>^^^^^
>CB: Culture does give humans a LaMarckian-LIKE adaptive system.
>
>However, it has turned into its opposite- it's now potentially anti-adaptive
>with nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction , which are
>self-evidently potentially mal-adaptive.
That isn't its opposite. Cultures which aren't adapted to the real world will disappear. Just as random genetic mutations which are maladapted will do.
Whether human cultural flexibility is a long term evolutionary advantage is of course an open question. So far it has proved an advantage, human culture has evolved quickly to fit humans to changing environments and humans have not only survived but increased in numbers. Obviously some cultural adaptions have done better than others, for example cultures where in-breeding was the norm haven't done as well as cultures with systems for avoiding in-breeding.
But it could still go horribly wrong, in which case the verdict will be that human cultural adaption was an evolutionary dead end.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas