ghost theory

[JohnB]

Generally I agree with the points re evolutionary benefit.

 

There is a caveat however.

 

On what basis do we assume that the "mutation" might not be recent? If it occurred in the western nations during the last 2,000 odd years it is quite possible that those who could not hide it would have come to a very nasty end.

[Edtharan]

Well, not necessarily. It could just be relatively recent, or go hand in hand with some disadvantage, or for some reason be nearly useless in the modern world but outright useless as a hunter gatherer. Otherwise, yeah, I agree.

relatively recent is a stopper, but then it begs the question: Why could it not have occurred earlier.

 

If it is supposed to be that it required certain features of the brain, then the features of the Human brain have equivalents in animals, and this does not even consider other Hominid species.

 

If it is a certain capacity of the human brain, then you have to consider the other Hominid (and near hominid species.

 

Even if it has some disadvantages, unless these are severe enough (like lethal) such advantages that psychic powers could convey would still permeate. There are many traits that have occurred in people, within the last 10,000 years, that have some drastic negative consequences. Take for example Sickle cell anaemia. People who have this have two copies of a mutated allele will get a serious and life threatening condition known as Sickle-Cell Disease which causes their red blood cells to become sickle shaped (which prevents them from doing their job of carrying oxygen).

 

However, people with just one copy of the allele don't have this problem, however this causes them to have an increased level of resistance (but not totally immune) to Malaria.

 

So, if Psychic powers do exist and humans do have them, then even if they have some disadvantage, they will still develop through evolution.

 

 

in the bear situation, being able to run 3 nanometers/second faster than the otherguy isn't going to help you much and whether you live and die is probably going to depend more on the wind or what you had for breakfast than the fact you can run slightly faster.

Yes, for a specific individual this might hold true, but in the deep time of evolution this does not hold (and of course there is the logical fallacy of Appealing to Ridicule: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_ridicule).

 

Running 3 nanometers/second faster than the other guy is a ridiculous (and Strawman) argument.

 

I was talking Reaction Times in the fraction of a second, not running speed. A reaction time of a fraction of a second is far more valuable. The difference between a predator getting its prey or not is measured in fractions of a second.

 

Also, as running faster is something that has been seen to evolve through the method I described, then using this "3 nanometres/second faster" as an argument against the ability to evolve better performance is not really even a good Strawman argument to begin with (as a strawman argument is supposed to attempt to disprove the other guy, not yourself ).

 

So, as insane_alien helpfully pointed out, it is possible for minor increases in an ability, like running speed, though evolution to lead to an increase in that particular ability.

 

So again: If Psychic powers exist, and humans have them, then why hasn't evolution made them more prevalent?

[JohnB]

relatively recent is a stopper, but then it begs the question: Why could it not have occurred earlier.

Since H. Sapiens have been around for 100,000 years +, why didn't we develop writing sooner?

 

Things happen when they happen. (Speculatively speaking. )

[Edtharan]

Since H. Sapiens have been around for 100,000 years +, why didn't we develop writing sooner?

 

Things happen when they happen. (Speculatively speaking. )

That is a good question, and there is a reason: Writing requires time to invent and time to learn. Until humans had developed agriculture (and this depended on the evolution of other species to achieve) there was not a lot of time to invest in such activities. Also, if a small tribe develops writing, if they can not transmit that to other groups then it does not serve much purpose (but it is still an advantage to that group).

 

So for constructs , such as writing, to develop and to spread it requires a conjunction of outside factors (available species for domestication) and a sufficiently dense population to allow regular exchange of ideas.

 

However, communication in general is a better case study. Look at the advantage communication has given our species. Many species develop communication systems (even bacteria have them) and these systems give massive advantages to any species that have them as compared to ones that don't. This is especially true for any social species (like humans).

[Sisyphus]

Even if it has some disadvantages, unless these are severe enough (like lethal) such advantages that psychic powers could convey would still permeate. There are many traits that have occurred in people, within the last 10,000 years, that have some drastic negative consequences. Take for example Sickle cell anaemia. People who have this have two copies of a mutated allele will get a serious and life threatening condition known as Sickle-Cell Disease which causes their red blood cells to become sickle shaped (which prevents them from doing their job of carrying oxygen).

 

However, people with just one copy of the allele don't have this problem, however this causes them to have an increased level of resistance (but not totally immune) to Malaria.

 

So, if Psychic powers do exist and humans do have them, then even if they have some disadvantage, they will still develop through evolution.

 

That makes assumptions about the value of it, though, which is exactly what is in question. Sickle-cell disease could actually be a good analogy. It could work if one copy of a gene gives some very subtle advantage, but two gives some major disadvantage, or some similar situation. The sickle-cell gene continues to exist despite the disadvantage but without becoming dominant in the population as a whole despite the advantage, and except for special circumstances (exposure to malaria) you would never even know about it. More generally, any kind of persistent diversity puts a lie to the proposition that any trait is either absolutely beneficial (and will therefore quickly become dominant) or absolutely detrimental (and will therefore quickly die out).

[phantom]

conditional information: Are ghost, but actually see a ghost, but actually see them by the use of the eye from the phenomenon is picked up directly by the use of the eye from the passengers.

Having observed one of these ‘entities’, I am of the opinion that the mind makes the interpretation from some visual stimulus.

[iNow]

Having observed one of these ‘entities’, I am of the opinion that the mind makes the interpretation from some visual stimulus.

 

Then that "visual stimulus" must be measurable with instrumentation, and observations repeatable by objective third parties with no stake in the outcome of the experiment... yet, that's never been found to be the case.

[phantom]

Then that "visual stimulus" must be measurable...

Agreed. The first problem is, what is the visual stimulus? I highly suspect this may be related to the phenomenon of “glory”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glory_(optical_phenomenon)

 

And I also further suspect that different colored optical patterns may trigger recall of some partial memories which then the mind creates a composite image which appears to be real. I don’t know if any research has been done in this area.

 

So what I’m trying to say, is that an image of a pink unicorn is stored in the mind in some form of ‘visual storage’ and by triggering the pattern of how it is stored may trigger the visualization of a pink unicorn. If one does not know what a pink unicorn looks like, then one will see nothing, because there is no memory of a pink unicorn regardless of the optical/visual trigger.