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HPluckrose's profile
Helen Pluckrose
Helen Pluckrose
Helen Pluckrose
@HPluckrose

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Helen Pluckrose

@HPluckrose

Editor @AreoMagazine Secular, liberal humanist. Mother. Doglover. Writing book about epistemology & ethics on the academic left Helen.pluckrose@areomagazine.com

London.
areomagazine.com/author/hpluckr…
Joined August 2011

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    1. Helen Pluckrose‏ @HPluckrose 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @KanStaandPijpen

      Huh?

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    2. KanStaandPijpen‏ @KanStaandPijpen 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @HPluckrose

      Only stuff that gets in the way of reproduction [by killing the bearer of the gene, or making him unlikely to reproduce] gets changed by natural selection. Things that are fine the way they are remain static for the same reason.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    3. Helen Pluckrose‏ @HPluckrose 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @KanStaandPijpen

      Yes, I know. This is evolution 101. Although it only needs a slight advantage/disadvantage to make a difference over evolutionary time. The foreskin got bigger and more complex in humans. There must have been some reason for this.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    4. KanStaandPijpen‏ @KanStaandPijpen 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @HPluckrose

      Evolution is way too messy for small advantages to have much of an impact. Otherwise our spines wouldn't be such a fucking mess.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    5. Helen Pluckrose‏ @HPluckrose 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @KanStaandPijpen

      No, it's not. This is how we refine where variation exists and it does with foreskins. They're not like spines trying to cope with us standing up.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    6. KanStaandPijpen‏ @KanStaandPijpen 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @HPluckrose

      Then explain why our foreskins would adapt to small advantages over the long run, whereas our spines are still ill-adapted to bipedal stance.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    7. Helen Pluckrose‏ @HPluckrose 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @KanStaandPijpen

      Because variation in foreskin length exists enabling them to grow longer or shorter but no human had a spine suited to bepedalism so it had to adapt imperfectly.

      2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
    8. KanStaandPijpen‏ @KanStaandPijpen 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @HPluckrose

      Spines come in greater or lesser curvature, they vary just like foreskins do. No difference there. But curvy spines are associated with disadvantages, so why hasn't that fixed itself if it happened with foreskins?

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    9. Helen Pluckrose‏ @HPluckrose 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @KanStaandPijpen

      Scoliosis is not directly heritable. If it were, it would have been naturally selected out because many people (my cousin) would have died before adulthood without the surgery that's available now. Its a deformity, not a naturally selected trait.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
    10. KanStaandPijpen‏ @KanStaandPijpen 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @HPluckrose

      If it kills people before reproducing, it will be selected for. Even if it isn't deadly scoliosis, lower back pain is endemic and makes people a lot less efficient in everyday life.

      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
      Helen Pluckrose‏ @HPluckrose 26 Nov 2017
      Replying to @KanStaandPijpen

      Selected out, you mean? Yes, but it's not hereditary. If it were and it killed people before reproducing or made them unable to have sex or raise children, it would have been naturally selected out. The genes would not have been able to pass on.

      2:26 PM - 26 Nov 2017
      1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        1. New conversation
        2. KanStaandPijpen‏ @KanStaandPijpen 26 Nov 2017
          Replying to @HPluckrose

          Then we agree: without a natural-selection level difference the gene expression makes, not much happens! That means that the foreskin isn't exactly a great contender for NS-mediated evolution, right?

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        3. Helen Pluckrose‏ @HPluckrose 26 Nov 2017
          Replying to @KanStaandPijpen

          I don't know what you mean? Obviously the foreskin evolved by natural selection. How else would it have come to be?

          1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
        4. KanStaandPijpen‏ @KanStaandPijpen 26 Nov 2017
          Replying to @HPluckrose

          The foreskin came to be because it did. To claim every part of us is specifically optimized by evolution isn't correct. Some things just are good-enough and are there because they didn't get overly in the way.

          0 replies 0 retweets 0 likes
        5. End of conversation

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