Comment to this article in Discover.
I tend to think of these processes as moves in design space across a fitness landscape. If my offspring from my Neanderthal mate has only the immunity improvement gene expressed then the totality of effects in the phenotype (good and not so good) from that collection of genes plus epigenetic influence either moves me from a fit phenotype (and offspring) on the fitness landscape to a more or less equal or slightly improved spot on the fitness landscape. But this is a moving target as my sister is sleeping with another Neanderthal and my nieces and nephews may turn out better or worse on the fitness landscape. These initial moves in design space have to propagate into significant populations. Which means they cannot die in floods or wild fires or be eaten by wild beasts. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Reverse engineering moves in design space across fitness landscapes gives me 'what fitness landscapes want' or the selfish fitness landscape.
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