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Parasitism

Parasitism among fauceirs evolves naturally at all levels of evolution. The term parasitism can not be used disinterestedly and dispassionately. What is considered parasitic from a view point of a fauceir that is cheated as resources are drained off is definitely conversely considered by parasites themselves. Hence parasitism is a highly subjective, heavily biased, clearly discriminating, and merely an egocentric term. How such a relative term can have implications on evolutionary theory that claims to be objective is a question that is studied by epistemology. On this page we focus on evolutionary implications of so called parasitism and offer an attempt to assume a more objective point of view.

Parasites are defined as sub-fauceirs that employ gaps in in a host fauceir's control processes to consume resources no longer available for the host. Such gaps occur naturally they follow from the rule of imprecision. Parasitism has two implications on evolution.

  1. Parasitism may trigger some adaptational changes in a host fauceir that improve precision of its control processes. Closing the gap in a control circuit is like evolving a defense mechanism.
  2. Parasitism may become an essential part of an evolution's growing complexity. As parasitism adds an other fauceir the host parasite relationship instantly becomes a new fauceir, may itself start an evolution.

The border between these two extremes is fluctuating. In fact these two points are aspects of each parasitism and only gradually differ from case to case.

  • Examples in which the latter aspect of parasitism is more prominent are rather called symbiosis. Although symbiosis implies mutual benefit, this mutual benefit may evolve from an initial parasitism. When the parasite becomes more controlled by its host and the host on the other hand takes advantage of a parasite's special capabilities.
  • One would call a clear case of parasitism when the host dies as a result of a parasite. But even in those cases a "mutual benefit" may exist at some level of fauceir evolution. If, for instance, parasite predominantly strike individuals of a population that became useless to the population, elderly or ill individuals, then parasitism though not beneficial to the individual itself becomes beneficial to the population as a whole.

Tags: Core theory


Categories: Evolutionary Biology

 
   

(c) Mato Nagel, Weißwasser 2004-2024, Disclaimer