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by burning_hamster
924 days ago
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Indeed, it's the classical Weismann's fallacy. From Nick Lane's 'Life Ascending': > The most popular idea, dating back to Weismann in the 1880s, is wrong, as he himself was quick to recognise. Weismann originally proposed that ageing and death rid populations of old worn-out individuals, replacing them with racy new models replete with a new set of genes remixed by sex. The idea invests death with some sort of nobility and symmetry, in service of a greater cause, even if it can hardly aspire to the grandeur of a religious purpose. In this view the death of an individual benefits the species, just as the death of some cells benefits the organism. But the argument is circular, as Weismann’s critics pointed out: old individuals are only ‘worn out’ if they age in the first place, so Weismann presupposed exactly what he was trying to explain. The question remained, what makes individuals ‘wear out’ with age, even if death does benefit populations? |
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