Evolutionary Suicide

In Can adaptation lead to extinction?, Daniel J. Rankin and Andres Lopez-Sepulcre, Laboratory of Ecological and Evolutionary Dynamics, Dept of Biological and Environmental Science, Univ. of Helsinki discuss the hypothesis that individual adaptation can lead to group extinction due to unrestrained defection at the group level. In a sense it is clear that if one’s own lineage goes extinct via individual behavior that it is, by definition, maladaptive to engage in antecedent adaptations, however individually advantageous in the short term. However, their theoretic framework of adaptive dynamics does provide fertile new territory for the exploration of group selection and is probably the best formal foundation for my genetic omni-dominance (GOD) hypothesis within which subspecies of recessive character are prone to go extinct under mixing of ecologies. Extended phenotypes of invasive subspecies are likely to play a significant role in triggering evolutionary suicide among competing subspecies.

Wikipedia’s introduction to adaptive dynamics describes it thus:

Adaptive dynamics is a set of techniques for studying long-term phenotypical evolution developed during the 1990s. It incorporates the concept of frequency dependence from game theory but allows for more realistic ecological descriptions, as the traits vary continuously and gives rise to a non-linear invasion fitness [emphasis JAB]...

From the article by Rankin and Lopez-Sepulcre:

J. B. S. Haldane, the pioneer of modern evolutionary biology, suggested that individual adaptation does not necessarily lead to traits which are beneficial to the whole population (Haldane 1932). He suggested that characteristics may evolve that are catastrophically detrimental to the populations in which they are found. It seems counterintuitive that individual adaptations would occur that have such a negative effect on population performance that the population is driven to extinction. While Haldane asserted that this is possible, the phenomenon has been largely dismissed, most likely because his views on the matter have been incorrectly labelled as a ‘‘good for the species’’ argument (Cronin 1993). However, the idea that individual behaviour can harm population performance was rekindled by Garret Hardin, in the form of the tragedy of the commons (Hardin 1968), which stated that, if a common resource is overexploited by individuals acting or their own selfish gain, disaster at the population level can occur. The idea that individual interactions can facilitate extinction should have strong relevance to ecology, but has rarely been observed in natural systems. Here we describe the phenomenon and highlight three examples which allude to extinction due to individual selection. Furthermore, we suggest various systems which may be prone to evolutionary suicide.

Moreover, it is likely that the best counter-strategy—genuinely adaptive behavior for human races which are vulnerable to evolutionary suicide triggered by extended phenotypes of invasive subspecies—is the engineering of countervailing symbionts: both organic and memetic.

Posted by James Bowery on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 07:17 PM in
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Comments:

Posted by MensaRefugee on July 21, 2007, 05:00 AM | #

Like having only one son or daughter?

Adaptive for an individual -they invest a lot into the single kid - if that son/daughter has many kids by getting ahead in life because of that individual attention and resources - ends up having many kids, aka many grandkids.

But cant have everyone do that. Big No-no.

As what was once considered luxury has become commonplace, maybe people are using some sort of in-built evolutionary clock that tells them one is enough when they are resource laden.

Posted by Der Xanthus on July 21, 2007, 06:42 AM | #

The description of Myxococcus xanthus reminds one of the “free rider problem” (expanded on this blog to include so-called “cross riding”).

These forms of “riding” are profoundly destructive of the pursuit of group interests. They are, by the way, found within racial activism as well.

Posted by cuckold on July 21, 2007, 06:35 PM | #

http://www.amren.com/mtnews/archives/2007/07/why_my_shirley.php

Posted by Sean Cuckold on July 21, 2007, 06:38 PM | #

Hey, why take a DNA test when one can use such sterling criteria as:
” He looks like me,’ he said. ‘Look at his feet, they are just like mine!”

Is Sean a WN?

That’s “movement” quality analysis if I ever saw it!

Posted by a Finn on July 22, 2007, 11:38 PM | #

Important research. Everybody could contemplate it’s connections to liberals and also to invading ethnies and their traits, despite the study being about population suicide.

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