Headline, November07, 2013

''' GOOD BYE- '''HAREM''​' -

FORMATION '''

If the r/k  interpretation is correct  -the letters stand for the rate of reproduction and the ''carrying capacity'', or resource richness, of the environment-,  then an advantage of some sort of the socioeconomically privileged should show up as the generations succeed one another.

Dr Goodman's analysis shows that it does, but in a way that is not translated into any evolutionary advantage.

Reducing family size certainly creates what look, on the face of things, like more competitive descendants. Children, grand-children and great-grandchildren alike get better marks at school, are more likely to go to university, and have higher income as adults.

What these competitive individuals do not do, though, is go on to compete in the one arena which matters in a Darwinian sense: reproduction. 

If anything, the tendency towards smaller, more socially successful families tends to feed back itself over the generations, and the contribution of the K-selected to the gene pool therefore shrinks.

To biologists, this is all very puzzling. If K-type behaviour is not delivering the goods then it should never have come about in the first place. But there may be an explanation: that the psychological make-up which encourages K-type behaviour worked in the past but is not appropriate to modern circumstances.

That does seem plausible. In large parts of the world, better hygiene, nutrition and medicine have almost abolished the child mortality, meaning the advantage of k over r is diminished. Education is available free to all. 

And human-formation, which would have been an option in the past for many k-selected males, is frowned on these days.

In other words, the disadvantage of being r-selected have disappeared.

The upshot is that the demographic transition maybe the result of a mismatch between ancient psychology and the modern world. In that, it would be like an epidemic of obesity which results from stone age appetites meeting capitalist abundance. Unlike obesity, though, small families do no harm to the individual involved. 

''In fact this particular mismatch may actually be all that stands between humanity and ecological disaster''.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of Tunisia. See Ya all on the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' !!! Gleefully True !!!

Good Night & God Bless!

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless