kalium comments on Open Thread for January 8 - 16 2014 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: tut 08 January 2014 12:14PM

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Comment author: kalium 12 January 2014 10:49:03PM 1 point [-]

Have you read The Mote In God's Eye?

Comment author: Alsadius 14 January 2014 11:48:24PM 0 points [-]

I have not. Summary of the point you're making, please?

Comment author: kalium 15 January 2014 02:01:17AM 1 point [-]

That, in the long run, due to natural selection, population will increase to match increased food production. Improvements in farming technology only buy a temporary abundance.

Comment author: Alsadius 15 January 2014 05:10:27AM 1 point [-]

Our food supplies have been getting more secure for centuries, and we've seen no meaningful selection pressure towards larger families as a result - quite the opposite, in fact. And this isn't a millions-of-years sort of selection, this is the sort that ought to be apparent in a few generations. I don't think that number of children is really a heritable trait - it's a cultural and economic effect, and even if you start speaking of cultural evolution, the economics of having lots of kids are so bad today that there's no selection pressure in that direction.

In principle you're probably right, but by the time we need to worry about Malthus again, the name "Malthus" may well be forgotten.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 15 January 2014 04:04:17PM 1 point [-]

And this isn't a millions-of-years sort of selection, this is the sort that ought to be apparent in a few generations.

How do you know which sort it is?

I don't think that number of children is really a heritable trait - it's a cultural and economic effect,

Heritability depends on the environment. It is quite plausible that it is much more heritable in the modern environment than the pre-modern one.

the economics of having lots of kids are so bad today

I don't want to discuss this, just to suggest that you might be very confused.