Re: Meme-gene coevolution (Was: Static memes question)
Tony Balazs <[email protected]> Fri, 21 Jun 2013 13:46:20 +0100
| Newsgroups | gmane.science.physics.fabric-of-reality |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
On 14 Jun 2013, at 09:00, David Deutsch <david.deutsch-LR/[email protected]> wrote: > On 13 Jun 2013, at 22:41, hibbsa <hibbsa-/[email protected]> wrote: > >> --- In [email protected], David Deutsch <david.deutsch@...> wrote: >>> >>> Genes and memes do sometimes co-evolve, though. >> >> Oh say? What sort of scenario are you thinking of? > > One example is that the hardware we use for speaking co-evolved with the evolution of languages. > > An interesting one that was pointed out to me recently was that genes in dogs for following the direction of a human's gaze co-evolved with the human behavior of keeping dogs. > > -- David Deutsch How can one legitimately speak of "genes in dogs for following the direction of a human's gaze"? There are only 20,000 genes in the human genome (far fewer than anticipated) and probably a similar number in a dog's. If there were genes with such narrowly defined functions, there would have to be millions of them.