Second, my working knowledge of Red Queen was adaptation relative to a competitive species, not simply environment. You seem to position it in absolute terms which wouldn’t make complete sense.
Third, you mention CRISPR-Cas which of course came from a genetic system which modifies its own genome in bacteria. There are other species which bypass stochastic evolutionary processes and modify their own genome, rare as it may be. Oxytricha create new genomes during reproduction. Under stress bdelloid rotifers self-modify germ lines to accelerate stochastic evolution (why did they get stressed). And, humans have transposition activity that’s not fully understood in germline cells.
One could say that germ line modification simply stems from a genome that’s sufficient to create that system, it’s both natural and a consequence of the level of organzation which has occurred.
Science is littered with the history of humans believing they are not animals or are special agents - and then finding out they aren’t. Heliocentrism, evolution, deep time, consciousness, behavioral genetics, language, tools use, rationality, embodied mind, etc.
However acting on our natural ability may have negative selection consequences. I suspect it’s not probable to know if a given germline change improves fitness universally.
First, nice work.
Second, my working knowledge of Red Queen was adaptation relative to a competitive species, not simply environment. You seem to position it in absolute terms which wouldn’t make complete sense.
Third, you mention CRISPR-Cas which of course came from a genetic system which modifies its own genome in bacteria. There are other species which bypass stochastic evolutionary processes and modify their own genome, rare as it may be. Oxytricha create new genomes during reproduction. Under stress bdelloid rotifers self-modify germ lines to accelerate stochastic evolution (why did they get stressed). And, humans have transposition activity that’s not fully understood in germline cells.
One could say that germ line modification simply stems from a genome that’s sufficient to create that system, it’s both natural and a consequence of the level of organzation which has occurred.
Science is littered with the history of humans believing they are not animals or are special agents - and then finding out they aren’t. Heliocentrism, evolution, deep time, consciousness, behavioral genetics, language, tools use, rationality, embodied mind, etc.
However acting on our natural ability may have negative selection consequences. I suspect it’s not probable to know if a given germline change improves fitness universally.