This article needs some fact checking. For example, it suggests that broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are all edible foods. But it is widely known that that is simply not true.
Polyploidy is also a nice example of how the transmission bias in Price's Equation represents "maintenance costs" — by maintaining multiple copies, the information is buffered against transmission errors, allowing safer exploration of a wider landscape. From what I recall, this is true of wheat too, and thank goodness since to Kevin M.'s point wheat tastes better. Would we have had a "Green Revolution" if it had had to be *literally* green? :-P
Thanks for this, very interesting article. One question: where do you locate Tuscan cabbage (aka cavolo nero) in the cabbage family tree? Is it close to kale and thus close to the “original” cabbage?
This article needs some fact checking. For example, it suggests that broccoli, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are all edible foods. But it is widely known that that is simply not true.
Skill issue 😁
“How an unappetizing shrub became dozens of unappetizing vegetables.”
Nice case study of how human steering can narrow the selection process. Maybe not unlike how we can steer LLMs into interesting basins of attraction?
https://www.symmetrybroken.com/asymmetric-evolution/
Polyploidy is also a nice example of how the transmission bias in Price's Equation represents "maintenance costs" — by maintaining multiple copies, the information is buffered against transmission errors, allowing safer exploration of a wider landscape. From what I recall, this is true of wheat too, and thank goodness since to Kevin M.'s point wheat tastes better. Would we have had a "Green Revolution" if it had had to be *literally* green? :-P
This post reminds me of my favorite XKCD! https://xkcd.com/2827/
Thanks for this, very interesting article. One question: where do you locate Tuscan cabbage (aka cavolo nero) in the cabbage family tree? Is it close to kale and thus close to the “original” cabbage?