This is masking of a different sort. I think this is
what is most interesting for our future, but it's also
interesting for our present. If the masking of this effect
is not by something that I do but by something that's
going on outside of me that I can interact with - for
example, a social process - where I contribute to it but
I am not making it happen by myself, then the masking
effect can have a very troublesome consequence.
A bunch of genes producing a protein produce some
function many steps away, and selection increases
the probability of that gene being present in the next
generation. But what if this function is masked by
something outside, something in the environment?
What will happen is selection will be masked on this
system and this gene will take a random walk -
only,
of course, if this persists for a long period of time and
is fairly stable.