Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Salgat 522 days ago
That's not entirely true. For example, being gay is hypothesized to give an evolutionary advantage because you can provide care for your sibling's children, who share their dna with you. Same goes for early menopause. That can extend to small villages where individuals may give up their own resources for a greater survival chance of their kin within the collective.
2 comments

Are homosexuality and early menopause genetic conditions?
Everything that makes us human is constrained by the possibilities offered by our genes. Epigenetics, development, and environment are downstream of that. It is our genes that allow for sexual reproduction in the first place and why we’re attracted to other humans and not, say, trees.
Seems quite likely to me.
Pre 1800, the average life expectancy was aged between 20-40 [1]. I think the menopause is something that was experienced by extremely few people until after then.

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy

Average life expectancy is misleading. You want perhaps median life expectancy after the age of 20.