jamenegay{at}ra.rockwell.com (Jim Menegay) wrote in message
news:...
> Dear Sirs:
> 
> I need some help with what I think is a math problem related to genetics 
> and evolution.  
> Recently, I won a lottery.  Since I believe that my luck is based upon 
> my genetics, I decided to distribute part of my winnings as Xmas gifts 
> to people with whom I share genes. 
> 
> After a bit of study, I determined that each of my two sons shares half 
> of my genes.  Therefore I decided to give each of them $500,000 US.  That 
> is, I intend to give away $1 million to each full copy of my genes that 
> I can identify in the younger generation.
> 



I had a quick glance through the rest of this thread, and I believe
that the two points I am about to make have not already been made. If
they have arisen already, please excuse this redundancy.

1) Why would you want to distribute your winnings to relatives, and
why would you want to distribute your winnings to relatives according
to the number of meioses that separates you? If this is some
application of kin selection theory, then there is nothing to suggest
that you should behave in this manner. Assuming all individuals have
the same reproductive value (at the moment, I don't have information
with regards to reproductive values in your population), and money
translates linearly into fitness, then you should invest all the money
into the most highly related individual available, i.e. yourself.

But then maybe the money doesn't translate directly into fitness. If
there are diminishing returns then it may well pay to split some
fraction of your wealth with a closely related individual other than
yourself. But, until we know what the marginal cost and benefit
functions are, and the reproductive values of the potential
recipients, then probably the best bet is to hold onto all of it
yourself, and lose nothing in postage.

2) Relatedness in Hamilton's rule is not relatedness IBD. That might
go some way to solve any apparent paradoxes you might have
encountered.
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