Unnatural Selection

The following is a mixture of science, fiction, voodoo and an over-active imagination.

Natural Selection is the term Darwin proposed to describe the idea that favorable inherited (genetic) traits would become more common after several generations, because the unfavorable traits would make it less likely to survive. Keep in mind that the definition of favorable varies based on your location, and its “stress factors”. Basicaly anything that can affect survival (too much sun, not enough water, etc…)

Can the principals of natural selection be applied to modern day humans ? Research published in the past few years has not only found evidence of very recent natural selection in the human genome, but several studies even suggested geographic origin (African, Asian, or European) can be linked to both the rate of selection, and the type of genes that are undergoing changes.

However, such research is restricted to biological traits. Humans are too socially complex to be judged based only on their genetic makeup. What about other inherited social, cultural, and geographic traits that greatly influence our survival, quality of life, and even our frequency of reproduction ?

I tried to think of a few such factors and how they interact.

Education: People with a higher education tend to reproduce less often, and are more likely to use contraceptives.
Healthcare: Better healthcare means longer life. Free universal healthcare neutralizes this as a factor.
Wealth: Poor people are less educated, and have more children. Wealthier individuals have access to better healthcare, but eat more fatty foods, and do less manual labor (excercise).
Religion: Most religions ban abortion, but they also ban extra-marital sex. Overall, religious people tend to have more children than secular people. Also wealthier individuals (and nations) tend to be less religious.

Social Status is the equivalent of geographic isolation when it comes to natural selection in humans. Each status comes with its own matching “stress factors”. For example, one person may be worried about whether they can find food for their family today, while another may be worried about finding the right suit for a job interview. Since people only mate with those of similar status, we can think of them as different social species.

It boils down to reproduction creating people, and only disease/aging killing them. Weighing the above factors based on their tendency to make us reproduce more, and get sick less often, one would predict ending up with a large population of poor, uneducated, religious people. Let’s call them the Gorillas. The Gorillas are ruled by a second smaller, wealthier, more secular, and better-educated group. Let’s call them the Chimps. The 3rd groups is caught in the middle, too well off to be Gorillas, but still not good enough to be chimps.

The Gorillas outnumber everyone, so what is to prevent them from using their demographic bomb to take over ? Well, there are so many Gorillas, but they don’t agree on much. These divisions make them easier to control by the Gimps with the right form of news and entertainment. The Gimps do this because the chimps convinced them the Gorillas are out to get them too, and because the ambitious gimps secretly want to be be chimps too. Besides, nowadays numeric advantage is irrelevant when faced with technological superiority. Of course if all else fails, the chimps can send their Gorillas to fight someone else’s Gorillas.

So, are you a Chimp, a Gimp, or a Gorilla ?

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