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comment by OftenBen
OftenBen  ·  3610 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Town Without Wifi

Not saying I'm super convinced one way or the other, but I enjoy entertaining this train of thought.

If we take as a given the following things

1. There are currently organisms that can detect parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot.

1.1 There are mammals that can detect parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot.

2. Humans are still having micromutations that cause drastic variation within the species. (Peanut allergies, etc)

3. Organisms evolve sensory organs according to the stimuli of their surroundings, and lose them in similar fashion (Deep-sea adapted fish, losing eyesight and gaining greater electro-perception, in the absence of light, and presence of bio-electric fields)

4. A relatively small number of individuals in a population need to gain an evolutionary advantage over their rivals for the changes in the allele frequency in the species to shift drastically and quickly(Generationally speaking) in the favor of the individuals with the new sense, permanently changing the species, or causing a speciation event.

It's not hard to make a leap and hypothesize that

A. There is an evolutionary advantage to being able to detect wider ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum.

B. Random mutations can create additional senses complex organisms, over time.

C. Because there are so many humans exposed to high levels of certain wavelengths of radiation, some of them may eventually gain some ability to perceive additional wavelengths outside of the 'human norm' (Which is a range, with women seeing more colors than men, on average. )

D. There may eventually be a significant evolutionary advantage to being able to perceive more of the EM spectrum.





b_b  ·  3603 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    2. Humans are still having micromutations that cause drastic variation within the species. (Peanut allergies, etc)

Who says peanut allergies are a mutation?

OftenBen  ·  3603 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's inheritable. A lot of allergies are.

b_b  ·  3603 days ago  ·  link  ·  

The vast majority of the immune system is acquired.

The research is limited, but I've never seen a study that convinced me of the genetic basis of most food allergies.