The evolutionary cost of sex

"Sex is considered as an evolutionary paradox, since its evolutionary advantage does not necessarily overcome the two fold cost of sharing half of one’s offspring’s genome with another member of the population."

This statement from a recent article caught my attention.

I am not interested at the moment in the most recent calculations as to whether or not it actually turns out to be advantageous or not. The point is that from a scientific point of view a Unisex universe should be the initial starting point. The two fold cost is an existing barrier which then may or may not be overcome.

I think it is interesting that this is exactly the position that the Torah takes in its account of creation. The initial description is only of Adam (and Midrashically a combination of man and woman which may be alluding to the possibility of unassisted reproduction)

It is only then that Hashem decides that this is "not good". This can be for a myriad of reasons from game theory to ethical to spiritual, but whatever it is, I think that creation of Chava from Adam's Tzela is intended to show that this was not a necesaary step from the pure scientific view of creation. The unisex universe could have been self sustaining. There are deeper forces at work behind the nuion of man and woman.