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DanielLC comments on [link] Back to the trees - Less Wrong Discussion
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This is creepily similar to the plot of Kurt Vonnegut's novel Galapagos, published in 1985 (Homo floresiensis was discovered in 2003). In the novel, all of humanity dies out due to an epidemic, except for a small band of humans who get stranded on the Galapagos islands (reference to Darwin's voyage). Over the following millennia these humans evolve into aquatic mammals with much smaller brains.
What's the critical population size for the effect to occur? Does it imply that SF "generation ships" are doomed? How about isolated arcologies?
In the case of a generation ship, you can just use selective breeding to keep people intelligent.
Presuming you can maintain a social structure for that many generations. Since you also need to maintain the ship, staying intelligent falls out as a subgoal of staying alive.