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Dog breeds are not real animals, they're some sort of half-artificial thing created by imperfectly writing some people's desire into another species's genetic c
by shpx 11mo ago
Dog breeds are not real animals, they're some sort of half-artificial thing created by imperfectly writing some people's desire into another species's genetic code.
If you make an artificial thing that really wants to do some specific thing, like a computer endlessly printing "hello world" millions of times a second, it's not surprising to see it do the thing it was created to do. I wouldn't say the computer "wants" to print hello world, so I don't see the dog as doing what it truly wants to do if it's a genetic predisposition human breeders forced into it. I see the expression of a society of dog breeders and people's idea of a game called "fetch" which was relatively easy to transition a species towards step-by-step using artificial selection.
- teekert 11mo agoDogs were domesticated by sort of not letting them grow up. We selected for the ones that retained puppy features into adulthood. They don't loose big eyes, hanging ears, retained playful/less aggressive behavior that is better for living with siblings. Perhaps the obsession with fetching came with that?
- actionfromafar 11mo agoAlso, Humans were domesticated by sort of not letting them grow up. Maybe that’s the reason we get along so well.
- hshdhdhehd 11mo agoAdulting is a word for this reason!
- skylurk 11mo agohttps://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2651 https://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2651
- teekert 11mo agoYeah, it's a well know theory, Rutger Bregman in "Humankind: A Hopeful History" goes into it. We cultivated ourselves. Stopping ourselves from becoming full blown individualistic apes. (Incoming jokes on how it didn't work for some on the opposite political spectrum...)
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- s1artibartfast 11mo agoRegardless of their provenance, they are in fact real animals. They just aren't wild animals. Artificial does not preclude real. You can make the same judgement about just about anything selected for anything- Such as strange hairless apes artificially selected planning and building and strategy.