Weblog entry #198 for simonw
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Discovered that one of my co-workers didn't know that the animal kingdom is rife with so called "unnatural acts". What are they teaching in Sex Ed classes these days?
The origin of the phrase "unnatural" in this context presumably stems from the phrase "acts against nature", which may be found in Romans 1:26 amongst other places, although I don't know if this reflects the original text (i.e. before translation).
Much ignorance abounds on the topic of the natural order of things. For a humorous and amazingly broad coverage of the different ways species reproduce (or in some cases do things that don't result in reproduction), I much enjoyed reading "Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to all Creation". This book also touches on the amazing story of fig wasps (which are vital to the reproduction of some varieties of figs) which I'd previously seen covered in Climbing Mount Improbable, by Richard Dawkins.
Read both of these books! Now what should I read next?
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In conclusion "unnatural acts" are fun ..
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Do you have an ecosystem in which intelligence will be rewarded?
For most of the earths history, no significant intelligence developed (some might argue it still hasn't). Some evolutionary biologists have argued that intelligence isn't clearly the best winning strategy based on the limited number of species that seem to have developed it aggressively.
Probably the first evidence of intelligence is remembering where resources (mainly food) can be found. For this I suspect you need seasonal food produce, so it pays to migrate to the same spot at the same time each year. But some creatures do migrations without much in the way of spare brain power, so whilst such a condition might be a useful constraint but it may not be sufficient.
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Not that I'm gay, but it illustrates that gay couples are quite normal in the animal world, and often rear a child.
PJ "No way am I gay"
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Sade
But if you're interested in "sexual acts" maybe http://www.stauffercom.com/evolve4/ could teach you a lesson how difficult sexual evolution is.
I've run 40 million generations without any "intelligent" life form.
;-)
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