"It's 'cause of my genes, baby."

I have a list of stuff for the blog, and just found this article by John Derbyshire. Still funny.

Stuff we always knew Back when anesthesia was a new thing, William James decided to explore the new realms of consciousness it revealed. He had himself put under with nitrous oxide gas, and while in the semi-conscious state the secret of the universe was revealed to him. He had sufficient control of himself to actually write it down. Before passing out. When the effects of the gas had worn off, he read what he had written:

Higamus, hogamus —
Woman is monogamous.
Hogamus, higamus —
Man is polygamous.

Well, he got that right, as some researchers at the University of Arizona have demonstrated by compiling a genetic record of humanity's reproductive history.

The scientists report that men appear to have traveled widely to mate. They also say that men and women differed in their participation in reproduction, while it was previously thought that men and women both played an equal role in mating. And the researchers have found that more men than women get squeezed out of the mating game, while twice as many women as men pass their genes to the next generation.

"It is a pattern that's built up over time," says Jason Wilder, lead author of the study. "The norm through human evolution is for more women to have children than men. There are men around who aren't able to have children, because they are being outcompeted by more successful males."

Like we didn't know that already. It's a matter of common observation that any woman can get a man to sleep with her, while some men have a heck of a time persuading women to do them the corresponding favor. One of the great arguments in favor of monogamous marriage, in fact, is that a society organized along these lines gives non-alpha males a shot at, well, "the lighter amenities of conjugal life"... Pity our poor male ancestors (or rather, I suppose, in these precise cases, non-ancestors), who had to stand around glumly while the local chief corralled all the nubile women for himself. Let's hear it for Western Civ!

Find the rest of the article here.