MigL

So, even though they can 'edit' their RNA and protein structures to quickly adapt to changing environments, these structures are not 'written' to their DNA, and therefore not inheritable traits. Got it. But how would such a capability have evolved ? And, if an octopus can use the RNA alteration mechanism to adapt to its environment, would that not make a lot, or some, of regular selection/adaptation to environmental forcings ( as experienced by other species ) redundant ? IOW, have cephalopods stopped adapting to their environment through evolution, because they can actively do it 'on the fly' with this mechanism ? ( sorry about all the questions, but this thread made me realize hoe little I actually know about evolution )

Maybe @CharonY , or anyone else who has an educated opinion, can help me out with this related issue. I recently read where octopusses ( octopii ? ) are able to edit their RNA to a much greater extent than any other species. This would mean they are able to select what genetic traits ( much more so than any other species ) they pass on to their offspring. This would seem to make them an active factor in their evolution, as opposed to the rest of us animals, who are passive in our evolutionary trajectory. I'm not even sure how such a trait would have developed, or what its implications are.

No. A simplistic, but accurate, description of relativity.

That's for sure. Trying to 'reproduce' when you have a bad case of gas ( from eating beans ) can be embarrassing, kills the mood, and causes failure 😄 .

I don't think you're using the term 'natural selection' the way an evolutionary scientist would, and that may be leading to the confusion. The 'environmental forcings' that humans are naturally selected for, are vastly different than those of wild animals. We can regulate temperature of our environment, change our food supply, etc., but we have social forcings, economic forcings, etc. which most animals don't have. As @CharonY tried to explain, comparison of the mechanisms for the two isn't really possible. As another monkey wrench into the works, consider that humans are 'evolving' to outlive our reproductive age. This is likely due to the economic forcing I mentioned, and we are not having enough children to replace the population. I think @TheVat previously mentioned this, but eventually, in most advanced societies, the population will consist of a non-reproductive population due to its age. That goes against the purpose of 'natural selection', reproducing, does it not ? Maybe the mechanism of evolution doesn't like what we're doing, and is trying to kill us off.

Kevin Costner did in Waterworld. (big flop so not too many saw it, but I liked it )

Countries like South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, where the birth rate is not affected by economics and immigration is low, will be in trouble in less than 100 years.

And you can't count. Just about everyone has...

Erno Goldfinger was an architect who lived next door to Ian Fleming; Auric Goldfinger was the Bond villain. Personally I prefer Blofeld, or Blowhard, for D Trump.

Are you sure it wasn't the Lead in the water pipes ?

So many labels; I don't know what I am anymore. Seems to me no one is strictly introvert or strictly extrovert, so naturally someone had to coin a term for varying combinations of the two, because we don't have enough labels. ( no disrespect to your views intended, Tony ) ( and I refuse to call anyone who's flown a sailplane old )

There is a vast difference between the possibility of interstellar travel, and the advantages/reasoning for interstellar travel. We are all in agreement that at our current level of technology we can barely do interplanetary probing/travel, but that doesn't discount the possibility of doing so in the future, however, even if technology does advance to the point where we can, the reasons and advantages to interstellar travel may never be worth it. This assumes, of course, that advanced alien civilizations, if they exist, reason, and have value scales, similar to ours.

of course. They are, arguably, just as needed for grasping stone, and bone, tools/weapons, as they are for texting on your phone.

The alligators are in the White House; and they don't take visitors unless you come with Billions, or donate a luxury Boeing 747 to the head Croc, D Trump.

It sure would be nice if you had gigantic Electromagnetic scoops that gather the interstellar gas/dust in your way, and use it as ejected mass, once energized by a matter-antimatter reactor, to generate forward thrust. Something like a Bussard ramjet ...

What a novel concept. Do whatever the fu*k you want, to whoever you want, then forgive yourself and absolve yourself of any blame or responsibility. I hope none of his advisors mention it to D Trump ...

Is there anything D Trump touches that doesn't turn to sh*t ?

Have you considered that there are different kinds of 'evolution' ? Primates for example have a different evolutionary pathway than ants, or bees, for example, For these types, single members don't take on differing characteristics, rather groups evolve differently to undertake different tasks, and the 'organism' is the collective. Maybe that is how humans are now evolving. We are becoming more social, and take care of each other to enable more of us to reach reproductive age. Isn't that the job of evolution; enable reproduction and passing on of genetic material ? Does that

Oh, OK; that's simple. Evolution is affected by the ability to pass on genetic material to as many offspring as possible. Elon Musk has 14 children with 4 different women. The main cause, then, must be being worth almost a Trillion dollars ...

Oh, you're such an optimist 🙂 .

What difference does it make ? Even if not engulfed by the expanded Sun, it will still be close enough to fry TheVat's picnic.

Both wild animals and humans experience environmental forcingsas you stated. The difference is, humans can now alter their environment to suit them; they don't need to adapt to the environment. A monkey with bad eyesight swings from tree branches, but can't see well and falls to its death, without reproducing. A human gets eyeglasses or laser surgery, and reproduces just fine. A polar bear sees its habitat shrinking because of melting Arctic ice, and eventually all go extinct. Humans build boats, and if needed, install A/C. I Asimov once said" Any sufficiently advanced society stops evolving", and while true to some extent, there are other factors/forcings at play in evolution. For example blond, blue eyed, fit, attractive people may find it easier to find a mate/reproduce in some societies, and while you could dye your hair, join a gym and get facial surgery, this isn't an environmental forcing, but a cultural one. x posted with CharonY and Sethoflagos

In his life ? I really didn't care because I don't run in his circles, and don't frequent casinos so I don't care how many he bankrupts. What about all the stupidity he's committed in the last year and a half since he took over the Presidency ? What about all the stupidity of launching a war, almost 4 months ago, and then begging his enemies to sign an MoU that allows them to keep doing everything they were previously doing, and American taxpayers will contribute 300 Billion for reconstruction. Its amazing that there are still so many Americans who continue to support the The Fu*king Goof. But what, exactly, did these Americans feel slighted about, and whose bitterness D Trump used to his advantage to get re-elected ? It's not like Weimar Germany in 1922, where a wheelbarrow full of Deutschemarks are needed to buy a loaf of bread. Sure, there's no universal Health Care, and a serious gun problem, but inflation under J Biden was coming down faster than any other country, and unemployment was low enough not to matter much. It was among the best countries in the world, and now they are hated by everyone in the world. In less than 2 years he has destroyed the international goodwill America took 100 years to build, and has actually ruined, not improved or gained nationally.

The biggest issue with these multi-century colonization schemes is that they cost a lot, and there is zero return to the people who finance it, but have to remain behind. It is small consolation to us on Earth, that, after having spent Trillions and Trillions of dollars, we may have a colony of humans on a distant planet, if they managed to survive, who we will never see, and we may not be able to communicate with within a human lifespan. So what is the cost to benefit ratio ?

Later outbreaks of the plague seem to have followed the then new system of road building. Isolated communities often kept to themselves, and the only interaction was through newly constructed roads. Those pesky Pestis take every opportunity to spread.