For one thing, if people were chemically compelled to form pair bonds and remain in them for life, relationships would be a lot harder to end-- even if the other person were, due to other unsolved chemical imbalances (or just sheer assholery), abusive and violent. And another-- poor meadow voles. They, unlike the prairie vole, evolved to be promiscuous because that's their survival strategy, ya eejit scientists!
Well, at least it's pretty clear that the gene-spliced meadow voles, presuming they were actually reintroduced into the gene pool (which goes against all current ethical standards in the biosciences) would not be reproductively competitive. Not because monogamy is not a viable reproductive strategy, but it needs a whole network of other behaviors to support it, like cooperative caring for young and so forth. I foresee a lot of baby meadow voles eaten while nursing by jealous fathers. |
