Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id CAA20218 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Thu, 29 Nov 2001 02:10:54 GMT Subject: Re: Taxonomy and speciation Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2001 21:05:56 -0500 x-sender: wsmith1@camail2.harvard.edu x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0v3, Claritas Est Veritas From: "Wade T.Smith" <wade_smith@harvard.edu> To: "Memetics Discussion List" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Message-ID: <20011129020555.AAA9806@camailp.harvard.edu@[205.240.180.33]> Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Hi Philip A.E. Jonkers -
>It is based on human
>intention not some intrinsic process in nature.
Just read an article about some varieties (now there's a word I think at
least the two of us can settle upon and use in the same way) of ants that
are slavers- and that an extremely similar variety (so much so that they
are called, oh, how mistakenly!, the same species) have developed
different behaviors depending upon the variety of their prey, some of
which don't put up much of a fight, and others of which put up a raucous
fight indeed.
It would seem that the variety of behaviors (now that would really be a
problem if we called that a fundamental difference, why, we might think
frenchmen to be a different species altogether) is pretty strictly a
function of social environments.
Not that that makes speciation any easier, but, when you have sixteen
hundred thousand things, it makes sense to sort them by some method. But
behavior ain't the right way. A new taxonomy based on genetics would be a
good thing.
But, like in human evolution, the messy and useless is often kept.
- Wade
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