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Quote by: Thanatos  Close, but not quite. Without selection to push the effects of entropy back the genome will be riddled with random counterproductive mutations. The frequency of a given bad gene may stay almost constant, but new ones will be appearing and not leaving. |
You are correct. But consider that to have a mutation that is detrimental enough that its cost is significant but not enough for selective pressure to remove it is an extremely small range. Moreover, even if such a mutation occurs in one individual, it will not increase in proportion in the population, so you need a lot of such mutations in different people to have a large effect. Measured compared to economic growth rates I suspect that the negative effect is negligible. It's certainly not anything we have to worry about in the near future.
I am much more afraid of mutations which do have a selective advantage but are detrimental to human society. Like a fundie gene.
