Is Evolution Speeding Up?

[josh w.]

On a recent thread I mentioned the report of a U. of Utah team who claimed that among Jews selection had produced an increase in genes related to high IQ. Specifically they claimed that the rise in IQ was related to the development of disorders such as Tay Sachs.
The team has now expanded their claims regarding regional differences and selection. According to their report to the National Academy of Sciences (as mentioned on MSNBC) selection and evolution of human genes has speeded up over the last 10,000 to 20,000 years. Specifically they claim that as a result, regional genetic differences have increased over that period. I have not seen the report regarding their evidence or how they treat admixtures. I thought that they had overstated their case on the Tay Sachs issue.
Since Ydna and Mtdna mutations are primarily adaptation neutral shouldn't the selection process be mainly reflected in autosome mutations?

[josh w.]

Expanded version in today's NY Times' Science section. The team (Harpendening and Moysis) asserted that increase in selection rate began in last 50,000 years and peaked in last 20,000 years. The cause was increase in number of mutations due to population expansion and increase in adaptation needs due migration from home base of Africa. According to their estimates from autosomal Hap-Map data around 7% of genes show signs of selection processes. In Times' article critics thought that report overstated the case for contention that evolution is speeding up.

[Pleroma]

Just a few of points on this topic:

-The Mormons, (like the American Evangelicals) have a vested interest in Jewish people. The Jews play a major role in their theology, their "prophesies" and even in their identity. I would not take great stock in "scientific analysis" that had a theological goal.

-Evolution is not the same as progress. You can be the most well-adapted swamp-thing in the swamp but it doesn't make you progressive in more significant ways. It just means you can live long and reproduce often in a swamp.

-What makes a man a man and not merely a large bag of eventual worm food, is not in his DNA. It takes a hell of a lot more than that.

-It is certainly easier to weave myths around DNA to make us feel like special boys and girls then to have the courage to face the challenge of real improvement.

[derinos]

Unintelligent design?

Just a few of points on this topic:

-The Mormons, (like the American Evangelicals) have a vested interest in Jewish people. The Jews play a major role in their theology, their "prophesies" and even in their identity. I would not take great stock in "scientific analysis" that had a theological goal.

-Evolution is not the same as progress. You can be the most well-adapted swamp-thing in the swamp but it doesn't make you progressive in more significant ways. It just means you can live long and reproduce often in a swamp.

-What makes a man a man and not merely a large bag of eventual worm food, is not in his DNA. It takes a hell of a lot more than that.

-It is certainly easier to weave myths around DNA to make us feel like special boys and girls then to have the courage to face the challenge of real improvement.

Response:
The study of DNA reveals a self-educating program resembling an "artificial intelligence engine". The physical and social environment is part of this engine, in that it contains modifiers, which themselves can be modified by the large-scale and longterm actions of an interacting species.
In the last 10,000 years, an unprecedented climate improvement has potentiated the ability of the species HS (Homo Sapiens) to modify its close environment by technology. These modifications have changed the environmental factors responsible for earlier evolution, introducing new mutators.
It is no surprise that these alter the direction which HS evolution takes, a trend now amplified by human social evolution, a more volatile influence than the previous "natural" environment. Instead of by our genes, our behavior and our physical environment are increasingly guided by our memes.
Memes are subject to rapid social and political mutation, (sometimes disturbingly best explained by chaos theory), which may support or oppose survival of individuals.


Individual survival styles which were fittest in 10,000 BC may be subject to extinction in todays world. This may become true on large scales.