io9 
Enter your username and password.
San Francisco, 9:43 PM
Thu Dec 17
28 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
Editor-in-Chief:
Annalee Newitz |
News Editor:
Charlie Jane Anders |
Associate Editor:
Meredith Woerner |
Assistant Editor:
Lauren Davis |
Weekend Editor:
Graeme McMillan |
Contributors:
Joshua Glenn
Stephen Goldmeier |
Ed Grabianowski |
Austin Grossman
Paul Hogan |
Lauren Davis |
Chris Hsiang |
Lynn Peril |
Ann VanderMeer
Alasdair Wilkins |
Graphic Designer:
Stephanie Fox |
Interns:
Tim Barribeau |
Julia Carusillo |
Alex Eichler |
Cyriaque Lamar |
Caitlin Petrakovitz |
Mary Ratliff |
Josh Snyder |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
12/08/09
Anyways, for the last few years I've kind of figured that homosexuality IS nature's birth control. Everything is supposed to be in balance for the Earth's ecosystem to survive. We have cures for many kinds of infertility and very few women in the developed world die in childbirth anymore. We've cheekily removed the real danger from nearly every disease and natural disaster that the Earth currently has. We can't reabsorb fetuses in the womb when the den is overcrowded (as rabbits do) and we're well past three times the number of humans that the Earth could safely sustain so I think that homosexuality may be a natural form of population control. I know that it has always been around, but I still think that I'm on to something.
It's hard to convince humans to stop having sex so if they want to have sex in ways that can't possibly cause procreation we can at least put a small dent in the population explosion (population nuclear winter?) Never mind fruitful, go forth and be FABULOUS!
12/09/09
You're seeing patterns where they generally don't exist - most of the more complex "natural feedback" ideas are pretty much indistinguishable from conspiracy theories, intellectual-rigor-wise.
The problem is, that when other animal species overpopulate their environment, you don't suddenly see vast increases in homosexual behavior. Another problem with this idea is that the mechanism for what you propose is difficult to imagine, and even harder to demonstrate.
Generally, the "control mechanism" for overpopulation is mass starvation.
-Kle.
12/09/09
Mass starvation can take out other overpopulated animal species before any larger measure is needed because they don't farm and don't have trade agreements.
I'm not saying that homosexuality is nature's main method of human population control, I'm just saying that nature tries many things at once to keep the planet in check. Homosexuality is not something to be 'cured' so we don't fight it the way that we do genetic heart conditions. Ergo, it has a chance to fill the space in the pop. control department that some minor heart defect used to have.
12/11/09
"but we've generally eliminated that possibility, too. "
Nah, we just aren't actually overpopulated by regular standards yet, outside of some relatively small regions.
Don't get me wrong, I'd like to see less people. However, nature encourages increases in population up to the carrying capacity limit. There's no evidence of a strong species-diversity-encouraging mechanism.
-Kle.
12/08/09
Are we talking physical, mental, social, or emotional fitness? Surely there is more to fitness than simply fecundity.
Also, is it possible that there's a downside to having too healthy or too fit a population? (over-population / over-consumption of resources; over-specialization, etc.)?
I'm not well versed in biology, but it just seems like any concept of fitness is highly dependent on the environmental context an organism finds itself in.
12/08/09
12/08/09
...
An animal capable of LOVE.
#biology
12/08/09
12/09/09
12/09/09
12/09/09
Like in the original post, what qualifies as "fitness"?
12/10/09
The big boys set the standards, and they can't live up to them either.
Just look at the person who commited suicide in the military. He was a healthy person, so they thought. Once again it's subjective and the powers that be who decide, I guess that is what plastic surgery is all about, looking your best and appearing to be healthy, whatever that is.
12/08/09
And that's exactly what the fruitfly male behavior achieves. By harassing the bigger and more fecund females, giving a chance to the lesser fit fenales..."
Combining together the two sentiments here, it seems that human mating preferences are spot on; if genetic diversity is correlated with fitness with respect to disease resistance and such, then favoring phenotypic (and ostensibly genetic) outliers keeps a suite of non-common, potentially beneficial traits in play.
Furthermore, our technologies of social organization seem fundamentally different from those of the fruitfly: the beautiful/talented/remarkable are voted more resources by the economy, and our customs and laws prevent them from wasting their time being raped all day.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
"With a taste of your proboscis
I'm on a ride
You're toxic
I'm slipping under
With a taste of Drosophila paradise
I'm addicted to you
Don't you know that you're toxic"
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
It's interesting science information which io9 provides a delightful supply of. This supply of information also generally makes my days better, so fie on you for complaining about it.
12/08/09
If you think it's dull, don't click on it. I don't give two shakes about Avatar (sh!!!) so I just don't visit those posts.
12/08/09
I so could have gone through my whole life without ever needing to know that bit of information.
12/08/09
I'm sure the study addresses this point (or I've just asked a stupid question - not for the first time) but I've missed it.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
Although friends of mine with 'less-than-perfect-looking' mates (whatever that means) have stellar, beautiful children - so I guess there is a lot to be said here for not having to go after the most attractive female in town. Still, it does conflict with males' brains' tendency to go after the pretty girl. Maybe finding a girl that you think is pretty yet not getting a seeming swarm of attention is the way to go. You know, pairings - everybody goes off with their pairings, in a couple -
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
I am completely obsessed with Lady Gaga right now.
12/08/09
12/08/09
Evolution's going to kill me
I'm a hot female you know what I mean
And I shake my big abs on the flyscape
Yeah on the flyscape on the flyscape yeah
I shake my big abs on the flyscape
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
Not that I would ever associate with such women. No, siree.
12/08/09
Very true, the waist-hip ratio is very important. Always gets me noticing. A good waist-hip ratio is like pheromones ..
for humanity it's always about wanting something different, fitness isn't even on the radar anymore.
So true, could attraction to 'different' be nature's way of mixing up the gene pool? Actually what am I saying, it probably is.
But fitness should be on the radar, and probably is.
12/08/09
We may have abandoned our instinctual criteria for fitness long ago, but that doesn't mean we're suddenly exempt.
12/08/09
12/08/09
This incidentally is why I have no problem with any future widespread genetic manipulation. Even if it is privileged to f.ex wealthy, white Westerners, at least it's throwing some progress out there to disseminate.
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/08/09
12/09/09