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Last night, Lewontin displayed his knowledge of French, Spanish and
German while dissecting the etymologies of "develop" and "adapt" in
order to disabuse us of such notions. Organisms do not "deVelop" in the
sense of unravelling to a preset design. The defunct homunculus still
exists in the idea that our DNA determines who we are. But the
differences between the fingerprints on each hand and the differences
between the Dion quintuplets demonstrate that in addition to DNA and
environment, random events are critical to our individuation.
Similarly, organisms do not "adApt" or fit to a niche. Rather they
create niches. The stones and roof tiles that thrushes in England use
to crack snails do not exist in the same way for the crows that do not
use them. He goes so far as to claim that a thrush's DNA creates its
environment. Jensen's argument that environment merely bends inherent
IQ is wrong. Plant variations that exhibit certain growth capabilities
at low altitude have completely uncorrelated capabilites at medium and
high altitudes.
Lewontin promises to offend everyone tonight with his ideas on cultural
evolution. He and Gould are infamous for their battle against Wilson's
(same zoology department) sociobiology.
-Roger
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