From: szabo@techbook.com (Nick Szabo)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.science,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Are the Moties us?
Date: 6 Sep 92 12:26:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: techbook.1992Sep6.122602.11882
Organization: TECHbooks --- Public Access UNIX --- (503) 220-0636

>>That's a phobia. And according to the student psychology sitting over here,
>>phobias aren't considered inheritable/genetically codable.

The "student psychology" needs to rethink the matter.  The most common
phobias deal with heights, enclosed places, and animals like insects
that were dangers during the hunter-gatherer period when our
genetically influenced behaviors evolved.  If phobias were culturally
based, they would be directed against things we _really_ need
to be afraid of, such as guns, cars, etc., but these do not typically produce 
such strong reactions.  

Neverthless, phobias can often be alleviated by culture, in the form of
therapy and drugs.

In article <FRANCIS.92Aug26125755@galois.dogwood.atl.ga.us> francis@dogwood.atl.ga.us (John Stracke) writes:
>OK, why do you think WMK is too complex to code? 

"Wants More Kids" is just a convenient abstraction, not something that
will literally be coded for in the genes.  We must better define the actual 
effects, what sociobiologists call the proximate causes, that could
bring about greater fertility in an environment of effective birth control.
Since the timescales are very short on the evolutionary timescale,
centuries, we need to locate genes that already exist that effect fertility
in the face of birth control.   Here are some ideas that have been mentioned, 
or that I have thought of: characteristics that are genetically influenced
in a measurable way, and are likely in the population right now, that could 
serve a partial role in evolving around birth control.  (I'm dealing with women 
because the cause and effect is more direct; if you have ideas for men, like 
the ability to break condoms :-), feel free to add 'em.)

shorter gestation period 
the tendency to have twins, triplets, etc.
mother-baby bonding ("brood care"), greatly strengthened and turned into
	WMK via various kinds of peer pressure, envy, etc.
mother-baby finer discrimination between babies and baby-substitutes
	(ie women who don't like pets, teddy bears, etc., but do like
	babies)
intelligence: forget the PC whiners and Gould-groupies; every credible 
	psychological study considers IQ differences in humans to be 30-80% 
	genetically determined.  High IQ corelates very well with high birth
	control use and greatly lowered fertility in women. Genes
	causing lower IQ, of which several have already been catalogued, 
	could very well spread and in turn increase the fertility of more 
	descendents.  However, this effect may dissapear once very effective, 
	convenient and inexpensive birth control is achieved, perhaps some 
	time in the next century. Genes could that effect clumsiness, the 
	anatomy of reproductive organs, etc. could have a similar effect.
increase in age of menopause
decrease in age of fertility onset (this is actually happening across the
	developed world, but of course has been postulated to be due
	to environmental factors like better diet. Nobody has studied
	the possibility of this effect being due to natural selection
	under improved health care practices or birth control).

Nonethless, there also are many cultural factors: wealthy and highly educated
women have better access to birth control, birth control itself can be
restricted or encouraged, baby-substitutes like pets can be restricted
or encouraged or made more effective ("supernormal models"), peer pressure 
can take the form of "stop! overpopulation!" or "so, what are you going 
to do with the spare bedroom?", etc.  Within the same timeframe of
centuries, we could have genetic engineering alter the genes directly 
outside of selection, we could extend the age of fertility, we could 
come up with a form of perfect birth control that overpopulation paranoids 
throw in city water supplies, etc. I still contend that cultural factors 
will run far ahead of genetic factors, and it is cultural solutions we 
must seek to problems of population growth or decline. 


-- 
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