Word: darwinians
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...made, with occasional errors, and with some influence or power over their own probability of replication. Perhaps we'd have to go to other planets to discover any other examples. But maybe we didn't have to go that far. Could it be that a new kind of Darwinian replicator was even now staring us in the face? This was where the meme came...
What happened along the way? We picked a concentration, chose a blocking group, got randomized, camped, punched and winnowed our way through activities and people. What we are now is, to some degree, the culmination of an extensive process of refinement and specialization; the Darwinian forces of our environment have forced us to adapt, grow elaborate plumage or camouflage, and develop idiosyncrasies or talents we wouldn't have imagined possessing when we first arrived...
...Oddly, Darwinian success in a dog-eat-dog social world turns out to involve lots of mushy feelings. Swoons of romance, love of kin, devotion to friends and pity for the needy could be useful tools in the social jungle. Even conscience and the sense of justice are now said to have roots in our genes...
...didn't work. Today the new, improved version of human sociobiology--evolutionary psychology--is flourishing. Such scholars as Leda Cosmides, John Tooby and Steven Pinker (author of How the Mind Works) have begun to explain human language, logic and perception in Darwinian terms...
...redirect the course of future human evolution. These decisions reflect widespread concerns that we, as humans, may not have the wisdom to modify the most precious of all human treasures--our chromosomal "instruction books." Dare we be entrusted with improving upon the results of the several million years of Darwinian natural selection? Are human germ cells Rubicons that geneticists may never cross...