Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id XAA27361 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 8 Feb 2001 23:29:53 GMT Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 15:17:08 -0800 From: Bill Spight <bspight@pacbell.net> Subject: Re: Darwinian evolution vs memetic evolution To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Message-id: <3A8328F4.73C83319@pacbell.net> Organization: Saybrook Graduate School X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.72 [en]C-CCK-MCD {Yahoo;YIP052400} (Win95; U) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit X-Accept-Language: en References: <20010208201954.AAA9140%camailp.harvard.edu@[128.103.125.215]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Dear Wade,
> The mechanism itself, the lamarckian mechanism, has been shown, I would
> think with certitude, not to exist in nature at all. It is a skyhook, to
> borrow Dennett's term. It is an invented quality rising from the
> perceptual traps we fall into when we see patterns.
>
That is because, with genes, the germ line is insulated from the
environment. It is the phenotype that adapts and learns from the
environment. These adaptations are not transferred to the genotype.
(There are apparently some exceptions, however.)
But there is no germ line with memes. "Play it, Sam, for old times'
sake," is altered by the environment to "Play it again, Sam," and the
alteration is passed on. That's Lamarckian evolution.
Best,
Bill
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