Is there perhaps an unjustified assumption implicit here that somehow immortality implies some level of evolutionary fixed point position? Why wouldn’t the pill actually produce an organism that is both in a very stable health equilibrium in stable environments but rapidly able to react to changes correctly?
That might be the story behind the experimental results. The EL group is very well suited to the current environment but unable to adapt to the new later environment while the EW do adapt. Here it seems very much the niche specialist versus the more generalist. Generalists, that are at least able to survive seem to last longer than the niche player.
I don’t think there was so much change in the environment in Lenski’s experiment (they are always using the same medium, but the environment may still change because of the organisms inside it evolve). But it’s true that immortality could make people more resistant just because they have young bodies, or some other side-effect reason. That is the case where first-order fitness is large enough to prevail over second-order. I don’t see why the immortality pill would have such a strong effect, though.
Is there perhaps an unjustified assumption implicit here that somehow immortality implies some level of evolutionary fixed point position? Why wouldn’t the pill actually produce an organism that is both in a very stable health equilibrium in stable environments but rapidly able to react to changes correctly?
That might be the story behind the experimental results. The EL group is very well suited to the current environment but unable to adapt to the new later environment while the EW do adapt. Here it seems very much the niche specialist versus the more generalist. Generalists, that are at least able to survive seem to last longer than the niche player.
I don’t think there was so much change in the environment in Lenski’s experiment (they are always using the same medium, but the environment may still change because of the organisms inside it evolve). But it’s true that immortality could make people more resistant just because they have young bodies, or some other side-effect reason. That is the case where first-order fitness is large enough to prevail over second-order. I don’t see why the immortality pill would have such a strong effect, though.