Even if you can only measure it after the fact, that doesn't mean it cannot be "predicted or tested."
You can't KNOW, or ACCURATELY predict ANYTHING that has never been tested before, but you can make predictions, do tests, and study the results. This would apply to determining whether a new trait is beneficial for a population of organisms as much as it would to anything else in science.
You can't KNOW, or ACCURATELY predict ANYTHING that has never been tested before, but you can make predictions, do tests, and study the results. This would apply to determining whether a new trait is beneficial for a population of organisms as much as it would to anything else in science.
Let's say that a new trait has been found, or made in a lab and you want to determin whether it is beneficial for a population (that is what you propose).
Oke, well, let's test it.
How shall we proceed? Well, there are various ways, we could introduce this new trait to either a lab environment with other individuals who do not have this trait and see who survives, or we can "let it loose" (either a single organism, or a small population of organisms we let reproduce in the lab).
Next, what can we measure. Well, we can measure if that trait is still present in the test population after X number of generations, let math do it's work to determine how much generations we need and how many individuals we need to test in order to determine the frequency with a reasonable amount of certainty.
There are several scenario's possible, but lets just pick 3 possible outcomes.
A) the trait has disappeared
B) the trait does still occur, but at a low frequency, about the same frequency it was there at the start
C) the trait occurs in (almost) all individuals
In case A we conclude: the trait was not beneficial, when B we conclude that it was (near) neutral and when C we conclude that it was beneficial.
Fine, but that only works IF natural selection is true in the tautological form. So we have not tested or proven (or disproven) natural selection.
Natural selection
06/08/2011 03:51:26 PM
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selection for suitability
06/08/2011 04:18:51 PM
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Thanks for your responce
06/08/2011 04:41:20 PM
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I can't speak for LadyLorraine and won't try, but here's how I see it:
06/08/2011 06:49:49 PM
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Just a question
06/08/2011 07:18:09 PM
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Yes it can
06/08/2011 07:41:59 PM
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But how?
06/08/2011 07:52:10 PM
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Re: Just a question
06/08/2011 07:49:21 PM
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I'm not sure I understand you
06/08/2011 08:20:44 PM
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All tautologies are truisms, but not all truisms are tautologies.
06/08/2011 09:38:12 PM
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Then it is still a tautology
06/08/2011 09:45:33 PM
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You can know it's beneifical to a particular individual, but it's harder to say for populations.
06/08/2011 10:18:16 PM
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Maybe...
07/08/2011 01:55:54 PM
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I'm more inclined toward his logic, but possibly toward your conclusions.
09/08/2011 12:45:46 AM
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we can't really know ahead of time what makes a specific trait benefical in that environment
09/08/2011 06:16:02 PM
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As I understand it
06/08/2011 06:04:44 PM
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Better...
06/08/2011 06:36:38 PM
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Did you perhaps mean "beneficial in the environment" rather than "beneficial to the environment"?
06/08/2011 06:34:44 PM
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yes. I did not really phrase that very clearly. *NM*
09/08/2011 06:14:11 PM
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No biggy; from what Bram said, I underestimated how well you were understood anyway.
09/08/2011 06:45:16 PM
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Hmmm... there's some truth to that
06/08/2011 06:36:35 PM
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The complexity of the problem makes it all but impossible to falsify...
06/08/2011 08:26:06 PM
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The questions go deeper
06/08/2011 08:38:31 PM
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Re: The questions go deeper
06/08/2011 09:10:32 PM
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I think I know why you don't understand my question.
06/08/2011 09:38:41 PM
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How many equation's has Moraine screwed up? *NM*
06/08/2011 09:45:36 PM
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100% I think Moriaine is a very beneficial trait that contributes a lot to the RAFO pool *NM*
06/08/2011 09:46:54 PM
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Re: Natural selection
07/08/2011 03:00:30 AM
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Thanks a lot
07/08/2011 01:38:39 PM
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2 things
07/08/2011 04:00:35 PM
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Re: 2 things
07/08/2011 04:33:00 PM
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Re: 2 things
07/08/2011 05:48:26 PM
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My best guess
07/08/2011 06:00:28 PM
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Re: My best guess
07/08/2011 06:37:58 PM
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Re: My best guess
07/08/2011 06:47:26 PM
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