Posts with Comments by Robert Sykes

Group Selection and the Wrinkly Spreader

  • I should like to see some discussion of S. J. Gould's last book "The Structure of Evolutionnary Theory," in which he argues that selection occurs at all taxonomic levels, even those above the species level. While Gould was somewhat on the fringe in many of his ideas, he was an important figure in 20th century evolutionary theory, and his views deserve to be analyzed rather than ignored.
  • Notes on the evidence for acceleration

  • Evlutionary theory requires (1) that an evolving population be isolated so that new, beneficial mutations are not diluted out by outbreeding with the larger population and (2) that selective pressures be substantially reduced so that the normal functioning of natural selection, which is to eliminate mutations, does not occur. 
     
    How does the purported recent human evolution conform to these conditions? In what subpopulation and where?
  • Evolutionary theory requires that a rapidly evolving population be (1) isolated, so that the new mutations are NOT diluted out in the larger population and (2) that selective pressures be radically reduced so that the normal functioning of natural selection, which is to eliminate mutations, does not occur. 
     
    So, in what human populations are these conditions being met?
  • a