Lima-de-Faria (LdF) focuses almost all his attention on form, showing
page after page of biological forms that look similar to crystals and
such. He puts an extraordinary amount of emphasis on form over
function, though he does talk about function in the book. (I'm going to
have to read it again. [sigh]) But one of his statements I remember was
something like: Evolution happens faster and more efficiently than
neo-Darwinian selection implies.
Now, having seen this article:
Form or function? Evolution takes different paths
http://www.physorg.com/news189697308.htmlAnd in my earlier vein of trying to suggest that the concept of
selection must have been much refined since LdF wrote his book
("Evolution Without Selection: Form and Function by Autoevolution"
1990), perhaps we divide up the aspects of evolution into blocks, some
of which happen very fast (epigenetics?) and some of which happen very
slow (physiogenes)?
Would such a conjecture be related to multilevel selection? It would
seem to me that things that happen slow would be mediated by a large
pool (big group) and things that happen fast, by a small pool. Are such
analyses a normal part of that body of theory?
--
glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095,
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