Tim Tyler  wrote in message
news:...
> Name And Address Supplied
 wrote or quoted:
> > Tim Tyler  wrote in message
news:...
> 
> [number of kids metric?]
> 
> > > If one is trying to refer to fitness as something 
> > > maximised by evolution - or simply increasing - then
> > > this sort of thing won't do.  
> > 
> > The appropriate maximand is something which might be called 'relative
> > fitness'.  This obviously doesn't increase over time, since the
> > expectation of relative fitness at all times is 1.
> 
> That sort of relative fitness has some problems of its own.  Who else
> do you include in the population?  Only other members of the species?
> 

If we are interested in a certain population's allele frequency
changes, then we measure with respect to that population.

> If so, that neglects competiton between species - and
> focusses on competiton between individuals - perhaps a
> rather distorted way to focus on nature.
> 

See above.

Any other problems with relative fitness?
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