Following up on some of the ideas in September 13's "Evolution And Physics: Nobody Expected The Spanish Inquisition".
From PhysOrg, September 15:
Researchers at the University of Maine are theorizing that human beings may be in the midst of a major evolutionary shift—driven not by genes, but by culture.
In a paper published in BioScience, Timothy M. Waring, an associate professor of economics and sustainability, and Zachary T. Wood, a researcher in ecology and environmental sciences, argue that culture is overtaking genetics as the main force shaping human evolution.
"Human evolution seems to be changing gears," said Waring. "When we learn useful skills, institutions or technologies from each other, we are inheriting adaptive cultural practices. On reviewing the evidence, we find that culture solves problems much more rapidly than genetic evolution. This suggests our species is in the middle of a great evolutionary transition."
Cultural practices—from farming methods to legal codes—spread and adapt far faster than genes can, allowing human groups to adapt to new environments and solve novel problems in ways biology alone could never match. According to the research team, this long-term evolutionary transition extends deep into the past, it is accelerating, and may define our species for millennia to come.
Culture now preempts genetic adaptation
"Cultural evolution eats genetic evolution for breakfast," said Wood, "it's not even close."Waring and Wood describe how in the modern environment cultural systems adapt so rapidly they routinely "preempt" genetic adaptation. For example, eyeglasses and surgery correct vision problems that genes once left to natural selection.
Medical technologies like cesarean sections or fertility treatments allow people to survive and reproduce in circumstances that once would have been fatal or sterile. These cultural solutions, researchers argue, reduce the role of genetic adaptation and increase our reliance on cultural systems such as hospitals, schools and governments.
"Ask yourself this: what matters more for your personal life outcomes, the genes you are born with, or the country where you live?" Waring said. "Today, your well-being is determined less and less by your personal biology and more and more by the cultural systems that surround you—your community, your nation, your technologies. And the importance of culture tends to grow over the long term because culture accumulates adaptive solutions more rapidly."....
....MUCH MORE
