> I think that here it's QUANTITY not QUALITY that's important.
> I think it's just a case of actually passing on the genes in the first
> place, and it's obvious that all those children from these future
> generations aren't going to possess all of our genes, but that's the
> whole point : you don't want completely similar individuals appearing
> down the line, but only a small reminder (i.e. 1/118 of genes?) that
> these new individuals descend from you.
>
> Well, I'm confused now. I actually don't think the quality/quantity
> thing is a very good way of looking at all this.
What selfish genes "want" is to have as many copies of themselves in
the next generation since the quantity is more likely to ensure
survival. Whether the descendents are similar or not is irrelevant. A
person is unconsciously driven to have as many offspring as possible,
since there is then more chance of the genes carrying on to the future
= success.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Tue Feb 13 2001 - 16:23:09 GMT