Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id KAA12790 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Fri, 18 Feb 2000 10:27:32 GMT To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 02:25:38 -0800 From: "Scott Chase" <hemidactylus@my-Deja.com> Message-ID: <EHPABPCKOFJCOBAA@my-deja.com> X-Sent-Mail: off X-Mailer: MailCity Service Subject: RE: meaning in memetics X-Sender-Ip: 209.240.200.130 Organization: My Deja Email (http://www.my-deja.com:80) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Language: en Content-Length: 2264 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
--On Thu, 17 Feb 2000 23:27:19 Richard Brodie wrote: >OK, you're using "adaptation" is some sort of dictionary definition. It has >a particular meaning in evolution, so I was confused. I'm still confused. >What mechanism to you propose to cause such an adaptation if not genetics or >memetics? > >Richard Brodie richard@brodietech.com www.memecentral.com/rbrodie.htm > >-----Original Message----- >From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf >Of Wade T.Smith >Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2000 4:51 PM >To: Memetics Discussion List >Subject: RE: meaning in memetics > > >Richard Brodie made this comment not too long ago -- > >>I'm unclear on your meaning. When you use the word "adaptation" > >Adapt- To make or become suitable to a particular situation or use. fit, >adjust, suit, accommodate, conform, square, fashion, reconcile, tailor, >acclimatize, acclimate. > > This could quickly degenerate into a hairsplitting definothon, but here's a textbook definition of adaptation from the glossary of Douglas Futuyma's _Evolutionary Biology_ (1998. Sinauer Asssociates, Inc. Sunderland, Massachusetts):
"adaptation- a process of genetic change of a population, owing to natural selection, whereby the average state of a character becomes improved with reference to a specific function, or whereby a population is thought to have become better suited to some feature of its environment. Also, *an* adaptation: a feature that has become prevalent in a population because of a selective advantage owing to its provision of an improvement in some function."
So, as seen in this definition, adaptation can refer to either a process or state of being, which is pointed out by Gould and Vrba (1982) in an article where even more complexities are added (eg- current utility versus historical genesis, exaptation, function versus effect and all that jazz). I won't step into the spandrel snake pit for fear of a Dennett versus Gould subthread which would entail pointless bickering.
ref:
Gould SJ and Vrba ES. 1982. Exaptation- a missing term in the science of form. Paleobiology (8): 4-15
Scott
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