Re: A Specification for a

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Alex Duncan (aduncan@mail.utexas.edu) wrote:
: In article <815586728snz@crowleyp.demon.co.uk> Paul Crowley,
: Paul@crowleyp.demon.co.uk writes:

: >May main
: >point is that nakedness is a most peculiar adaption - as also is
: >bipedalism - that to separate them is to require two explanations
: >and imply that there were two radical changes in habitat and/or
: >behaviour.

: More radical than "hominids got into the water, where they developed a
: whole bunch of features that just happen to be adaptive for living on dry
: land, and then they got out of the water"?

What we see in genetic algorithms is mosaic evolution, with a good many
of the characteristics hitchhiking to fixation based on accidental
association with selectively advantageous innovations. Hence when we see
a new complex of features emerge in the fossil record (==?speciation
events), only one of the features will be selectively advantageous; the
remainder can be expected to be close to being selectively neutral.

--

Harry Erwin

Internet: herwin@gmu.edu 

Home Page: http://osf1.gmu.edu/~herwin (try a couple of times)

PhD student in comp neurosci: "Glitches happen" & "Meaning is emotional"

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