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Consilience Book by E. O. Wilson chapter 2 - To what end part 2

(From page 295-303)

1.What is the "Ratchet of Progress"? Include in your description issues that emerge from this ratchet of progress.

2.Is natural selection still operating to drive human evolution? Explain your response.

3. What are the effects of 'homogenization'?

4. On page 300, Wilson says, "humanity will be positioned godlike to take control of its own ultimate fate." What are your thoughts on this? Explore what humans really might or might not do/be able to do.

5. On page 303, Wilson states, "Alter the emotions and epigenetic rules enough, and people might in some sense be better..." What are your thoughts on this?

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Beverley Smith
Beverley SmithLv2
28 Sep 2019

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7. Consider the first copy of an allele for insecticide resistance that arises by mutation in a population of insects exposed to an insecticide. Is this mutation an adaptation? If, after some generations, we find that most of the population is resistant, is the resistance an adaptation? If we discover genetic variation for insecticide resistance in a population that has had no experience of insecticides, is that variation an adaptation? If an insect population is polymorphic for two alleles, each of which confers resistance against one of two pesticides that are alternately applied, is that variation an adaptation? Or is each of the two resistance traits an adaptation?Explain your reasoning thoroughly.

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10. Kin selection explains why organisms may provide benefits to relatives. Is there a conflict between the principle of kin selection and the evolution of siblicide and abortion?

11.Many species of albatrosses and other seabirds nest in colonies on islands. The adult search for food at sea,sometimes over great distances. Some ecologists who study seabirds turn to their favorite topic of discussion in a bar one evening, and one says, “I can imagine an albatross genotype that destroys the eggs of nestlings of its colony mates when the parents are away foraging, and leaves them dead without eating them. Do you think such a behavior would evolve?” One of his companions says, “Yes, because it would make more food available for the albatross and its offspring.” Another says, “No, because it would threaten the survival of the population.” The fourth says, “You’re both wrong. I have a different explanation for why albatrosses don’t kill others’ chicks.” What is the fourth ecologist’s explanation, and why does she think her companions are wrong?

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16. The popular media often presents evolution as being a predictable process with a definite goal. For instance, in one “Star Trek: Voyager” episode, the captain instructs the ship’s computer to extrapolate the “probable course” of evolution of hadrosaurs (a bipedal dinosaur), if hadrosaurs had been removed from Earth before the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) Extinction and allowed to evolve on another planet. What information about the hadrosaurs’ new environment would have been useful in developing the best possible prediction? Given what you know on genetic drift and selective agents, is it possible to accurately predict the long-term course of evolution?

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