Re: Things that don't evolve

"memes" is from Dawkins, in "The Selfish Gene"

Quote:
 "...the DNA molecule, happens to be the replicating entity which prevails on our own planet. There may be others. If there are, provided certain other conditions are met, they will almost inevitably tend to become the basis for an evolutionary process."
    "But do we have to go to distant worlds to find other kinds of replicator and other consequent, kinds of evlolution? I think that a new kind of replicator has recently emerged on this very planet. It is staring us in the face. It is still in its infancy, still drifting clumsily about in its primeval soup, but already it is achieving evolutionary change at a rate which leaves the old gene panting far behind."
    "The new soup is the soup of human culture. We need a name for the new replicator, a noun which conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. "
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Gregory Arago
  To: D. F. Siemens, Jr.
  Cc: pleuronaia@gmail.com ; asa@calvin.edu ; dopderbeck@gmail.com
  Sent: Friday, March 17, 2006 6:12 AM
  Subject: Re: Things that don't evolve

  Dave,

  Whose or what theory of 'memes' might you be referring to?

  As for change in society requiring different rules, can I assume you are suggesting a conclusion #11 - social things are NOT examples of things that do not evolve? Societies evolve because/just as they change.

  Let's please stick to the logic of the basic question though: what are examples of things that don't evolve? Even if people haven't, as Dave suggests, thought matters through, perhaps this type of setting is a good place to discuss them.

  If there are things that don't evolve, then we are getting somewhere toward placing limitations or boundaries on what evolutionary theory can and/or cannot explain. The other alternative, is to accept evolution as a 'theory of everything.'

  Gregory

  "D. F. Siemens, Jr." <dfsiemensjr@juno.com> wrote:
    Thanks for pulling these things together. However, I'm not sure that all these matters have been thought through. For example, I read recently that human beings are still evolving, specifically in the genes that affect intelligence. So there is apparently greater understanding. This means change over time in understanding--what have been called memes.

    As to morality, change in society requires different rules. Some matters remain, like "Do not murder" (misstated as "Do not kill"). But the prohibition on interest had to give way. Also, there was no attempt 10,000 years or so ago to protect large mammals or the environment, but ecology is currently one of the moral imperatives that have been discussed on t his list and at ASA meetings.
    Dave

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Received on Fri Mar 17 06:42:05 2006