… and the impossibility of equality.
This is an interesting little study on the origins of individuality, diversity, and inequality (in fish). Recommended.
Behavioral individuality is a ubiquitous phenomenon in animal populations, yet the origins and developmental trajectories of individuality, especially very early in life, are still a black box.
Using a high-resolution tracking system, we mapped the behavioral trajectories of genetically identical fish (Poecilia formosa), separated immediately after birth into identical environments, over the first 10 weeks of their life at 3 s resolution.
We find that (i) strong behavioral individuality is present at the very first day after birth, (ii) behavioral differences at day 1 of life predict behavior up to at least 10 weeks later, and (iii) patterns of individuality strengthen gradually over developmental time.
…
Behavioral individuality is commonly thought to be caused by differences in genes and/or environmental conditions, including the social environment. Challenging this paradigm, there is accumulating evidence that substantial between-individual variation still develops even among genetically identical individuals reared under highly standardized conditions.
Kate L. Laskowski, David Bierbach, Jolle W. Jolles, Carolina Doran & Max Wolf – The emergence and development of behavioral individuality in clonal fish (Nature)
See also:
Harrison Bergeron: Kurt Vonnegut imagines true equality
Will and Ariel Durant on Inequality, Redistribution, Revolution and the Nature of Society’s Wealth
Astonishing wealth inequality graphic
UK income inequality by ethnicity: data from the ONS
Russ Roberts on inequality and poverty
Remember the name: Persistence of wealth through China’s revolutions