In a message dated 1/12/98 5:17:44 PM, hanson@econ.berkeley.edu wrote:
>Surprisingly, there is more demand for sperm than supply,
>and donors are paid $45 per sample! This is strikingly
>contrary to standard evolutionary notions of men striving
>to spread their sperm far and wide. While such notions
>help explain sexual behavior and reluctance to raise adopted
>kids, when it comes to something as "weird" as sperm
>donation, it seems they just fail.
Not too surprising, though, when you consider that knowledge
of the effects of sperm are recent and the opportunity to
spread sperm without sex essentially nil until this century.
It does indicate that high-level cognitive choice for
reproduction hasn't been highly selected for; but current
conventional wisdom is that details of cognitive function
like that aren't strongly affected by genes. So selection
has had no good way to make men intellectually decide
genetic dispersal is a benefit.
Received on Tue Jan 13 03:25:38 1998
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