Re:Massive genetic study shows how humans are evolving
by ForRealsies on Monday September 11, 2017 @11:03AM
(#15219012)
What about the increase in defects/problems with women having children in their mid-late 30s? And older father's sperm containing more mutations https://www.nature.com/news/fathers-bequeath-more-mutations-...
Re:Massive genetic study shows how humans are evolving
by glenstein on Monday September 11, 2017 @03:23PM
(#15221442)
You are right that if this were attempted on day one by banning pregnancies by everyone except thirty-somethings, it would be a non-starter, because of the many unsolved health issues with pregnancies at that age. It wouldn't work if we put all the eggs in that basket. The strategy would be to gradually expand the range of sustainable, healthy ages to have pregnancies, so that the outer extremes eventually become part of the "heartland" range of sustainable pregnancies.
You could imagine a graph showing the percentage of pregnancies that occur at each age. The strategy would be to gradually move the percentages over time so that some percentage of sixteen year old pregnancies get shifted over into seventeen year old pregnancies, some seventeen year old pregnancies become eighteen year old pregnancies, and so on.
The goal is that, over time, there is escalating pressure to solve health problems that occur at later ages, problems that evolution currently has little incentive to address.
Re:Massive genetic study shows how humans are evolving
by EGreg on Sunday September 10, 2017 @04:40PM
(#15214215)
Very interesting! I find this kind of line very exciting.
But dows that mean some sort of Lamarckian evolution is taking place after all?
Sexy son hypothesis is also similar. Is it related?
It stands to reason that postponing reproduction for as long as reasonably possible would contribute to selection for longevity. From evolution's perspective, you have to survive at least that long, or else you're not good for anything. If humanity collectively decides to postpone having children, evolution may begrudgingly allocate more of its resources toward the welfare of individuals, rather than viewing our early deaths as an acceptable loss in a cold utilitarian calculation about long-term gene proliferation.
(edits)