Talk:Life history
I hope Altmark agrees that splitting the pages was a good idea. Life history theory when into the weeds on r/K and CSR selection, and the title would otherwise need changing because the life history construct is widely accepted in academia, and should not be qualified as just a theory. Although, I think the Sex differences section should be moved to this page.
I only found Talk:Life history theory, after writing the first version of this page. But I fully agree with Altmark's points and would like to cover them in this page (growrightordie talk 8/03/22).
- I'll prob merge these pages unless there is any objections. It's a 'theory' in the academic sense: " An explanation of a phenomenon arrived at through examination and contemplation of the relevant facts; a statement of one or more laws or principles which are generally held as describing an essential property of something." (OED). So I do think this title is better as it is used more often and distinguishing it from the term 'life history' which can simply mean what the simple words suggest, i.e. a history of one's life. Pages cover a lot of common ground. I don't think there's any issue with a fairly technical page like this being long. If they are split it would be to split it into a broad overview vs r/k theory.Altmark22 (talk) 11:26, 2 July 2022 (UTC)
Article needs improvement[edit source]
As this article seems to be linked everywhere on this wiki, it really needs to be improved substantially. I'm planning on adding a lot of content to it myself, but if anyone wishes to get started before me, there are several angles I'd suggest covering that are particularly pertinent to involuntary celibacy:
1) claims of secular declines in life history speed due to extended education, wealth, political stability in Western countries etc
2) LHS seems to be extremely linked to the whole Alpha/Beta dichotomy as pretty much every behavioral trait PUAs, redpillers, blackpillers and so on., ascribe to "Alphas" seem to be fast-life history traits, the opposite is true for "beta" traits and slow life history speed
3) a section on Rushton's controversial differential-K theory would be interesting in examining the potential causes of race differences in sexual behavior and the prevalence of involuntary celibacy by race, etc.
4) faster life history seems to be ironically linked to "tradcon" values on the national level (areas that are lower development, more suppressive of female sexuality, more religious, more violent etc also seem to be relatively fast life history countries. people in these countries often exhibit higher levels of the traits purportedly linked to fast life history strategy on the individual level and also reproduce earlier and have greater fertility) and it would be very interesting to explore the potential reasons for this
5) there may be long term assortative mating in life history speed, as while these traits do not predict attraction on at the first acquaintance level, they do predict relationship stability and they also seemed to be related to greater perceptions of suitability when it comes to long-term relationships
6) section on autism and life history strategy would be good, theoretically it seems associated with a fast life history speed due to masculinization but behaviorally it seems linked to indices of extremely slow life history speed. which could be a function of mutations but it does seem there's some genetic interaction at play here as autism seems more common among slower life history demes/races. whites, the middle class, the more intelligent, etc Altmark22 (talk) 21:09, 15 May 2021 (UTC)
- Proposed sections:
1) Life history and sexual strategies
2) Sex differences
3) Autism and life history speed (not important but it'd be interesting)
4) Life history speed and sexual violence (can be short)
5) Assortative mating in life history strategy (can be short)
6) Life history strategy and involuntary celibacy (can be short, or a subsection to sexual strategies) Altmark22 (talk) 20:40, 23 July 2021 (UTC)
- Indicators that autism is associated with fast LH genes/phenotypes:
1) masculine traits associated with both autism and fast LH in general, some have proposed exceptions exist though this was using autism as the exception to the rule, this is essentially circular logic though. "look autistics don't have sex much so it must be a slow trait in regards to them."
2) autism associated with fast LH behavioral phenotypical facets such as low empathy and social disinterest (prob both cognitive and affective, so if that's true it's just a maladaptive form of psychopathy with the cognitive aspects perhaps being driven by sub-optimally high brain masculinization and neural compensation for the social parts of the brain they lack), however a high ratio of cognitive empathy/affective empathy is likely a fast trait—perhaps reversed in autism though this may just be a function of neurodiversity virtue signalling, need hard evidence
3) preliminary behavioral archetype studies indicate typical autistic behavioral traits mirror certain typical fast LH behavioral traits
4) while fast LH is not directly associated with higher mutational load as Dutton says (being a fast LH strategist doesn't mean you are a mutant), those with a higher load of harmful mutations—of which autistics potentially are given the role of de novo mutations in the etiology of the disorder—may be pushed more into pursuing a fast life history due to the increased early developmental stress caused by such ontological perturbances.
Evidence against:
1) professions high in the BAP (broader autism phenotype) such as people in STEM careers, seem to have more stable marriages (when they can get them, of course) and a later age of sexual onset
2) Autism seems to be associated with greater cognitive specialization, weakening of general intelligence, theorized (Woodley's CDIE hypothesis) to be a slow life history trait
3) later age of sexual onset (when it occurs) and lower amounts of sexual partners among autists (but likely just because they are sexually rejected)
4) low mating effort among autistics (but could just be a function of pathological social withdrawal, like the "beautiful one" mice in Calhoun's experiments or the other animal models of autism where they induce a deleterious mutation in the subjects and it fucks them up real good).
I'd say that clinical autism, even high functioning, is likely just maladaptive and not really strongly reflective of any distinct life history strategy in itself. What would be interesting to consider is, are those higher in the BAP relative slow or fast life history strategists, and could autism itself be associated with a particular life history strategy, but owing to mutations, pollutants, maternal stress or w/e causes it (etiology is likely multifactorial) represent a "failed" (as Dutton claims) slow or fast life history strategy. Those are the questions we need to ask and examine.Altmark22 (talk) 20:56, 23 July 2021 (UTC)