Re: They might be right about the way that sex comes to exist in the first place, though: a population of parthenogenetic “females” is vulnerable to invasion by “males” who somehow have the ability to inflict their genetic material on the “females” at low cost.
It seems like a “disease” model. It is easy to imagine how genes that transmit horizontally might spread. The real puzzle of sex is really not about why organisms might come to inject some of their genes into other organisms (that is incredibly obvious!) but why the recipients might come to willingly accept them:
I agree, the puzzle is why the “females” respond to invasion by “males” by making it easier for the males, rather than by making it more difficult. Too bad the article doesn’t even consider the possibility that they might do either.
Re: They might be right about the way that sex comes to exist in the first place, though: a population of parthenogenetic “females” is vulnerable to invasion by “males” who somehow have the ability to inflict their genetic material on the “females” at low cost.
It seems like a “disease” model. It is easy to imagine how genes that transmit horizontally might spread. The real puzzle of sex is really not about why organisms might come to inject some of their genes into other organisms (that is incredibly obvious!) but why the recipients might come to willingly accept them:
http://alife.co.uk/essays/sex_is_not_a_disease/
I agree, the puzzle is why the “females” respond to invasion by “males” by making it easier for the males, rather than by making it more difficult. Too bad the article doesn’t even consider the possibility that they might do either.