Skip to main content

[@ChrisWillx] Spicy Ideas From Evolutionary Biology - Dr Jerry Coyne

· 9 min read
[@ChrisWillx] Summarizer
Video Bot

@ChrisWillx - "Spicy Ideas From Evolutionary Biology - Dr Jerry Coyne"

Link: https://youtu.be/VEQAKeFz6gM

Short Summary​

Number one most important action item/takeaway:

Be civil and speak the truth, even when facing ideological opposition or the pressure to self-censor.

Executive Summary:

The speaker emphasizes the importance of adhering to scientific truths, even when they conflict with popular ideologies. They discuss the ideological erosion of science and the need to be civil but honest, despite potential backlash, and advocates for sticking to facts in the face of reverse naturalistic fallacy.

Key Quotes​

Here are five direct quotes from the YouTube transcript that represent valuable insights, data points, or strong opinions:

  1. "It's a touchstone of ignorance to deny that evolution is a scientific fact. And again, as fact, in science, we don't have anything as a fact that's beyond acceptance. You know, we have things that are sort of somewhat acceptable. Um, and then we have things that are so widely accepted that you would bet your fortune on them. Like the formula of water is H2O."

  2. "Only about 23% of Americans accept the fully naturalistic view of evolution, the one that I teach that it's purely a materialistic process without any supervision or supernatural intervention and about 40% of Americans buy the biblical view. Humans were created in seven days and haven't changed since then and all in fact all creatures have. And so basically about 71% of Americans reject naturalistic evolution."

  3. "And yeah, you're absolutely right that it's opposed by the left because it puts limits on the malleability of behavior both of humans and of animals. And that's explicitly anti-marxist and it's anti- leftist. But that really is the reason it's one reason why ideology is beginning to erode away certain areas of science. Evolutionary psychology is one of those areas."

  4. "That [race] comes straight out of I think the uh the an American medical journal but it could have been the Lancet which is also way welcome that um that race is a a human construct without any scientific basis whatsoever...if you have somebody's genome, you can basically I mean this is why 23 and me works so well and tells you what your ancestry is. People wouldn't do it if it wasn't at least some degree accurate. And that shows you right off the bat that there are genetic differences between human groups."

  5. "The reverse naturalistic fallacy...is the ideal of ideologues that nature is how you want it to be. So for example, if you feel like you're a transsexual or if you feel like you waver between the the sexes...then it must be true that there are not two sexes...nature has to conform to your political sensibilities."

Detailed Summary​

Okay, here is a detailed summary of the YouTube video transcript in bullet points, focusing on the key topics and arguments:

Central Thread of Work: Speciation

  • The speaker, a retired scientist, focused on speciation, the origin of species, during his lab work.
  • Darwin's book, "On the Origin of Species," didn't fully solve the problem of speciation.
  • Nature is "lumpy," not a continuous spectrum. Species are discrete entities. The question is why?
  • Speciation is the origin of these species, making nature discreet rather than continuous.
  • Darwin didn't know what species are. The lumps are kept separate by reproductive isolating barriers, such as hybrid sterility, mate preferences, temporal isolation, etc.
  • The question then becomes how these barriers originate in a continuous evolutionary process.

Advocating for Evolutionary Views & Combating Anti-Evolutionary Positions

  • Spent time arguing against creationists and creationism.
  • This led to writing the book "Why Evolution is True."
  • Evolution textbooks often lacked a focus on the evidence for evolution.
  • Acknowledges that both the right and the left can use evolutionary arguments to attack opposing viewpoints.
  • However, in America (and possibly the UK), more people on the left accept evolution as a scientific fact than on the right.
  • Denial of evolution is considered a "touchstone of ignorance."
  • Distinguishes between "fact" in science as something provisional and open to revision, and things that are so widely accepted you would bet your fortune on it.
  • American public acceptance of a fully naturalistic view of evolution is only about 23%, with a large percentage holding to theistic evolution or creationism.

Evolutionary Psychology

  • Initially skeptical of evolutionary psychology (EP) due to "just so stories".
  • Notes that EP is becoming more scientifically mature, with testable hypotheses and predictions.
  • It still has issues, particularly in testing explanations for human behavior, like step-parent effects.
  • Suggests testing the pet theory that married couples treat their step-pets worse.
  • EP is becoming increasingly unpopular on the left, seen as limiting the malleability of behavior.
  • Acknowledge that EP is coming under heat and perceived as unpopular left of centre.
  • It pushes up against the blank slate.
  • Ideology is beginning to erode areas of science.
  • There is a paper in press suggesting that evolutionary hypothesis are testable and falsifiable.
  • Leftists oppose it because it puts limits on the malleability of behaviour.

Ideological Erosion of Biology

  • Mentions co-authoring a paper about the ideological erosion of biology, identifying six specific areas of concern.
  • One of the points is that human evolutionary psychology is a worthless field.
  • Another is that men and women are different not because of any evolutionary differences but how they are socialised.
  • They use examples to show how science has been misrepresented due to ideology.
  • This includes claims about more than two sexes existing, race being purely a social construct, and indigenous science being equal to modern science.

Infection of Science

  • Ideology is infecting not only biology but also physics and mathematics (progressive math).
  • Progressive math using examples that instatiate say equity.
  • Postmodernism influence, with each person having their own truth (2+2=5).
  • Degendering / de-masculinizing of terms and terms cannot be used (black holes, manhole).
  • This is why he thinks Democrats lost the last Presidential election.
  • It is because of the "wokeness" such as the insisting that there are not two sexes or no differences between males and females, except for what is caused by socialisation.

Hot Potatoes

  • Sex is a spectrum and not binary.
  • Race is a human construct without any scientific basis whatsoever.
  • Males and females are not biologically different from one another.
  • Indigenous science is just as good as modern science.
  • People don't differ from one another in any meaningful genetic ways.

Heritability

  • That almost every human behaviour has a non-zero genetic component, with the interesting ones about 50%.

Ethnic Differences

  • Acknowledges biological differences between human groups.
  • Using the word race is what gets you into trouble, because it implies a you are a racist and b the old view of race which was promagated by racist biologists.
  • There are genetic differences within what we call a race.
  • Self-identified race in Americans correlates strongly (99.9%) with genetic clusters.
  • Genetic differences arose due to isolation and different evolutionary paths.

Speciation time

  • Chimpanzees and humans are 7-8 million years separate and are a different species.
  • In fruit flies the speciation time is 1-2 million years.
  • There is a molecular clock that measures the absolute time instead of generation time.
  • Homo sapiens mated with Neanderthals and were fertile.
  • There is the story of homopesia who were tiny.
  • Large species on a resource-poor island tend to get smaller.
  • Skin pigmentation is darker in sunnier areas.
  • Tibetans hang on to more oxygen in their hemoglobin.
  • People in cold climates tend to be short and stocky.
  • There are some cases where it is hard to test.
  • The rosacea explanation for why English and Scottish people have red skin is dubious because it would lead to the prediction that Inuits also have rosacea.

Science Communication & Self-Censorship

  • Science communicators have become too afraid of backlash.
  • Self-censorship is prevalent in media.
  • Examples like not identifying ethnicity in crime reports.
  • The word white is in small letters while black is in capital letters in newspapers.
  • There is a gender bias. If a female is in active mode and does good then it's a celebration. If a female is in active mode a male is in active mode and does harm, then it's perpetration.

Losing Job

  • There is a guy that was asked to go home for wearing a shirt that said "There are only two sexes."
  • Freedom from Religion Foundation offended with his rebuttal on the state of biological sex.
  • Tiptoeing around subjects so you don't get blown up.
  • It speaks to the cultural temperature in a manner that allows people to get on board.
  • He doesn't want to buy into satisfying the other side before he can speak the truth.
  • Buying into the mentality that you qualify the truth if it's said by the wrong people.
  • Reverse nationalistic fallacy is the ideal of ideologues that nature is how you want it to be.

What you believe

  • There is a theory that you believe and stand behind but is publicly inflammatory is that "there are two sexes and no more."
  • This explains sexual selection and why males and females behave differently.

Dysgenic theory of gene erosion

  • John Tubi's dysgenic theory of gene erosion.
  • Accumulate mutational load across generations.
  • Heavy selection pressures make survival and reproduction difficult.
  • In the modern world a lot of selection pressures have been removed because of technology.
  • Modernity allows this to occur across everything.
  • There is also a crumbling genome, as it is referred to.
  • The conditions like heart disease that is general decrepitude caused by a lot of genes.
  • You are able to correct these because of tech and wheelchairs.
  • You're getting perilously close to eugenics.
  • A lot of mutations have no clear penalty because it can be offset by technology.
  • Mutations that arise after the post-reproductive age carry no penalty.

Website