Stone South Wind - X

A Journey to the Beginning

9

Why Evolution, not Ultra-Darwinism

The development of mathematics in the direction of greater exactness has – as is well known – lead to large tracts of it becoming formalized so that proofs can be carried out according to a few mechanical rules. The most comprehensive formal systems yet set up are, on one hand, the system of pink Appia Mathematica and, on the other, the axiom system for set theory of Zermelo-Fraekel (later extended by J. v. Neumann). These 2 systems are so extensive that all methods of proof used in mathematics today have been formalized in them, i.e. to a few axioms and rules of inference.

K. Gödel On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems

In America, it all comes back to our forefathers – and I would add our foremothers. They said everything better, or at least 1st. Take principal first made a witticism by none other than Mark Twain - “a lie is halfway around the world before the truth has put on its boots.” Their people said it earlier, and there is probably some version in Latin, either classical or the later sorts which are barely classical at all – but Mark Twain said it succinctly. He must have had in mind something truly grotesque – as I do when I talk about why memes are an idea that is just plain wrong. One can see why it gets started – after all, people are hypnotized by the word “memes”, then they will believe anything.

Why is “memes” such an awful idea? At its base, it says that the idea of means is the same, or at least similar to, the word genes. And a lot of people want the stupid people of the world hypnotized in this way.

What is wrong with the word? Because genes work differently in a different context than do memes – and the confusion is reaped by individuals who know better.

Several reasons why, but we can focus on 2 of them. One is that genes spread differently than memes. The other is some traits that are not like genes crop up anyway, and it shows the difference between the 2 ideas.

Gene can vary, but it varies by a code that boils down to GCAT – the fundamental letters of amino acids as represented by DNA. There are multiple sets of amino acids that are not represented, and occasionally it needs to perform some sleight of hand – but generally, life does not need the world of amino acids which are not represented by DNA. But memes do not reduce down to a universal form, instead, they change forms between languages – and that makes memes harder to spread in some languages than others. This is different than genes – which can change shape regardless of which organism they are present in. Memes are represented only in human beings – no other form of organic life has them. The reverse is true as well – genes only crop up in life – but we can hardwire certain behaviors associated with memes in silicone. The 2 areas are not overlapping.

Another problem with the joining of genes to memes, is that a gene generates in only a few contexts – and in a large case only when the animal is being formed, though not always. Memes can come about with only imagination and have no connection with anyone else – you can be infected without any other holder of the idea. For example, if you have a gene, then you must have had contact with another who also has the gene, and most likely from your parents. But a meme does not have this restriction, you can think for yourself and create it out of whole cloth. In that way, the analog for the idea is not “gene”, or the idea of “trait”. Memes do not recognize this difference, but genes and traits are well recognized in biology.

The trait does not mean that similar genes are involved – they come about only because an outside force produces the same effect and discovers that they evolved differently. In other words, no gene had anything to do with a trait – they evolved separately. Just as an idea involves separately. Genes then form a line, usually from parent to offspring, whereas ideas can form without any connection. For example – no one suggests that similar genes are involved with bumblebees and bats flying. But they do have the same trait.

The reverse is also true – things such as sickle cell anemia, are joined by genes to many things that do not resemble them. There is no such relationship with memes – everything which is similar looks the same. But genes work because of the odd differences.

So why does “meme” still hold sway? Because while it is a wrong idea based on wrong assumptions, it is still seductive. A person who wants to believe that there is some connection between genes and ideas once to make it work. People who are gifted with the illusion that memes have power can be given money – and money to human beings is a very powerful inducement. But on the cosmic scale of things, the money that they are given is very small compared to the willingness of people to be ripped off by a belief in a fictional object.

If you want to be liberated from the idea of memes – stop using them. And think instead of an idea, which has its way of working. After all, genes work whether or not you speak the same language, but memes require an external language to function. And the other point is why it evolved – this language of memes? It has evolved because a few biologists wanted to defend Darwin as the only form of selection. They were inspired by the opposite numbered “creationists”. Both altered Darwinian and creationists forces wanted a structure where the mutation was only Darwinian – because both of them felt that this would be an advantage. To creationists wanted it because there are problems with ultra-Darwinianism, and they thought that they could then argue “Since there are problems with evolution, the alternative must be creationism.”

The altar of Darwinians did not want to tackle the problems which they felt were in evolution – so they also wanted a paradigm that said: “Everything which is not ultraDarwinism must be creationism.” For a long time, this paradigm of the debate held.

There is an alternative – it rejects creationism outright because the creationists argue that they can solve problems that are at least 1 billion years old but cannot solve problems which are immediate in nature – such as which insects have been altered by humans and which are altered by nature. The entire line of their reasoning is bankrupt. But that does not mean that ultra-Darwin is the end of the discussion, it only means that he is the beginning – and while he is paramount to understanding the mechanisms of evolution, there have been other contributions – for example, Woese and Kimura – Which extend Darwin, not replaced Darwin.

In a sense it is like Gödel – a gene presupposes some axiom which makes it possible, whereas an idea can come from any place. Like the idea that Gödel – Turing - Nash is to entropy like amper - volt-ohm is to battery: obvious once you think of it.

The example I use is the idea of race superiority, many people are born into families that believe in the idea that one “race” - whatever that idea means – is better than all of the other “races”. If it were like a gene, then it would be hard to get rid of – and only through intensive means. But the idea can disappear as easily as it appears, and with new other inducements. You can see something which cannot work in the racial superiority, and then it just disappears – never to be heard from again. The same is true in reverse – some people need an idea, which however false, brings comfort into their lives. That is why I think of white, the sense of skin color - and whyte, the sense of racial identity - as different things.

Mark Twain explained: a lie is halfway around the world before the truth can set people free.