So you have an adaptation, and the selection pressure stops part way - what happens then?

[Gottservant]

Hi there,

This is probably the simplest thought experiment seen yet: if you have an adaptation for which the selection pressure stops, what happens to the "Evolution"?

It is a basic question of what "Evolution" is - as a law.

It's basically a legacy, right? (Evolution is a legacy of past pressures).

What would change, in order to revert to a more optimal Evolution? Negative Evolution, but why?

Thanks.

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

if you have an adaptation for which the selection pressure stops, what happens to the "Evolution"?

You still have the adaptation, it just becomes neutral in your genetics since the adaptation is no longer directly needed.

What would change, in order to revert to a more optimal Evolution? Negative Evolution, but why?

There is no negative or positive evolution. There is just evolution.

 

[Ophiolite]

You still have the adaptation, it just becomes neutral in your genetics since the adaptation is no longer directly needed.



There is no negative or positive evolution. There is just evolution.

Don't encourage him!

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

Don't encourage him!

I hold out hope that if I say it enough it will finally sink in with him!

 

[Subduction Zone]

The only way for all such pressures to disappear would be for all life to die first. So in answer to the OP nothing would happen since everything would be dead.

 

[Gottservant]

You still have the adaptation, it just becomes neutral in your genetics since the adaptation is no longer directly needed.

The adaptation becomes neutral? In what state? Available? Compromised? Reprojected?

There is no negative or positive evolution. There is just evolution.

But you showed me a link, that was about "negative Evolution" - you don't remember?

 

[Gottservant]

The only way for all such pressures to disappear would be for all life to die first. So in answer to the OP nothing would happen since everything would be dead.

I didn't say "all selection pressures", I just said the relevant one (to the adaptation).

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

The adaptation becomes neutral? In what state? Available? Compromised? Reprojected?

Neutral in the sense that while it's a chance it doesn't really affect the creature wholesale. Like, there is no real reason for mammalian blood to be red, but it is. That's not a survival need. Neutral evolution.

But you showed me a link, that was about "negative Evolution" - you don't remember?

I do, but I am struggling to find it again and I cannot remember which thread of yours it was in, and I can't seem to find it in my own internet history.