Selection... That is the problem. It seems that the choice to use the word selection, has been a large impedance to the understanding of evolution. Selection invokes in the minds of many, the notion that some "choice" has been made. Which simply isn't the case.
No creature ever made a conscious decision to alter its genetic make up. The environment never made a conscious decision, as to which creatures will survive, and which will perish.
A more suitable, and easily understood method of describing how evolution works would be Natural Elimination.
As situations, and conditions change; those who are not suited to survive the change are eliminated from the breeding pool. Leaving all that do remain, suited to their current environment.
It just seems like a poor choice of wordings to aptly describe what really happens in the evolutionary process.
Dear
Vastator
I think the other terms for this are
* cause and effect, we choose and have biases based on what we see will get us the outcome we want
(BASED ON EXPERIENCE - what we've seen or have taught or been taught)
or will cause undesirable outcomes we don't want. We all have the capacity for free choice,
but the logic isn't pure. It's skewed by emotions, by FEARS. so if the FEAR of change or FEAR of
a certain group/person/outcome is GREATER in our minds, we can make decisions based on FEAR instead of actual truth of what would or would not occur.
Big problem with humans. We have intuition to sense dangers and avoid them, but this can go either way.
* avoidance of pain and suffering and seeking of pleasure and peace
Again, this gets subjective and since everyone's interests are relative, we get into trouble trying
to manage and balance collectively. So we guess and do the best we can. And our learning curve? well, you can see how tortuous that has been...
Now as for reproduction
it looks like there are as many factors going against humanity
as going for it. With the drive to survive strong enough to outweigh the tendency to self-destruct
when we don't get our way.
* the part of the brain that religion/god appeals to tends to be DOMINANT
and is used for SURVIVAL
* but with education that provides BENEFITS, it also correlates with
lower birth rates than say people in poor countries with such a HIGH infant
mortality rate due to poverty and lack of resources that they have "more babies"
because so many will die. When the survival rate and life expectancy and quality
is higher, well that also means stable couples and families won't be turning out
100 kids with different parents or partners with no future game plan.
so it seems a give and take. the quality of life is higher than it used to
be, so perhaps stability of populations will follow from greater stability
* on a more personal/individual level, there are different studies on
how women and men "select partners"
https://scienceblog.com/72137/the-real-difference-between-how-men-and-women-choose-their-partners/
I've also seen another study on whether men and women were picking
partners based on intelligence or good looks. If I recall the findings on tendencies accurately:
the intelligence ran genetically with the gender chosen by the other for looks,
and the looks ran genetically with the gender chosen by the other for intelligence.
So this ran COUNTER to what would be ideal for survival of the best traits.
If the OPPOSITE was going on, as the study implied, then this pattern would lead to
breeding out the higher intelligence and the good looks instead of passing them on.
[Personally I believe selection and relations are spiritually/divinely inspired.
Because personalities/souls are UNIQUE then we attract and build
UNIQUE connections and relations between us like points that have unique lines.
I don't see it as competing for mates, but trying to wade
through the massive backlog of drama and problems in society
TO FIND each other and CARVE out the relations and solutions we want.
I believe those solutions already exist in the future,
and we are trying to map out the path to realize them from
wherever we are starting today, using the past as experience to learn and teach from.
so to me it isn't random at all, but a learning curve that is driven to find
stability based on common values of truth, of equal justice, and peace and harmony
with others in society]
