Thread: Evolving Towards Society

Originally Posted by SnakeCharmer

The larger the population, the stronger the selection effects are. Larger population are, in principle, more evolvable.
In small populations, evolution happens mostly due to genetic drift.

What? Can you explain that more?

How could you agree with my previous statement, if you think larger populations are more evolvable?

Originally Posted by tommo

What? Can you explain that more?

How could you agree with my previous statement, if you think larger populations are more evolvable?

I agreed with the assertion that human biological evolution is limited, but I didn't agree on the reasons behind it. Technology limits the magnitude of natural selection we are subject to. Infectious diseases, as pointed out by PhilosopherStoned, are pretty much the main thing influencing our biological evolution and imposing selective pressure, since everyone has approximately the same chance of leaving offspring.

Larger populations being more evolvable (maybe adaptable through natural selection is a better way of saying it) is a standard idea from population genetics. Admittedly, there is some controversy surrounding it lately.
For humans, there's some research showing an accelerated rate of adaptive evolution in the past 40-50,000 years, correlated with population growth. Note that this is a cumulative effect over 50,000 years, so we can't really say with certainty how technological evolution from the last 100 years is influencing our biological evolution.