Still Evolving?

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Bogey
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Post by Bogey » Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:53 am

Which pokemon are you?
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Xuenay
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Post by Xuenay » Mon Jan 15, 2007 12:49 pm

kaos wrote:I gurantee, If i stabbed my own eyes out right now, by next christmas, I'd be one echo locating son of a bitch too.
Might not even need more than ninety minutes.

http://bps-research-digest.blogspot.com/20...d-enhances.html
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Mik
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Post by Mik » Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:27 pm

I did some research into this guy, seems to be legit however he doesn't seem to be the norm, and it's not an exact or universal science.

For example, take a blindfold, bind it so you can't see, open a door and walk into a room, you start to use your hearing much more, but to the level where you can receive highly complex instructions from clicking your teeth... ? I think not.


Having Echolocation would not help him play games, he could 'see' the TV but not what's on it, the only game you can really play like that is traditional beat 'em up.
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kaos
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Post by kaos » Mon Jan 15, 2007 5:04 pm

You might be able to play anything that has good surrond sound support.

still tho.
Ray charles was doing this with his shoes.
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Matt
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Post by Matt » Mon Jan 15, 2007 5:11 pm

As far as I remember, he actually had no eyes.

Click here to view the YouTube video. Click here again to hide it.
Last edited by Matt on Mon Jan 15, 2007 5:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Matt
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Post by Matt » Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:13 pm

I watched an interesting documentary last night about why we are here, the theory of evolution and how we as a species are breaking Darwinian law.

Basically, as we should all know about Darwins law, the fittest survive. The gazelle that gets caught was not fit to escape and becomes food for the stronger animal. The gazelle that manage to survive, after repeated sucsessful escapes, that manage to breed pass on those good qualities to the next generation of gazelle. Those predators hunting the gazelle that manage to catch and kill one for food, will also manage to breed and pass on those good qualities to the next generation. There is a cycle. The struggle for food, when fought sucessfully, leads to the passing of your genes. All of the animal kingdom fights this fight. Survival of the fittest. Darwinian law. This fight pushes evolution forward. Forces change. But, where are we different?

Watch for yourself.

Click here to view the YouTube video. Click here again to hide it.
Last edited by Matt on Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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kaos
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Post by kaos » Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:49 pm

didnt watch the vid.

but dude we save all of our weak people.
I think the law could only really apply to us if we got rid of hospitals and medicine.

harmful things that killed us hundreds of years ago, we shrug off and luagh now.
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Post by Xuenay » Tue Jan 16, 2007 9:42 pm

"Survival of the fittest" isn't really a good term when talking about evolution, though - it's pretty misleading, and it wasn't originally even used in any evolutionary text. Like my quote on the first page says, evolution's about reproduction, not survival as such.
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Matt
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Post by Matt » Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:56 am

Indeed, that is covered, as well :)

The videos 23 minutes long, anyway. If you get a change, watch it. It's pretty cool.

The law applied for us while we were still in Africa, since we started to move about and spread over the planet, is when we stopped listening to our "selfish genes".
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Post by Xuenay » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:16 pm

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Mik
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Post by Mik » Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:42 pm

Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' was a bad answer to a complex question that no-one has a definitive answer too.


Evolution takes place over a period of time, greater than the combined time of 'civilised' mankind (in the region fo 8k years or so).


Survival of the fittest in terms of evolution is being incorrect described here or in some places simplified a bit too much. A Fast gazelle lives; a slow one dies,

However most pack and solo predators, go for the 'easy kill' (the sick, the old and the extremely young), therefore the true spectrum of evolution does really come to the forefront. A relatively fast gazelle has a more than good chance of survival if not equal to the fast gazelle because 'herd' animals tend to run in clumps anyway. A Fast gazelle in the middle of a herd can only run as fast as his peers.

Easy and more clear answers are that Evolution is the result of benifical genetic anomalies, in all of the cases I can think of in humans these are pretty bad (Down's Syndrome etc) and serve no advantage.

Here's a break down as I understand it.

A Moth is white in colour, it lives in a black enviroment and is easily spotted by predators, one day a rare anomily occurs in one of it's offspring and it is born black (similar to Abinoism) now it has natural stealth and is much harder to be picked off by preadtors, black moths are more advantagous to the surrondings and it breds more.

(Gross over simplifaction incoming)

A plant is often eaten by herbivores, this hinders it as without leaves it can't produce enough photosynthesis to grow, so through evolution it becomes a little taller. A horse with a slighty longer neck is able reach the new hieght and becomes a proto giraffe (terribly inaccurate), they continue to grow and change until the we reach something similar to the plant and animal we see today. The Plant then shifts it's defenses to posion because it's reached the limit of it's hieght, the giraffe learns Behaviour that after a certain amount of time the plant becomes toxic and moves off after eating 5 leaves and eats another similar plant for another 5 leaves.

Evolution is a biological arms race, however their are alot of unanswered queries in that, why does the plant grow more, how does that even work ? wouldn't waiting for random genetic faults take trillions of years ?

Survival of the fitest is Darwins answer to a question he couldn't fully answer and akin to looking at this;

N = N* fp ne fl fi fc fL

and saying .... meh 4 ?

you could be correct but it's a bit of fluke and not a true answer
Last edited by Mik on Thu Jan 18, 2007 12:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Xuenay » Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:45 pm

Lastwolf wrote:Easy and more clear answers are that Evolution is the result of benifical genetic anomalies, in all of the cases I can think of in humans these are pretty bad (Down's Syndrome etc) and serve no advantage.
Depends a bit on how you define it. Never seen anybody who happened to have in-born talent in some field or the other? Or one who had no talent at all? Genetic anomaly.

(Though of course the environment also has an effect, etc.)
Last edited by Xuenay on Thu Jan 18, 2007 7:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Mik
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Post by Mik » Fri Jan 19, 2007 2:23 pm

that's more a behavior thing than a true genetics almost a meme, Talents, i.e. the ability to draw quite well or to play a particular sport well are often due to practise more than natural gifts. These gifts aren't often passed down I guess it could be a recessive thing, there are arguements that there is a genetic memory that ingrained things are taught before they are learnt, fear of animals snakes etc without prior knowledge, the automatic response that occurs when you touch a hot surface.

I don't given them too much merit however cause they are virutally unprovable.
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