Re: On Topic Tuesday: Speaking of eugenics


Nancy Lebovitz wrote:
In article <1145385406.773255.184090@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Gary Thompson <quuxa23@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

James Nicoll wrote:

Given that natural selection is always working on us and
one of the selective forces is sexual selection, I expect we can't
avoid this. It's a little odd that right off the top of my head, I
can't really think of an example of deliberate eugenics [1] in
SF that has had unanticipated results in just this way, although it
seems like a very obvious seed for a story.


It would seem that there are two possible scenarios here:

1) There was an unknown genetic link between the two traits: the gene
for breast size also controls sexual aggression.

2) There were unforseen consequences of selecting for the trait:
while you're busy breeding chickens with larger breasts, you haven't
been bothering to breed for roosters that find chickenswith large
breasts sexually attractive, and end up with roosters who don't _want_
to perform.

I find #2 more interesting story-wise.

I think it's something else, at least from James' summary. Roosters are
sexually aggressive unless hens give the right responses. Breeding for
large breasts accidentally eliminated those responses from the hens.

Oh. Sorry. I meant to make myself clearer. I wasn't actually making
an hypothesis as to why James' chickens weren't performing--just
keeping the chicken theme for my own examples. I should have used
something else. Grouse maybe.

But I think you're right, and that would fall under #1.

.

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