this post was submitted on 18 May 2024
152 points (86.5% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26858 readers
1659 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

OK, I hope my question doesn't get misunderstood, I can see how that could happen.
Just a product of overthinking.

Idea is that we can live fairly easily even with some diseases/disorders which could be-life threatening. Many of these are hereditary.
Since modern medicine increases our survival capabilities, the "weaker" individuals can also survive and have offsprings that could potentially inherit these weaknesses, and as this continues it could perhaps leave nearly all people suffering from such conditions further into future.

Does that sound like a realistic scenario? (Assuming we don't destroy ourselves along with the environment first...)

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 6 points 5 months ago (3 children)

There's barely any pressure to extinguish "bad" traits, though.

If you're the idiot who eats every berry you can find, cavemen can't save you and your genes disappear. Modern medicine can and will save you, so you can create offspring and the berryeaters keep their proud heritage alive.

Now, what is considered "good" or "bad" is of course highly debatable, but currently we have effectively no survival pressure, the only selection is how many children you get.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

But that if that "idiot" does propagate, but so does everyone else, no skin off the species back. If the selective pressure returns, well then the others keep going.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 5 months ago (1 children)

OG Luci is right, though. There are far more people due to modern medicine. So if we suddenly lose it, there will be a lot of death. But there is more population and diversity to draw from the survivors. So I don't think it's a threat to the species.

[–] jj4211@lemmy.world 1 points 5 months ago

Exactly, even if 7 billion people died, well there's still a billion people. If 99% of people died, well there are still millions.

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 1 points 5 months ago

Well, that's a type of pressure. Ogg the berry lover could well have passed on his genes.
For a long time we've largely been selecting for intelligence and social abilities.