I think hastening of subgoal completion[1] is some evidence for the notion that competitive inter-neuronal selection pressures are frequently misaligned with genetic fitness. People (me included) routinely choose to prioritize completing small subtasks in order to reduce cognitive load, even when that strategy predictably costs more net metabolic energy. (But I can think of strong counterexamples.)
The same pattern one meta-level up is “intragenomic conflict”[2], where genetic lineages have had to spend significant selection-power to prevent genes from fighting dirty. For example, the mechanism of meiosis itself may largely be maintained in equilibrium due to the longer-term necessity of preventing stuff like meiotic drives. An allele (or a collusion of them) which successfwly transfer to offspring at a probability of >50%, may increase their relativefitness even if it marginally reduces their phenotype’s viability.
My generalized term for this is “intra-emic conflict” (pinging the concept of an “eme” as defined in the above comment).
We asked university students to pick up either of two buckets, one to the left of an alley and one to the right, and to carry the selected bucket to the alley’s end. In most trials, one of the buckets was closer to the end point. We emphasized choosing the easier task, expecting participants to prefer the bucket that would be carried a shorter distance. Contrary to our expectation, participants chose the bucket that was closer to the start position, carrying it farther than the other bucket. — Pre-Crastination: Hastening Subgoal Completion at the Expense of Extra Physical Effort
Intragenomic conflict refers to the evolutionary phenomenon where genes have phenotypic effects that promote their own transmission in detriment of the transmission of other genes that reside in the same genome.
I think hastening of subgoal completion[1] is some evidence for the notion that competitive inter-neuronal selection pressures are frequently misaligned with genetic fitness. People (me included) routinely choose to prioritize completing small subtasks in order to reduce cognitive load, even when that strategy predictably costs more net metabolic energy. (But I can think of strong counterexamples.)
The same pattern one meta-level up is “intragenomic conflict”[2], where genetic lineages have had to spend significant selection-power to prevent genes from fighting dirty. For example, the mechanism of meiosis itself may largely be maintained in equilibrium due to the longer-term necessity of preventing stuff like meiotic drives. An allele (or a collusion of them) which successfwly transfer to offspring at a probability of >50%, may increase their relative fitness even if it marginally reduces their phenotype’s viability.
My generalized term for this is “intra-emic conflict” (pinging the concept of an “eme” as defined in the above comment).