Date: Tue, 24 Jun 1997 10:37:07 -0400
From: Dr I Price <PEWLEYFORT@compuserve.com>
Subject: Reference needed please
To: "INTERNET:memetics@mmu.ac.uk" <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Someone, Mario I think, posted this quote recently
>Looking back into the history of biology, it appears that wherever a
phenomenon resembles learning, an instructive theory was first proposed t=
o
account for the underlying mechanisms. In every case, this was later
replaced by a selective theory. Thus the species were thought to have
developed by learning or by adaptation of individuals to the environment,=
until Darwin showed this to have been a selective process. Resistance of
bacteria to antibacterial agents was thought to be acquired by adaptation=
,
until Luria and Delbr=FCck showed the mechanism to be a selective one.
Adaptive enzymes were shown by Monod and his school to be inducible enzym=
es
arising through the selection of pre-existing genes. Finally, antibody
formation that was thought to be based on instruction by the antigen is n=
ow
found to result from the selection of already existing patterns. It thus
remains to be asked if learning by the central nervous system might not
also be a selective process; i.e., perhaps learning is not learning
either.' Niels K. Jerne [15}
I managed to delete the original without taking the reference. Can anyone=
supply if. Sorry for taking up airtime.
Thank you
If Price
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