It is, if you count humans as part of nature, which they are in respect to natural selection.
Flowers and blossoms are selected by their attractiveness to bees and other insects. Apples were selected by their attractiveness to bears (yes, bears where the first to domesticate apples). And watermelons were selected by their attractiveness to humans.
Only GMOs don’t fall into the category of natural selection.
superkret@feddit.de 10 months ago
I agree that humans are part of the ecosystem in principle.
But if you count humans as part of nature, the word “nature” pretty much loses all meaning.
Cause then drones, microplastics, nuclear power stations and computers are also part of nature.
squaresinger@feddit.de 10 months ago
I don’t think so, at least in the context of natural selection.
GMOs for example are certainly not part of natural selection.
superkret@feddit.de 10 months ago
That’s exactly what I mean. Bears are part of nature, everything they do is natural.
If you count humans as part of nature, everything they do is natural, including GMO.
Which means, if you count humans as part of nature, the term nature has no meaning.
It’s only meaningful as the opposite of “man-made”.
squaresinger@feddit.de 10 months ago
That’s true if you talk about nature as such. I was just talking about the selection part.
The thing is that there are quite a few species that “domesticate” other species. And while doing so, they conciously select for the specimen that best fits their needs.
Bears domesticated apples, selecting for the biggest aand sweetest, thus apples evolved from small and bitter to a bit larger and sweeter.
Ants farm aphids and also there they select for those that yield the most milk.
The big difference between humans and animals is that we form much more of these symbiotic relationships.