Bob La Quey wrote:
So I have a lot of direct experience with good
people who suffer from the modes of failure. This
experience has caused me to wonder, "Why would
such a gene survive the evolutionary process?
Certainly one of the big questions.
However, there are other good examples. Sickle-cell anemia, for
example, exists because if you only have one of the sickle-cell genes,
you have protection against malaria. If you have both, well, you didn't
live long in the tropics.
Also, there is some increasing evidence that "toxoplasma gondii" (a
fairly common parasite from cats) combines with a genetic predisposition
to be one of the causes of schizophrenia.
In this respect the mentally ill have a lot in common
with geniuses and other extremely creative individuals
who are driven by internal as opposed to external social
realities.
I would argue that many of the same genes that make us "unusually smart"
are on the borderline of "diseased".
I'm also of the opinion that we need to start treating things like ADHD
which are now >10% of the population as a "disease" and more as "human
is simply wired differently".
Not everyone is the same. We shouldn't treat them like they are.
-a
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