The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene (Popular Science) Read Online Free Page B
Author: Richard Dawkins
confusing, and probably dispensable.
Chapters 11 , 12 and 13 are the heart of the book. They develop, by gradual degrees, the idea of the extended phenotype itself, the second face of the Necker Cube. Finally, in Chapter 14 , we turn back with refreshed curiosity to the individual organism and ask why, after all, it is such a salient level in the hierarchy of life.
2 Genetic Determinism and Gene Selectionism
Long after his death, tenacious rumours persisted that Adolf Hitler had been seen alive and well in South America, or in Denmark, and for years a surprising number of people with no love for the man only reluctantly accepted that he was dead (Trevor-Roper 1972). In the First World War a story that a hundred thousand Russian troops had been seen landing in Scotland ‘with snow on their boots’ became widely current, apparently because of the memorable vividness of that snow (Taylor 1963). In our own time myths such as that of computers persistently sending householders electricity bills for a million pounds (Evans 1979), or of well-heeled welfare-soroungers with two expensive cars parked outside their government-subsidized council houses, are familiar to the point of cliché. There are some falsehoods, or half-truths, that seem to engender in us an active desire to believe them and pass them on even if we find them unpleasant, maybe in part, perversely,
because
we find them unpleasant.
Computers and electronic ‘chips’ provoke more than their fair share of such myth-making, perhaps because computer technology advances at a speed which is literally frightening. I know an old person who has it on good authority that ‘chips’ are usurping human functions to the extent not only of ‘driving tractors’ but even of ‘fertilizing women’. Genes, as I shall show, are the source of what may be an even larger mythology than computers. Imagine the result of combining these two powerful myths, the gene myth and the computer myth! I believe that I may have inadvertently achieved some such unfortunate synthesis in the minds of a few readers of my previous book, and the result was comic misunderstanding. Happily, such misunderstanding was not widespread, but it is worth trying to avoid a repeat of it here, and that is one purpose of the present chapter. I shall expose the myth of genetic determinism, and explain why it is necessary to use language that can be unfortunately misunderstood as genetic determinism.
A reviewer of Wilson’s (1978)
On Human Nature
, wrote: ‘…although he does not go as far as Richard Dawkins (
The Selfish Gene
…) in proposing sex-linkedgenes for “philandering”, for Wilson human males have a genetic tendency towards polygyny, females towards constancy (don’t blame your mates for sleeping around, ladies, it’s not their fault they are genetically programmed). Genetic determinism constantly creeps in at the back door’ (Rose 1978). The reviewer’s clear implication is that the authors he is criticizing believe in the existence of genes that force human males to be irremediable philanderers who cannot therefore be blamed for marital infidelity. The reader is left with the impression that those authors are protagonists in the ‘nature or nurture’ debate, and, moreover, died-in-the-wool hereditarians with male chauvinist leanings.
In fact my original passage about ‘philanderer males’ was not about humans. It was a simple mathematical model of some unspecified animal (not that it matters, I had a bird in mind). It was not explicitly (see below) a model of genes, and if it had been about genes they would have been sex-limited, not sex-linked! It was a model of ‘strategies’ in the sense of Maynard Smith (1974). The ‘philanderer’ strategy was postulated, not as
the
way males behave, but as one of two hypothetical alternatives, the other being the ‘faithful’ strategy. The purpose of this very simple model was to illustrate the kinds of conditions under which philandering
Chapters 11 , 12 and 13 are the heart of the book. They develop, by gradual degrees, the idea of the extended phenotype itself, the second face of the Necker Cube. Finally, in Chapter 14 , we turn back with refreshed curiosity to the individual organism and ask why, after all, it is such a salient level in the hierarchy of life.
2 Genetic Determinism and Gene Selectionism
Long after his death, tenacious rumours persisted that Adolf Hitler had been seen alive and well in South America, or in Denmark, and for years a surprising number of people with no love for the man only reluctantly accepted that he was dead (Trevor-Roper 1972). In the First World War a story that a hundred thousand Russian troops had been seen landing in Scotland ‘with snow on their boots’ became widely current, apparently because of the memorable vividness of that snow (Taylor 1963). In our own time myths such as that of computers persistently sending householders electricity bills for a million pounds (Evans 1979), or of well-heeled welfare-soroungers with two expensive cars parked outside their government-subsidized council houses, are familiar to the point of cliché. There are some falsehoods, or half-truths, that seem to engender in us an active desire to believe them and pass them on even if we find them unpleasant, maybe in part, perversely,
because
we find them unpleasant.
Computers and electronic ‘chips’ provoke more than their fair share of such myth-making, perhaps because computer technology advances at a speed which is literally frightening. I know an old person who has it on good authority that ‘chips’ are usurping human functions to the extent not only of ‘driving tractors’ but even of ‘fertilizing women’. Genes, as I shall show, are the source of what may be an even larger mythology than computers. Imagine the result of combining these two powerful myths, the gene myth and the computer myth! I believe that I may have inadvertently achieved some such unfortunate synthesis in the minds of a few readers of my previous book, and the result was comic misunderstanding. Happily, such misunderstanding was not widespread, but it is worth trying to avoid a repeat of it here, and that is one purpose of the present chapter. I shall expose the myth of genetic determinism, and explain why it is necessary to use language that can be unfortunately misunderstood as genetic determinism.
A reviewer of Wilson’s (1978)
On Human Nature
, wrote: ‘…although he does not go as far as Richard Dawkins (
The Selfish Gene
…) in proposing sex-linkedgenes for “philandering”, for Wilson human males have a genetic tendency towards polygyny, females towards constancy (don’t blame your mates for sleeping around, ladies, it’s not their fault they are genetically programmed). Genetic determinism constantly creeps in at the back door’ (Rose 1978). The reviewer’s clear implication is that the authors he is criticizing believe in the existence of genes that force human males to be irremediable philanderers who cannot therefore be blamed for marital infidelity. The reader is left with the impression that those authors are protagonists in the ‘nature or nurture’ debate, and, moreover, died-in-the-wool hereditarians with male chauvinist leanings.
In fact my original passage about ‘philanderer males’ was not about humans. It was a simple mathematical model of some unspecified animal (not that it matters, I had a bird in mind). It was not explicitly (see below) a model of genes, and if it had been about genes they would have been sex-limited, not sex-linked! It was a model of ‘strategies’ in the sense of Maynard Smith (1974). The ‘philanderer’ strategy was postulated, not as
the
way males behave, but as one of two hypothetical alternatives, the other being the ‘faithful’ strategy. The purpose of this very simple model was to illustrate the kinds of conditions under which philandering
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