New Research Suggests Evolution Might Favor 'Survival of the Laziest' (phys.org) 153
Zorro shares a report from Phys.org: If you've got an unemployed, 30-year-old adult child still living in the basement, fear not. A new large-data study of fossil and extant bivalves and gastropods in the Atlantic Ocean suggests laziness might be a fruitful strategy for survival of individuals, species and even communities of species. The results have just been published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B by a research team based at the University of Kansas. Looking at a period of roughly 5 million years from the mid-Pliocene to the present, the researchers analyzed 299 species' metabolic rates -- or, the amount of energy the organisms need to live their daily lives -- and found higher metabolic rates were a reliable predictor of extinction likelihood. "We wondered, 'Could you look at the probability of extinction of a species based on energy uptake by an organism?'" said Luke Strotz, postdoctoral researcher at KU's Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum and lead author of the paper. "We found a difference for mollusk species that have gone extinct over the past 5 million years and ones that are still around today. Those that have gone extinct tend to have higher metabolic rates than those that are still living. Those that have lower energy maintenance requirements seem more likely to survive than those organisms with higher metabolic rates."
Strotz' co-author Bruce Lieberman added: "Maybe in the long term the best evolutionary strategy for animals is to be lassitudinous and sluggish -- the lower the metabolic rate, the more likely the species you belong to will survive. Instead of 'survival of the fittest,' maybe a better metaphor for the history of life is 'survival of the laziest' or at least 'survival of the sluggish.'"
Strotz' co-author Bruce Lieberman added: "Maybe in the long term the best evolutionary strategy for animals is to be lassitudinous and sluggish -- the lower the metabolic rate, the more likely the species you belong to will survive. Instead of 'survival of the fittest,' maybe a better metaphor for the history of life is 'survival of the laziest' or at least 'survival of the sluggish.'"
well.. crocs sure have survived for a long time. (Score:3)
maybe they should just have studied how long those animals can stay alive without feeding.
and are the high metabolism(warm blooded animals) just evolving more quickly to combat it, thus going "extinct" as well at a higher rate, thus doing _everything_ at a higher rate ?
Re: well.. crocs sure have survived for a long tim (Score:1)
Re:well.. crocs sure have survived for a long time (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the jump to reduced energy consumption to laziness is kinda a big step.
Warmblooded and larger brains, take a lot of energy. Energy uses resources, used resources become scarce. scarce resources = starvation.
However being warmblooded we can adapt to different climates which allow us to move away from areas of scarce resources. A larger brain power allows us to better utilize the resources we have.
However I think we as humans seemed to be crossing a point where we are using too much energy to survive, then the world can manage. The Lazy person with little is less of an impact then someone with a lot of resources, who may be using more then they need.
Lets just say your job requires you to travel around the world just for a 2 hour conversation with someone that you could had just as easily done via Skype. You have used resources which could had fed hundreds of people for days, just to give a 5% better chance on getting that deal, for you to raise you salary even further above what is needed to live.
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Any conversation is only "just as easily done via Skype" if all parties are very motivated and disciplined. Sadly, that is rarely the case, thus the need for business travel.
Procreation? (Score:2)
Up to certain point, laziness may be a survival feature, but when too lazy to procreate, this will harm survival.
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I procreate by budding as I'm taking a break, you insensitive clod.
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It's stupid. "Survival of the fittest" does not mean "Survival of the {biggest|strongest|fastest|most beautiful}". It means "Survival of those that are most able to survive and procreate given the resources and risks of their environment".
Scientists have known basically since Darwin that organisms that are more efficient are generally "fitter" because it means that they need to collect less food. Other traits (strength, speed, size) only arise when they give the organism a competitive advantage that out wei
Re: Procreation? (Score:3, Informative)
fit (adj.)
"suited to the circumstances, proper,"
Word "Fit" is experiencing a semantic drift to mean something like "athletic" in common vernacular.
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It's an interesting observation, but it's probably only part of the picture of what helped these mollusks survive - perhaps slower metabolism plays into
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Like bumble bees. They are not exactly the most aerodynamic shaped compared to birds, wasps or hornets. But since they spend all their travelling between the hive and nectar producing flowers they can refuel while collecting nectar.
Compare that to a blobfish that just floats above the ocean bottom and just takes a bite at all the detritus that falls from above.
Really? (Score:3, Funny)
maybe a better metaphor for the history of life is 'survival of the laziest' or at least 'survival of the sluggish
BOW DOWN TO YOUR KING. And bring me another bag of Cheetos and a Coke, would you?
No, literally. I'm looking at a 2-Liter and a bag of Cheetos, Doritos, and Fritos -- all within reach right now. But the ice and chunky picante sauce is all gone, meh. This second though I'm eating some chocolate striped cookies for variation. Want some? Come closer and lick you monitor for a magical taste you just won't forget.
Even better, I just won my first game of PubG!! Playing on an Android phone. All against Bots. (And almost lost at that, but We refuse to acknowledge that.)
I'd played Fortnite before and even placed in the top 20 my first time playing!! That was because I traveled to the far side of the island where half of the people had died before I even touched the ground, and half of THAT died before I finished searching the first building. That gave me a nice inflated score by accident, so now I immediately die if I even start the game. (I'm no good, I admit; but it's matched me with people that can find the ANY key. I'm still figuring out how to build and how to swap guns while they're literally dancing all around me. Plebeians.)
I usually don't play multiplayer games because I don't want people to know how BAD I am. The computer doesn't care if I reload the game 20 times before accidentally winning. NetHack is my usual style, and I've never won at that -- over 20 years. Raiding a previous incantation of you grave IS pretty neat, though. But how come I'm so hard to kill after I'm dead?!!?
"Fittest" means fitting the environment (Score:5, Insightful)
It's not "instead of fittest". Sluggishness might be the best adaptation to an environment, so it could literally be what is meant by "survival of the fittest" in that environment. "Fittest" does not mean the most jacked.
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What they really showed is that bivalves have found a survival strategy that doesn't need much energy. Hard shell to protect you from most predators, so you don't need to worry about running away. Filter feeding, so you don't need to chase prey. There's a nice ecological niche, and they're filling it well. That strategy would work badly for a lion or gazelle. They've found different survival strategies that also work, but only if you have a faster metabolism,
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It's not "instead of fittest". Sluggishness might be the best adaptation to an environment, so it could literally be what is meant by "survival of the fittest" in that environment. "Fittest" does not mean the most jacked.
Darwin never actually said "fittest" either. What he said was "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change". This doesn't seem to contradict that at all. A species that can conserve its energy will be more adaptable when changes occur.
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Go and die of a heart attack while trying to pursue "happiness".
I found happiness, and it's here in this comfy chair.
poor understanding of survival of the fittest (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: poor understanding of survival of the fittest (Score:1)
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There is the old saying that Better is the enemy of Good. It often ignores the corollary: Good Enough is a much more dangerous enemy of Good. This paper points out, that all other things equal, the one who gets by while being lazy has an advant
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But who gets the prey? The "lion share" goes to the lion, as the lion will just sit at the sidelines waiting for the cheetah to succeed. And then it will walk over slowly to the dead prey, push the cheetah aside and feed on the prey the cheetah hunted down. Only the remainings are for the cheetah. Laziness wins once aga
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Amen... Perhaps "survival of the most energy-efficient" might get the point across.
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We have gone from trying to conserve energy because food was hard to come by to being surrounded by too much food and struggling to get enough exercise. So adapting to our environment would be burning 4000 calories a day just sitting around.
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So adapting to our environment would be burning 4000 calories a day just sitting around.
It's called speed. Methamphetamine.
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So now we are associating lower metabolic rates with laziness in a species? fucking really? adapting to your environment with a lower metabolism is the very fucking definition of "survival of the fittest", perhaps the writers of this article need to actually understand what that means.
Exactly. Lower metabolism means less fuel requirements, thus less need to spend time feeding, larger population for a given food supply, all of which makes you more fit for survival. Even if you are slower and thus more susceptible to predation, having more of you means a greater chance any one individual will survive and procreate.
Shit science journalism (Score:4, Insightful)
This is pretty much the norm for many so called science correspondents. The /. summary and the article misrepresent the paper it pretty much impossible to know where to start.
Evolution is not Anthropomorphic.
Bio efficiency is well documented element of natural selection.
Re: poor understanding of survival of the fittest (Score:2)
How I think evolution really woeks (Score:2)
I think when a high number of mutations are thrown out to see what sticks, there can be multiple winners. Chaste + promiscuous, rich + handy, etc.
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Being lazy = needing fewer calories = more survival.
One of the reasons modern Homo Sapiens outlived Neanderthals is because our less muscular bodies and smaller brains needed fewer calories (yes, our brains are smaller- although that doesn't mean less cognitive ability).
They also lived in smaller groups so each individual had to do more tasks and was less efficient.
When food became scarce we could live off less food than they needed- they had to work harder just to stay alive. We outsurvived Neanderthals b
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You are pulling all that out your ass. We have nothing but conjecture as to why we beat them out. It could be for no more than we were smarter and out competed them.
We know a lot more about them than you probably think.
We know a lot about their physical features, we also know their diets; what and how they ate- and what their bodies needed from that we can deduce calorie requirements. They needed 600-700 more calories than a modern human just to survive each day. We can't know for sure their intelligence, but we know they had rituals, which signifies culture and beliefs; they had arts such as art and they probably had music too. We can't say for sure if they had lan
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Actually, it's still going on. We just replaced natural selection with our own. We now select, and for different traits. That's not necessarily better, only different.
I'm Reminded of an Ancient Saying (Score:5, Funny)
I believe it was the philosopher Epicurus who said, "The early bird may get the worm; but the second mouse gets the cheese."
Re:I'm Reminded of an Ancient Saying (Score:5, Insightful)
but the second mouse gets the cheese.
"In a movie theater or in a war, the best seats are not in the first row."
These days, with technology like electric and autonomous cars, everyone seems to be obsessed with being "first".
Just maybe, the cautious folks who wait and see what mistakes the "firsts" have made . . . will in the end be more successful . . . ?
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And depending on the theater, make sure you are not in front of Peewee Herman (unless you fancy being like Abe Lincoln and want to be the next person shot in the back of the head at a theater.)
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I am usually last, and still not successful. :/
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I set my own victory conditions. Currently enjoying my achievement of Comfortably Ever After before I continue on to other goals.
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Just maybe, the cautious folks who wait and see what mistakes the "firsts" have made . . . will in the end be more successful . . . ?
Indeed. As a certain SF author pithily put it, "You live and you learn, or you don't live long."
More philosophically, progress (in anything) is not about moving towards some goal as much as it is about moving away from error. Our models and theories can't account for everything we observe, but we can (and do) adjust them when nature tells us that we are barking up the wrong tree.
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Easier generalization than that.
When there is an opportunity, get there first.
When there is a risk in obtainment, let someone else go first.
That sounds like something that should be added to the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition, if it isn't there already.
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The worm was up before the bird and got eaten. If you are a worm, be late or you will be late.
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That was covered nicely in a Shel Silverstein poem...
"If you're a bird, be an early bird; and catch that worm for your breakfast plate. If you're a bird, be an early early bird. But if you're a worm, sleep late."
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It all depends on who you are (Score:5, Insightful)
The early bird catches the worm, but the early worm gets eaten.
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Actually, your chances for stress induced diseases are way lower if you're lazy, so...
Gosh, that sure is something to think about (Score:2)
As you guzzle down your Starbucks(tm) coffee, rush out the door, and race off to some job where you do irrelevant stuff at high speed so management feels important enough to justify a COLA increase.
Survival of the most effektive. (Score:2)
Not the laziest.
A lazy slob on the basement wastes resources by binding others that need to take care of him. Not the best premise for survival. In fact a society ready to ditch lazy slobs might actually be more likely to survive.
However, if I'm lazy and at the same time manage to survive or even be attractive by being effektive where it counts, that is an essential skill. Especially in environments that don't charge to rapidly over a long time.
Social inequality (Score:2)
He who makes other people work for him, so that he does not have to work himself lives longer. He who does not need to care about how to earn the next pay check does not need to stress about it or exert himself.
Yes. Of course. That's not rocket science.
That's why statistics say that members of high-income households are more healthy --- even in countries with universal health care where access to health care is not a question of wealth.
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Meh. I'm tired. Sorry. Please mode the above post "Redundant" or "Off-topic."
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Nailed it.
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Other that that, yeah. Makes sense that the best adaptations to environmental conditions are those that require the least energy to maintain.
Pandas (Score:4, Insightful)
Yep. Those panda guys are real go-getters. No-wonder so many of them burn out. Live fast, die young, eh?
Actually the real issue is a bit more complex than some comments suggest. Anyone who has owned a greyhound will tell you how little exercise they need. 10 minutes of going bonkers a day is fine. Cheetahs can run fast but will do nothing for hours if the don't need to. If you can go into low power mode, then you don't have to go hunting as often, with all the risks,
Lazy? Like they say in Texas (Score:2)
...Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered.
Idiocracy ... Prophecy! (Score:4, Insightful)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/ [imdb.com]
Laziness == efficiency (Score:3)
Wally for the Win! (Score:2)
http://dilbert.com/strip/2018-... [dilbert.com]
My cat (Score:1)
So this would explain why my cat sleeps 16 hours a day...
Conserving energy (Score:2)
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Idleness (Score:2)
Wait wouldn't this mean that all the good programmers should have girlfriends??
But seriously, I have a whole collection of books on idleness and how enjoying that time is actually productive.
I can see that laziness means one has resources, but is there another side to it? Some people are attracted to those who would rather get a lot or of life in different ways than money and resources....?
If there are other idlers on slashdot I'd love to hear...
And there have never been any animals that (Score:2)
consume more energy than humans. You fill in the blanks...
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and yet, the shrew persists...
High Metabolism means Constant Eating (Score:1)
Evolution research from Kansas? (Score:2)
From the state that brought you the strong push to teach Intelligent Design. Yeah, I know it's an unfair statement to the U of K researches, but it's the first thing that crossed my mind when I read this.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/08/AR2005110801211.html
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Kansas. The settlers that didn't even make it to the West coast.
Pedantic (Score:5, Funny)
So this is a quibble over the definition of "fit" and whether it means physically fit or more generally fit? Fine. We'll call it survival-of-the-most-able-to-reach-reproducing-age-in-good-health-and-pass-on-genes. Or SOTMATRRAIGHAPOG, for those who like acronyms. That rolls off the tongue much better.
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So this is a quibble over the definition of "fit" and whether it means physically fit or more generally fit? Fine. We'll call it survival-of-the-most-able-to-reach-reproducing-age-in-good-health-and-pass-on-genes. Or SOTMATRRAIGHAPOG, for those who like acronyms. That rolls off the tongue much better.
Maybe they meant the Honda Fit. [wikipedia.org] That would make just as much sense as what Darwin actually said was: "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change" which some how morphed into "survival of the fittest" which used fit in the context of "Well adapted or suited to the conditions or circumstances" [copy/paste from the OED]
Well... (Score:2)
I may neve soar like an Eagle, but I will never get sucked into a jet engine!
works in bivalves, not humans (Score:2)
Bivalves reproduce by releasing their sperm into the water. Masturbating in your basement, however, is not a good reproductive strategy in humans. In humans, females tend to select the male with the most resources
unemployed adult bi-value or gastropod (Score:1)
I agree that the summary is misleading and unscientific. A more accurate the first line would read: "If you've got an unemployed, 30-year-old adult bi-value or gastropod still living in the basement, fear not."
Then I'll live forever! WOO! (Score:2)
Now let me go back to my nap...
Evolution or natural selection? (Score:1)
Old news (Score:2)
We walk upright on two legs because it is more efficient than walking on four legs. The downside is it needs a larger brain to maintain balance. The upside is the larger brain allows a narrow margin of us to work smarter instead of harder.
Low metabolism is a great survival strategy... (Score:1)
adaptation, not fitness, has always been the point (Score:1)
When food times are hard, any creatures with slower metabolism will win out because th
Survival of the stupidest (Score:2)
Clearly, trial lawyers have found a way to defeat evolution.
Semantics (Score:2)
I've said for years, I'm not lazy, I'm just super efficient. If I can do the exact same thing, whilst expending the least amount of effort, you're damn right that is a evolutionary trait.
Lazy is just a derogatory way of saying efficiency. So long as the "work" gets done of course.
One could argue that I write scripts to automate trivial tasks because I'm too lazy to do those tasks, or one could argue that I'm more efficient for finding a way to complete those tasks using the least amount of energy I need to
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If I had mod points, I'd mod this up. It's precisely on target. Useless, insulting, and WAY more work to do than it was worth.
But clearly the drugs he took were not in vain!
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Because there's more to life than decreasing its speed.