Re: the process of de-evolution has begun
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What I meant is that natural selection is unsupervised/undirected evolution that leads to changes (generally improvements) in the gene pool.
Genetic engineering is something different.
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Sort of. But not really. Cheetahs direct the natural selection of gazelle, and thus themselves. They do it in a much cruder fashion, to be sure, but it isn't exactly unintentional. They are intentionally trying to eat gazelles, with the inevitable result being slower gazelles get eaten and gazelles get faster. Its still natural selection.
EDIT: what I mean is, of course it IS different, and practically, its VERY different. There are going to be all sorts of peculiarities and unique situations. But its still essentially natural selection. Its just far more potent, sophisticated, RAPID selection. Ultimately its those that reproduce most that will be most represented. It doesnt matter HOW they reproduce or what traits get them reproduced more often. I guess you could argue it isn't natural, and you CERTAINLY could argue that calling it natural selection is stupid and misleading and it should have its own term, so that it implies the difference. But its still essentially the same thing.
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