Friday, February 22, 2008

sperm wars and survival of the fittest

The book Sperm Wars talks about how not all of men's sperm has reproductive capabilities. 99% of the sperm involved in reproduction are warrior sperm whose only function is to fight off sperm from other males. Also, the crazy thing is, A WOMAN HAS A BETTER CHANCE OF BECOMING PREGNANT WITH THE GUY SHE IS CHEATING WITH THAN HER ACTUAL HUSBAND! This is because a woman is more likely to reach orgasm with a guy who is not her partner and the man who's sperm is associated with an orgasm will have the best chance of fertilizing the egg. 10% of people are fathered by men who are not genetically their fathers, many i'm sure do not even know it. Survival of the fittest governs our lives more than we think. Sure we're not so cruel as other animals with the weak members of our society, but nature knows how to get the job done. No woman wants a weak, low status man and no man wants a woman considered a low status woman. Though in today's society we may be more inclined to help the weak and helpless, our genes really are the instruments that govern the future of our society, not our morals or ideals.

4 comments:

Chris K. said...

Our morals and ideals have an enormous influence on the future of our society. Of course our morals are probably influenced to a large degree by the way we have evolved.

Some scientists argue that our higher cognitive functions (like moral judgments) evolved due to sexual selection (The Mating Mind by Miller comes to mind).

I think it would be interesting to find out what the odds of reproduction are for highly "immoral" individuals...

Brian M said...

I wonder if this fact is the reason behind the causation of the vastly growing number of illegitimate children in poor, urban areas.

Is sex really about love and passion...or just the orgasm?

kdl63 said...

I hope I forget that statistic by the time I start having kids.
As for "our genes really are the instruments that govern the future of our society," I don't really agree with this. I think that although genes will have a large impact on our evolution as a society, morals and ideas evolve along with us and play a vital role in the future of our society.

emma said...

i think it's a mixture of our genes, morals, and ideas that will govern the future of our society. so far, everyone has complete control over their morals and ideas, so why not have complete control over which of our genes get passed on to our children? (not implying that i want this control or anything). and to brian, i think one of the main causes of these illegitimate children is the lack of education when it comes to contraceptive methods. especially in poor, urban areas, where the few classrooms that do exist don't even have textbooks, much less sex education.