection can lead to a decline in the capaci...
by rnabel on Saturday May 06, 2017 @12:31PM
(#14280976)
I would encourage you to read up on what the gene-centered view actually states.
> that doesn't make any sense
If you look at the criticism leveled against this theory you will find that many of them have been addressed by the proponents of the theory, in many cases very successfully. Many things can be said about this theory but your claim strikes me as highly unqualified.
Yes.
> evolution selects at multiple levels
That's just another way of saying that evolution selects for reproductive fitness with respect to a particular environment. If a gene is part of an organism, then the other genes in that organism are part of that gene's environment.
The aggregation of genes into organisms is itself an evolutionary adaptation (as is the aggregation of organisms into more complex organisms like eukaryotic cells and multi-cellular creatures). This aggregation provides reproductive fitness by enforcing a certain level of cooperation among the aggregated genes (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Evolution_of_Cooperation). But this is not the fundamental mechanism of evolution, and every now an then a gene "defects" and does what is best for it at the time. Cancer is an example of this.