Some memes and social rituals can behave like group genes - for example the
ten commandments of the bible, or religions in general. They use groups as
throw-away vehicles to lever themselves into the next generation. The
founder of the Christian religion said "For where two or three are gathered
together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20), which
means that the spirit of the group - whatever this is - comes only alive if
the group is assembled. Randall Collins describes the sociological side of
religion in his book "Sociological Insight: An Introduction to Non-Obvious
Sociology". I miss this aspect in Dawkins book "The God Delusion". By the
way, an interesting paper. It is remarkable that one of the most basic laws
of nature - evolution by natural selection - is basically a metaphor.
Darwin's "natural selection" is a metaphor, Dawkins' "selfish gene", too.
-J.
----- Original Message -----
From: Nicholas Thompson
To: russ.abb...@gmail.com
Cc: friam@redfish.com
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 5:21 AM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Emergence: The No-Stats All-Star
Russ,
I think I may disagree that there are no "group genes". Well, unless one
defines gene in such a limited way that there are no genes at all. Please
http://www.behavior.org/journals_BP/2000/thompson.pdf. I apologize for its
size., which is stupid and unnecessary, and all my fault. The paper is not
that big. I promise.
The mechanisms that produce inheritance are so far from validating the
notion of an "atom of inheritance" that the fact that there are ANY traits
that are passed reliably from generation to generation now seems to me a
miracle. Please see THE PLAUSIBILITY OF LIFE by those two Harvard guys
whose names i can never remember.
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Ethology,
Clark University (nthomp...@clarku.edu)
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