In article <32d7c835.0 at news.iea.net>,
Steve McGrew <stevem at comtch.iea.com> wrote:
>Guru: [angry silence]
>>Earnest Student: I'm sure you would agree that selection operates at many
>places in the life cycle of an organism: competition between sperms, ability
>to form a viable zygote, ability to repair mutations, ability to make a few
>errors in replication, ability to got through all the stages of embryo growth,
>ability to survive right after birth, ability to live to reproductive age,
>ability to attract one or more mates, ability to attract high fitness mates,
>ability to produce offspring with a mate, ability to recognize others of the
>same species, AND, the simple good luck not to be one of those individuals
>that has to be eliminated in each generation to keep the population small
>enough to fit into its available niche. Aren't all of these are accompanied
>by processes that fall within the broad definition of selection ?
>>Guru: [breaks off the conversation in disgust]
>> The Earnest Student wonders if the whole conversation was just a bad
>dream. Why did the conversation go sour?
Because your Guru is a jerk? I think the conversation would have gone
differently with a less dogmatic Guru.
Rich Kliman
