neq1 comments on Review: Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids - Less Wrong

17 Post author: jsalvatier 29 May 2012 06:00PM

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Comment author: neq1 31 May 2012 03:47:48AM 2 points [-]

The answer to the question "what proportion of phenotypic variability is due to genetic variability?" always has the same answer: "it depends!" What population of environments are you doing this calculation over? A trait can go from close to 0% heritable to close to 100% heritable, depending on the range of environments in the sample. That's a definition problem. Further, what should we count as 'genetic'? Gene expression can depend on the environment of the parents, for example (DNA methylation, etc). That's an environmental inheritance. I just think there is an old way of talking about these things that needs to go away in light of current knowledge.

I agree with you that we still can learn a lot from these studies.

Comment author: jsalvatier 31 May 2012 07:46:52AM *  4 points [-]

The definition of 'heritable' being underspecified (since you have to specify what population of environments you're considering) is not the same as being incoherent.

Comment author: neq1 31 May 2012 01:50:38PM 4 points [-]

I agree. Good point.