Syncopating competing "evolutions", can't happen without "design"

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

Cicadas can mate in two different mating periods, because there is a variation of a common design.

If cicadas tried to mutate their mating period, they would die - there would be no one to mate with them.

Your idea that "some would mutate the right period, and others would not" defeats the whole purpose of mating in numbers.

If mating in numbers, is by design, then you can build on what you think is the right period for you (given feedback about what your options are).

Mutating isn't like what you think it is from sci-fi films.

 

[Shemjaza]

That's right, syncopation only happens within the species.

Design is a foregone conclusion, because it helps mates focus on their love.

It's like starting a fire, you don't wait to see the flame, you start making sparks.

Why is design is a foregone conclusion?

If a trait helps a species reproduce then it would be an advantage selected by natural selection.

Cicadas can mate in two different mating periods, because there is a variation of a common design.

If cicadas tried to mutate their mating period, they would die - there would be no one to mate with them.

Your idea that "some would mutate the right period, and others would not" defeats the whole purpose of mating in numbers.

If mating in numbers, is by design, then you can build on what you think is the right period for you (given feedback about what your options are).

Mutation is not a decision.

Also you are wrong about cicadas, while they do spend a set prime number of years underground, the whole species aren't in sync. If a sub set popped up after 16 years there would be all the cicadas who were a year older than the mutants to interact with.

The 11/17 year thing is probably an advantage so on the long term I imagine the 16 year mutants wouldn't thrive and would probably die off.

 

[FrumiousBandersnatch]

The 11/17 year thing is probably an advantage so on the long term I imagine the 16 year mutants wouldn't thrive and would probably die off.

I heard that it makes it extremely difficult for a predator species to predict or synchronise with their lifecycle. Presumably, prime number cycles are much harder for biology to match as they can't be multiples of any existing cycles.

 

[Shemjaza]

I heard that it makes it extremely difficult for a predator species to predict or synchronise with their lifecycle. Presumably, prime number cycles are much harder for biology to match as they can't be multiples of any existing cycles.

It's an interesting idea, it really drives home that prime numbers are a real phenomenon in the concept of counting, not just an artefact of arbitrary labels like base 10 Arabic numerals.