A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Jr is incredible, the story of a post-apocalyptic monastery that spans millennia. Not only is it a great work of science fiction but perhaps the greatest book I have ever read.
Dune by Frank Herbert is another excellent work, a great adventure, an epic...
No matter how strong and how light the materials are, it seems that a space elevator is an insurmountable engineering challenge on Earth under 1G of gravity. However that is because the gravity on Earth is too much for a space elevator to survive, given a somewhat modest estimation of...
Pythagorean seems to be trying to talk about it happening through evolutionary means (two separate genes evolving to be the same), rather than Horizontal Gene Transfer, in which the gene only evolves once.
Evolution requires several generations to act, mutations don't just happen like that (the only ones that have a chance of getting passed on happen in your reproductive organs). Plus, we've already seen changes in species to suit their environment, so it would hardly be something new.
It could be falsified, by altruism that is geared specifically towards non-kin or even different species. I'm curious, if you'd still consider that tautology, what exactly would you want out of a theory of altruism? After all, any theory that explains altruism would fit into "selfish behaviour...
Very very small, most traits have many ways to the same result (bee's and bird's wings for example), especially because the biochemical environment in which the traits are evolving are different (as they would be in unrelated species).
Okay, that makes more sense. The only universal gene is DNA+RNA polymerase AFAIK, the central dogma is the only thing that life accepts... dogmatically. ;)
The problem isn't meeting intelligent women, they're everywhere, the problem in the OP's case (and I think in other people's cases as well) seems to be overcoming social anxiety. It may help to attempt to work through that before worrying about meeting intelligent women - in my case it helps to...
Doctor Who has not jumped the shark, it has begun playing on the event horizon of suck but has not crossed it yet. What needs to happen is there needs to be a new showrunner brought in, one who preferably isn't a fanboy, to set things straight. If it does cross that event horizon the only hope...