[FRIAM] Spandrel

[Eric Charles]

The spandrel is the place on the wall, whether it is decorated or not.

[image: image.png]

The decorations are what can mislead you to thinking the architect went out
of their way to create the spandrels. But the spandrel exists as a
byproduct of trying  to do two other things: 1) Have a square-topped
structure, 2) support the structure with a dome.

Similarly, natural selection should be *expected *to produce many
structures as a result of selection for unrelated factors. Just because a
structure is common in a species doesn't mean that structure itself has
been selected for, even if the structure - once present - has become
elaborated in fancy ways. With this concept in hand, evolutionary
biologists and evolutionary psychologists should be very cautious about
asserting that common traits are adaptive. Even things you can show to have
resulted from selection (rather than genetic drift or other processes)
could still be mere byproducts of the intersection of other
adaptive traits.


<echarles at american.edu>


On Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 12:20 AM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:

> correction (arches/domes *vs spandrels*) are duals
>
> If we accept that contrivance or one like it, then the two types of
> elements (arches/domes) are duals.
>
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