From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Tue Jul 11 2000 - 13:02:13 MDT
Peter McCluskey wrote:
> >It seems very unfair to die young from a random unexpected accident. It
> seems unfair to suffer greatly from having one or two specific bad genes.
>
> It seems to me that if fairness were really measuring fitness, one or two
>really bad genes would be seen as fairly signalling an inferior potential
>mate.
> Isn't it more believable to hypothesize that genetic diseases that
>significantly reduce the fitness of those who live to adulthood have,
>for most of our evolutionary history, been a small and indistinguishable
>fraction of diseases, so that our genes' notion of fairness has no selective
>pressure to treat genetic diseases differently from other diseases that seem
>accidentally acquired?
Yes, I guess this seems a reasonable point. Thanks.
That section is changed and you are acknowledged.
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Asst. Prof. Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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