Re: Further Evolution beyond the Human?

Adam Hibbert (a.hibbert@ucl.ac.uk)
Mon, 14 Oct 1996 17:20:18 GMT

In article <53ga0h$496@news.sas.ab.ca>, czar@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca () wrote:

> Adam Hibbert (a.hibbert@ucl.ac.uk) wrote:
[snip]
> : are just not an issue. There is *no* systematic pressure on a gene strain
> : from reproductive competition in human culture.
>
> Unless blatant stupidity is something that can (or can't) be weeded out
> of the gene pool. What springs immediately to mind: the kids that died
> whilst they imitated a scene in some movie (it might have been called
> "The Program") wherein characters in the movie lay along the center-line
> of a busy high-speed roadway for some sort of kicks. The stupidity of
> such actions ensured that neither their specific arrangements of genes,
> nor their specific arrangements of memes (if it were their memes that
> made them so foolish), would get passed on to any children they might
> have had.

On the other hand, given the sophisticated set of determinants at play in
modern behaviour, their deaths and the subsequent publicity surrounding
them could equally well have lead to the idea (or 'meme' as you
offensively describe it) becoming more generalised (or, I suppose you
would say, 'propagated'). So it just ain't that simple.

BTW, introducing 'memes' here is a really dangerous conceptual manouvre;
you're going to have real trouble understanding human social development
if you believe that ideas have a life of their own.

Adam

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