The Great Mental Models Volume 2 by Shane Parrish

Author:Shane Parrish [Parrish, Shane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781999449049
Publisher: Latticework Publishing Inc.
Published: 2020-03-04T05:00:00+00:00

Evolution Part Two: Adaptation Rate and the Red Queen Effect

We have to deal with the environment we are in, not the one we wish we were in. Adaptations are successful relative to their performance in a specific environment, relative to the pressure and competition the organisms face. We don’t have to be objectively best, just better than those we are competing against. “In other words, living things do only as well as they have to rather than optimize.”1

Adaptation refers to both the trait that is useful and the process of change it undergoes as it is passed on. It is both a noun and a verb. Adaptations start as genetic variations that occur in the right time and place to be useful—“Adaptability controls the sweet spot between reaction and prediction, providing an inherent ability to respond efficiently to a wide range of potential challenges, not just to those that are known or anticipated.”2

« Adaptation is as good as it has to be; it need not be the best that could be designed. Adaptation depends on context. »

Geerat Vermeij3

The story of the peppered moth in Britain is a textbook example of adaptive change to specific environmental pressures. Normally very light, there were nonetheless variations produced that resulted in dark coloring. However, against the normal backdrop of their environment, they stood out and were quickly eaten. At least at first. However, during the Industrial Revolution, what was once a negative trait became a positive one.

When blankets of sooty pollution were covering everything for miles, the lighter moths now stood out and became an easy target for their predators. The dark variants became far more successful at camouflaging in the dark soot and were therefore better able to survive and produce significantly more offspring.

When gene mutation confers an advantage, the frequency of that mutation in the population increases. Mutations are constantly being tested in the environment. It’s interesting that now, with more efforts at pollution control due to the deleterious effects of smog, the lighter moth is making a comeback.

Populations of organisms adapt in response to changes in both the organic and nonorganic environment. Less sunlight or warmer temperatures influence the process of adaptation, as do changes in the other organisms that occupy the same environment. Predators adapt to changes in prey, and they also adapt to changes in their competitors. When it comes to adapting to environmental change, “remember that nature is limited to the raw materials at hand, and there’s only so much you can do with them.” One consequence is that there might be the same solution for different problems in different species.4

Adaptations can arise in multiple places, basically simultaneously. Consider that “humans had earned a living by hunting and gathering wild foods for 10,000 generations, but in just a few, brief millennia, food production sprung up across the globe. It happened separately in at least a dozen places.”5 Which brings up the full context of the word adaptation. There are genetic mutations that allow for direct adaptation, then there are the mutations that allow for learning and thus adaptation on a much shorter timescale.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.