"Guy Hoelzer"  wrote in message
news:cfdfd6$2tbg$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> in article cfas1k$22ak$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org, Perplexed in Peoria at
> jimmenegay{at}sbcglobal.net wrote on 8/10/04 9:10 AM:
> >>>>>> [One big organism?]
> > Is it likely to have the capacity to adapt to *novel*
> > changes in the environment by other means?  Chris and I say no,
Tyler says yes
> > - because, he says, the organism as a whole can direct the
natural selection
> > of its parts. You are apparently saying yes for other reasons,
though I don't
> > yet see what those reasons are.
>
> You are reading me correctly here.  In my view the adaptability of organisms
> to novel environments is clear.

Not clear to me.  They adapt to some "novelties" and fail to
adapt to others.
And, it seems to me that the argument could be made that those kinds of novelties
that they do adapt to are not really "novelties" at all, but rather minor
variations on traditional themes.  That is why the response to this novelty
turned out to be "adaptive".

> I assume that you would admit this ability
> for humans, which should be enough to counter the claim by you and Chris.

You have changed the wording here from whether humans do adapt to whether they
have the ability to adapt.  The change is crucial.

The question ought to be whether humans typically do "do the right
thing" in
their developmental response to their current novel environment.  Not whether
they have the ability to "do the right thing".  Furthermore, we
must be careful
that we don't redefine "right thing" in the middle of the argument.

So, the question before us is this:  Humans have been honed by natural selection
to "adapt" (in the course of their own individual development) to a narrow
range of environments, with the word "adapt" being construed as maximizing
reproductive success.  Humans now find themselves in a completely novel environment
completely outside the range of environments that NS has prepared them for.  Do
they still develop in such a way so as to maximize their own individual reproductive
success?

The answer is far from clear to me.
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