6 ms·
The selective pressure of a .338 Winchester Magnum, is not to be underestimated. Funny thing is something similar occurs in lab mice. Where a technician is sel
by TechnicalVault 9mo ago
The selective pressure of a .338 Winchester Magnum, is not to be underestimated.
Funny thing is something similar occurs in lab mice. Where a technician is selecting a mouse for cull the more aggressive mice are more likely to be the ones selected. Problem mice who kill their littermates can ruin experiments.
- attila-lendvai 9mo agosame with russian fox fur breeders. i don't remember the numbers, but after a surprisingly small number of generations the foxes turned into cat-like pets.
- pfdietz 9mo agoYes, that's a quite famous experiment, and still ongoing. Similar effects of "domestication syndrome" have recently been reported in wild urban foxes and raccoons.
- tokai 9mo agoRemember reading something about humans themselves show the signs of domestication syndrome.
- nkrisc 9mo agoNot in the literal sense (which would semantically impossible), but we have domesticated ourselves with the advent of farming and the domestication of crop plants. We fundamentally changed our own lifestyle into an agricultural one, the same we changed lifestyle of several large mammal species to co-exist with us in that agricultural lifestyle. So perhaps in some sense, maybe we actually did literally domesticated ourselves.
- antihipocrat 9mo agoWheat, barley and similar plant life have done pretty well for themselves, perhaps they domesticated us?
- lisper 9mo agoA chicken is an egg’s way of making more eggs.
- mjanx123 9mo agoThe markers of domestication in modern humans long predate the farming. 'Human' was the first animal available for domestication. There is a distinction between the domestication as set of changes in the organism and the 'applied' domestication in farming. In the applied sense, the humans on the top of the hierarchy do actually farm the humans below them.
- verisimi 9mo ago> Not in the literal sense (which would semantically impossible) Why is it impossible the humans are not domesticated? Are you making a point about language? I think this is certainly true. People in cities, where there are high amounts of people around act differently when they are in a small village or in nature with fewer or no people around.
- BurningFrog 9mo agoExecuting murderers will change the population over a few centuries.
- startupsfail 9mo agoYes, executioners do proliferate this way. They tend to run out of murderers quickly though, then use any other excuses to execute.
- Earw0rm 9mo agoOnly if they haven't yet reproduced.
- pfdietz 9mo agoI doubt it. The fraction of population that is murderers is quite small.
- BurningFrog 9mo agoIf so, you don't have to execute a lot of them to affect the murder rates!
- pfdietz 9mo agoThe question wasn't changing the murder rate now, but changing "the population over a few centuries". If it doesn't change the population genetics significantly it won't do that.
- BurningFrog 9mo agoIf 1% of men are potential murderers, and we execute 10% of them in each generation, it will have huge a impact on the murder rate over a few centuries, even though not a lot of people got executed, and the overall genetics of the population hasn't changed much.
- 9mo ago
- dyauspitr 9mo agoTails curled, ears drooped and they became mostly white.
- jojobas 9mo agoIt wasn't for fur, they ran a long-term selective breeding experiment just to see if they can pull it off.
- rendaw 9mo agoDo lab mice breed after selection for experiments?
- 0_____0 9mo agoWhat portion of lab mice are from genetically stable inbred lines? I assumed most of them were from those lines due to their predictable characteristics. C57BL/6 being predictably kind of bitey for example
- asdff 9mo agoWhat is interesting is it is happening with urban racoons too. I'm not sure what the selective pressure might be for smaller snouts. I don't think racoons are being killed like a dangerous bear might. I'd assume if any are being actively fed for looking cute it is very few of them, and those doing the feeding wouldn't be selective about it. My best guess is that the short snout trait is in linkage with something else that is actually what is being selected upon. At least for racoons. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/raccoons-are-showing-early-signs-of-domestication/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/raccoons-are-show...
- raverbashing 9mo agoOne evolutionary pressure that exists in city raccoons is being run over by cars. Others might be access to food, which cute (and less aggressive) raccoons might have an easier time with
- setopt 9mo agoMy guess would be a linkage with something else as you say. Look for example at the Russian domestication of silver foxes which was done very deliberately, and bred for less aggressiveness, yet it caused physical changes in appearance like dog-like ears and tails: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox
- andai 9mo agoI heard the same process has been running on humans for the last few millennia. Apparently 2% of the population was executed every year, wherein presumably the most aggressive and independently-minded individuals are overrepresented. Something something autodomestication...
- lotsofpulp 9mo agoWouldn’t the ones doing the executing be the most aggressive?
- Ray20 9mo agoNo, they are not. I think, on average, those who execute are much less aggressive than those who are executed.
- lotsofpulp 9mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_mortality_rate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_mortality... Even in warring countries, or countries without much rule of law, death rates (from all causes) is ~1.1%. Let's say good data is not available, and the real figure is double or triple that number. An annual death rate of 2% just from executions would be in a society with a super aggressive dictator (or faction, I guess). For more context, annual WW2 death rates over 5 or 6 years were not as high as 2% per year. Only Poland seems to have been higher. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_casualties
- lm28469 9mo agoIt's just a job, and the decision is backed by justice. The guy who kills a family for fun is more aggressive than the guy who execute him. I'm not even sure how you could get to any other conclusion
- lotsofpulp 9mo agoIn that scenario, the guy who kills a family is also an executioner. But in the context of a world where 2% of the population is executed every year, presumably that is one without much of a justice system, and more of a dictatorship (where the dictator and their underlings are pretty aggressive). Edit: I think "most aggressive and independently-minded individuals" needs to be defined further, because, obviously, a human without a tribe isn't going to survive long, but also no tribe wants an unpredictable wildcard. So one can be aggressive, with long term strategic thinking, but also not impulsive so as to become persona non grata. An aggressive, long term thinking individual (or group) can cull other "aggressive and independently-minded individuals" so they don't develop into threats.