But obviously not detrimental enough to make the species go extinct
yet. Mix in the evolution of ideas and technology with our existing
human nature may or may not lead to such a result. Here is another
theory that came out about the same time as the meme theory. I like to
try and combine the two approaches.
Gene-culture Coevolution
Charles Lumsden 03.05.1999
Evolving Creative Minds IV
Whereas most animal evolution arises from the differential replication
of genetic information, human evolution obligatorily involves the
differential transmission of both genetic and cultural information.
"Cultural information" is a term of convenience, rather than literal
descriptive fidelity here; it refers loosely to such things as the
stories, beliefs, and ceremonies shared symbolically among individuals
in every human society. Changes in the abundance of a variant of a
story or ceremonial behavior over time comprise cultural evolution in
its simplest conceivable form. Sociobiology proposes that genes and
culture do not evolve independently, on separated, isolated tracks.
The neurobiology of human mental development makes them co-dependent,
resulting in the process of gene-culture coevolution (Lumsden and
Wilson 1981). Gene-culture coevolution in human beings appears to be
based on gene-culture transmission, a process of organismic growth and
development in which innate learning capacities respond to certain
forms or types of cultural information in preference to others,
demarcating the central tendencies around which cultural diversity
plays. Thus, while human cultures differ hugely in the details of
their kinship terminologies, no human culture lacks terms for making
sense of one's place in the succession of young and old.
Ed Wilson and I have introduced the specific term "epigenetic rule" to
refer to the patterns of genomic expression that chaperone the
individual mind's development (Lumsden and Wilson 1981, 1983).
Epigenesis is the total process of interaction between genes and
environment during the course of organismic development. Each
epigenetic rule affecting mind and behavior is approached as
comprising one or more elements of a complex sequence of events
occurring at various sites throughout the nervous system and mind. We
have found it useful to organize these elements into two principal
classes: primary epigenetic rules, which range from initial sensory
filtering to perception, and secondary epigenetic rules, which mediate
the development of central traits and capacities such as temperament,
personality, and beliefs, through which people are predisposed to
foster the transmission of certain variants of cultural information
over others. The primary rules are the more genetically restricted and
inflexible of the two classes; cases involving vision, hearing, taste,
and smell have been identified. Each class exerts important effects on
the mind's capacity for self-organization, and has resulted in
parallel or convergent evolution in independently derived cultures.
In gene-culture coevolution a circuit of reciprocity operates: culture
is generated and shaped by the biological imperatives embodied in the
epigenetic rules while genes shaping the epigenetic rules shift in
response to changing cultural opportunities. But while natural
selection figures prominently in gene-culture coevolution, as it does
in the more familiar kin selection and reciprocal altruism of animal
sociobiology, the outcomes of its effect on social populations can be
very different from those expected on the basis of genetic evolution
alone. Epigenetic rules for culture learning can create a strongly
nonlinear couplings between genetic and cultural evolution, with
surprising results. The diversity of possible evolutionary outcomes
may be comparatively greater, and the speeds with which they are
approached by the population higher. Altruistic behavior may spread
through a gene-culture population without the aid of kin selection,
reciprocal altruism, or any of the mechanisms traditionally envisaged
to account for animal social behavior.
The study of gene-culture coevolution is a development in sociobiology
and evolutionary science that is intended to help create a network of
explanation between biology and the social sciences. It is designed to
include all cultural systems, from the protocultures of chimpanzees
and dolphins to the heterarchical, protean cultures of human beings,
as well as forms of culture previously conceivable only in the
imagination. In pursuing this course, however, sociobiology runs
headlong into human creativity as a force in history (Lumsden and
Wilson 1981, Findlay and Lumsden 1988, Lumsden 1997, 1998). Our
attempts to map the circuit of gene-culture coevolution, as it passes
through the imagination on the way from biology to society and back
again, has raised puzzling questions about the limits to
sociobiological knowledge and a scientific understanding of mind in
general.
http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/2/2768/1.html
