Re: Meme-gene coevolution (Was: Static memes question)

On 21 Jun 2013, at 13:46, Tony Balazs <[email protected]> wrote:

> 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.

Presumably not all genes have such narrowly defined functions.

-- David Deutsch