The claim that 'genetic variation is not necessary for human evolution', what is evolving humans?
Organisms have continued to evolve by accumulating genetic variation while being danced by natural selection. However,
Long-term gene–culture coevolution and the human evolutionary transition | Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.0538
Culture may be outcompeting genes in human evolution | Live Science
For example, when a virus that kills a certain organism appears, individuals with high resistance to the virus survive and individuals with low resistance die. And the next generation of that species inherits the genes of highly resistant individuals, increasing resistance to the virus throughout the species. Since this process occurs between generations, the evolution of living things takes a very long time.
However, modern humans can quickly increase their resistance to the virus through medical methods such as vaccine development, without relying on genetic factors. From this, the research team claims that 'human beings can evolve by a collection of cultural knowledge without relying on genetic variation.'
In addition, based on the fact that 'human beings loved drinking milk before they acquired resistance to lactose,' the research team said, 'After the culture of drinking milk, human beings acquired resistance to lactose. In other words, cultural evolution can also precede genetic evolution. '
Evidence that humans have loved milk since the time when 'drinking milk makes you hungry' can be found --GIGAZINE
The research team positions culture as a group. People in each group can share the knowledge gained by talking, learning and imitating each other. This speed is faster than 'the speed at which traits acquired between generations are transmitted in genetic evolution', and the more people belong to the group, the faster the speed of cultural evolution. From this, the research team claims that 'human beings have become able to evolve at a speed that is impossible with biological evolution.'
'We may still be genetically evolving, but genetic evolution no longer has a major impact on human survival,' said Paul Smaldino, a neuroscience researcher at the University of California. I don't think so, 'he said, agreeing with the research team's claim.
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