In humans there are examples of alturistic behaviors that appear to be difficult to explain by kin selection of reciprocal altruism (e.g. soldiers sacrificing their lives in battle, police or firefighters risking their lives, catholic priests remaining celibate).
Genes are self replicating molecules. Genes produce our bodies which in turn produce more copies of their genes. Richard Dawkins has suggested that we think about genes as being "replicators" and our bodies as being "vehicles" whose job it is to make more copies of the replicators. If we can not explain altruistic behaviors as strategy for increasing the transmission of genes into the next generation them maybe we need to search for another kind of "replicator". Dawkins has suggested that "ideas" (he calls them "memes") are also capable of self replication. Because ideas differ in how long they survive and how well they are passed on it should be possible to have selection for ideas (cultural selection).
Expected Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course a fully engaged student should be able to
- identify examples of altruistic behavior that might be explained by cultural selection
- be able to compare and contrast "natural selection" with "cultural selection"
Further Readings
Cultural evolution http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evolution-cultural/
One of my favorite books of all time is "The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkings. He discusses some of his ideas about cultural selection in the final chapter of this book. Here is a link to that chapter in case you are interested
http://www.rubinghscience.org/memetics/dawkinsmemes.html
I think this chapter is a must read for any educated person, I hope you enjoy.
"We biologists have assimilated the idea of genetic evolution so deeply that we tend to forget that it is only one of many possible kinds of evolution"
ReplyDelete- perhaps its because of its nature to behave like the "The Library Policemen" leaping from one discussion of evolution to another to keep its fitness in the pool of memes. ("The Library Policemen" is a Stephen King short novella)
"I have said a tune is one meme, but what about a symphony: how many memes is that ? "
-we must start with the fact that tuning is the note layout on an instrument ...someone smarter than myself can pick up the math from here....
If anyone's interested, I have the full PDF book of "The Selfish Gene" that I can send you.
ReplyDeleteDawkins is awesome, I recommend anyone to read any of his works.
Please send me a copy of that link. I am glad you enjoyed "The Selfish Gene" which is one of my favorite books.
ReplyDeleteI just went ahead and made a quick webpage to make it easier to download and such for people who want it, and a few other books by him.
ReplyDeleteHere's the link:
http://www.dawkinsebooks.co.nr