In these essays Dawkins
revisits
the meme.
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Break the Science Barrier with Richard Dawkins, Channel 4, Equinox Series, 1996
Times Literary Supplement, 11 September 1992. Originally published in Japanese as 'My Intended Burial and Why', Insectarium, 28 (1991), 238-47. Reprinted in English under the same title in Ethology, Ecology & Evolution, 12 (2000), 111-22 W. D. Hamilton, 'Innate social aptitudes of man: an approach from evolutionary genetics' in R. Fox (ed. ), Biosocial Anthropology (London, Malaby Press, 1975) W. D. Hamilton, Narrow Roads of Gene Land, vol. 1: Evolution of Social Behaviour (Oxford, W. H. Freeman and Stockton Press, 1996). Volume 2 (Evolution of Sex) has now appeared (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001), with this eulogy as its Foreword
John Diamond, Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations (London, Vintage, 2001) K. Sterelny, Dawkins vs Gould: Survival of the Fittest (Cambridge, Icon Books, 2001)
A. Brown, The Darwin Wars: How Stupid Genes Became Selfish Gods (London, Pocket Books, 2000)
Lays of Ancient Rome
S. J. Gould, 'Self-help for a hedgehog stuck on a molehill' (review of R. Dawkins, Climbing Mount Improbable), Evolution, 51 (1997), 1020-3
S. J. Gould, 'The Pattern of Life's History' in J. Brockman (ed. ), The Third Culture (New York, Simon & Schuster, 1995), p. 64
P. B. Medawar, Art of the Soluble (London, Penguin, 1969)
Review of S. J. Gould, Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History (London, Andre Deutsch, 1978). First published in Nature, 276 (9 November 1978), 121-3
Reprinted as 'Caring Groups and Selfish Genes' in S. J. Gould, The Panda's Thumb (New York, W. W. Norton, 1980)
G. C. Williams, Adaptation and Natural Selection (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966), pp. 22-5 and 56-7
P. B. Medawar, Pluto's Republic (New York, Oxford University Press Inc. , 1982)
S. J. Gould, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes (New York, W. W Norton, 1983)
P. B. Medawar, The Hope of Progress (London, Methuen, 1972)
R. Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 2nd edn (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 271-2. See also R. Dawkins, The Extended Phenotype (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 116-17, 239-47
ENDNOTES
253
? ENDNOTES
us Review of S. J. Gould, Wonderful Life (London, Hutchinson Radius, 1989). Published in the Sunday Telegraph, 25 February 1990
119
Daily Telegraph, 22 January 1990
120 R e v i e w 0 f s. J. Gould, Full House (New York, Harmony Books, 1996); published
in the UK as Life's Grandeur (London, Jonathan Cape, 1996). In Evolution, 51:3 June 1997), 1015-20
I have devoted a whole article to attacking the idea of progress in this sense: R. Dawkins, 'Progress' in E. Fox Keller and E. Lloyd (eds. ), Keywords in evolutionary biology (Cambridge, Mass. , Harvard University Press, 1992), pp. 263-72
122
123
124
125
126 127 128
129
130
131
132
133
134 135
136
137
138
139
121
254
J. Maynard Smith, 'Time in the Evolutionary Process', Studium Generate, 23 (1970), 266-72
D. W. McShea, 'Metazoan complexity and evolution: is there a trend? ', Evolution, 50 (1996), 477-92
J. W. S. Pringle, 'On the parallel between learning and evolution', Behaviour, 3 (1951), 90-110
J. Huxley, The Individual in the Animal Kingdom (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1912)
J. Huxley, Essays of a Biologist (London, Chatto & Windus, 1926)
S. Pinker, The Language Instinct (London, Viking, 1994)
M. Ridley, 'Coadaptation and the inadequacy of natural selection', Brit. J. Hist. Sci. , 15 (1982), 45-68
R. Dawkins and J. R. Krebs, 'Arms races between and within species', Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B, 205 (1979), 489-511
H. Jerison, Evolution of the brain and intelligence (New York, Academic Press, 1973)
J. Maynard Smith, 'Genes, Memes and Minds', New York Review of Books, 30 (30 November 1995). Review of D. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea
R. Leakey and R. Lewin, The Sixth Extinction (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996)
G. A. Wray, J. S. Levinton and L. H. Shapiro, 'Molecular Evidence for Deep Precambrian Divergences Among Metazoan Phyla', Science 27A (1996), 568
http://www. arn. org/docs/pjweekly/pj_weekly_011202. htm
S. J. Gould, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (Cambridge, Mass. , Harvard University Press, 2002)
D. Barash, 'Grappling with the Ghost of Gould', Human Nature Review, 2 (9 July 2002), 283-92
Foreword to H. Croze and J. Reader, Pyramids of Life (London, Harvill Press, 2000)
Originally published as article on E. Huxley, Red Strangers (London, Chatto, 1964) in the Financial Times, 9 May 1998; later as Foreword to the book, republished by Penguin Books (1999)
Angus, Maisie and Travers McNeice, The Lion Children (London, Orion Books, 2001)
? 140
141 142
143 144
First published as 'All Our Yesterdays' in the Sunday Times, 31 December 1995
R. Leakey, The Origin of Humankind (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994) I. Douglas-Hamilton and O. Douglas-Hamilton, Among the Elephants (London, Viking, 1975). I. Douglas-Hamilton and O. Douglas-Hamilton, Battle for the Elephants (London, Doubleday, 1992)
P. Matthiessen, The Tree where Man was Born (London, Harvill Press, 1998) Published in J. Brockman and K. Matson (eds. ), How Things Are (New York, Morrow, 1995)
ENDNOTES
255
? A Shropshire Lad, 177-178
Abortion, see Ethics
Acquired characteristics, Inheritance of,
see Lamarckian theory Adams, Douglas, 139, 156-157, 163,
165-170 Adaptations
As state of order, 85
Ecosystems are not, 226 Lamarckian cannot explain, 90 Only cumulative evolution builds
complex, 87, 212
Result of nonrandom guiding
mechanism, 88 Adaptive radiation, 214
Agassiz, Louis, 198 Ageing
Medawar/Williams theory of, 132
W. D. Hamilton on, 173, 177 Agnostic conciliation, 149-150 Alpha globin, see Globin 'Alternative' medicine, 36, 179-186 Amino acid, 97, 113
Ammophila, see Digger wasp Ancestor, Common, 101
Of all living species, 66, 96
Of apes, 22-23
Of Cambrian phyla, 215, 216
Of humans and chimpanzees, 23-25,
74, 114
Of vertebrates, 98
Angier, Natalie, 171
Archimedes, 80f
Ardipithecus, 74
Assumption, Doctrine of, 151, 244, 245 Astrology, 6, 43
Aunger, Robert, 127f Australopithecus, 24, 74, 75, 114, 239 Autumn leaves, Hamilton on, 173 Axelrod, Robert, 173
Axolotl, 75
Bacteria
Animal as community of, 227
Antibiotic resistance among, 29
'Age of, 209
Balkin, J. M. , 127f
Barash, David, 222
Barlow, Horace, 94f
Bartz, Stephen, 172
Bateson, William, 79
Baudrillard, Jean, 50
Bauplan, 216
Benedict XIV, 151
Bentham, Jeremy, 25
Beta globin, see Globin Bipedality, 74-75
Birch, Martin, 176
Bishop of Oxford, 80f
Bit, 93, 94
Blackmore, Susan, 117, 123, 127f Blair, Tony, 6, 27, 156f
Blind Watchmaker, The, 11, 83f Bloom, H, 127f
Blueprint vs. Recipe, 89, 105 Boswell, James, 179
Boyer, Pascal, 118f
Bozzi, Luisa, 173, 174
Bradman, Sir Donald, 27
Brain, Human
As data duplicator, 135-136
As meme habitat, 124, 126, 128, 137 Enlargement of, 74-75
Enormous due to sexual selection, 77 Thwarts Darwinian designs, 11 Constructs useful model of world, 46
Braininess, as evolutionary progress, 209-214
Brenner, Sydney, 112, 113 Bricmont, Jean, 14, 47-53 Bridge, Frederick, 164 Brlggs, Derek, 203 Brockman, John, 62, 241 Brockman, Max, 241 Brodie, R. , 127f
Bromhall, Derek, 37 Brough, James, 204 Brown, Andrew, 187
256
INDEX
? Brown, Gillian, 127f Browne, Sir Thomas, 139 Buchsbaum, Ralph, 109f Buckminsterfullerene, 44 Burgess Shale, 203-205
Caenorhabditis elegans, 108-109 'Cambrian explosion', 192, 216 Cannibalism, 25, 35
Carroll, Lewis, 139
Chaos theory, Misuse of, 50, 147 Chardin, Teilhard de, 196-197, 198 Charles, Prince, 28, 36, 181 Charnov, EX. , 70
Chimpanzee Genome Project, 114 Chromosome
As computer tape, 105
Containing genes for globins, 97-98 Parasitic DNA splices itself seamlessly
into, 129
X chromosome, 62, 104, 106
Circumcision, 124-125
Civil liberties, 32-33
Clark, Ronald, 197
Clarke, Arthur C, 92f, 110
Climbing Mount Improbable, 83f, 187,
188, 212f Cloning
Human, see Ethics
Placenta as clone of baby, 35-36 Studio discussion of, 152-153
Cobb, J. A. , 71
Coevolutionary arms race, 191, 213,
214, 216, 217 Competition
For opposite sex, 65, 71 Survival of macromutations in
absence of, 87
Within species, causing extinction, 191
Complexity (see also Genome: Information content of)
As information content, 100-102
Increase in, 209-217 Complexity theory, Misuse of, 147 Convergence
Modern physics and eastern mysticism, 147-148
Science and religion, 146-151 ' Conway Morris, Simon, 203, 205 Cooperation, Evolution of, 173 Copying, see Fidelity under Gene, Meme Creationism
'Intelligent design', 102, 219-221
Young Earth Creationism, 58 Creationists
Propaganda of, 61, 91
Refusing to debate with, 188-189,
218-221
Regrettable gift of punctuated
equilibrists to, 199
Creator, The
Added to later editions of Origin, 13f Treats genomes of newts capriciously,
97
Litters genomes with pseudogenes, 99
Crick, Francis, 27, 28, 63, 89, 90, 107, 108, 124
Cronin, Helena, 64, 140 Crow, James, 88f
Croze, Harvey, 223, 225-227 Crystals
Alleged magical properties of, 42-43 Structure of lattices, 43-45 Self-assembly of, 45
Cultural relativism, 14-16, 17, 223, 229 Cultural Studies, 52
Culture, 127, 128 (see also Meme) Culturgen, 125
Cupitt, Don, 147 Curie brothers, 45 Cuvier, Georges, 201
Darwin, Charles, 5, 61
His coining of 'Devil's Chaplain', 8 His encyclopaedic knowledge, 66
His near anticipation of Fisher on sex
ratios, 70
His near discovery of Mendelism,
67-69
His 'other' theory, see Sexual
selection
His timeless achievement, 78-79 His disagreement with Wallace, 64 His Victorian outlook, 66, 76
His views on race, 64, 76
Not against punctuationism, 212 On worms, 200
Darwinism
Coining by Wallace, 64
Core, 81-90
Incompatibility with blending
inheritance, 67
Moral implications of, 8-13 Opposing as human being, 11 Universal, 61, 78-90, 127
Data
Independent, 39-41 Compression of, 94
Davies, Paul, 146, 147
Dawkins, Juliet, 233, 241-248 Dawkins' Law of the Conservation of
Difficulty, 6
Death, Forecasting, 33-34
Deleuze, Gilles, 47
Delius, Juan, 124
Dennett, Daniel, 66, 83f, 117, 147, 215
On memes, 127f, 128, 130
Descent of Man, The, 61, 63-77 Design, Illusion of, 79, 225 Determinism see Genetic determinism
INDEX
257
? INDEX
Development (see also Embryology) Complex recipe-like effects of genes
on, 29, 89, 105
Embryonic, Evolutionary change in
terms of, 200-202
Coding for complex life cycles, 99 Point at which foetus 'becomes
human', 22
Rubber band and blanket analogy
for, 105-106
Devil's Chaplain, A, 5, 8-13 Diamond, 43-44, 45, 46 Diamond, Jared, 76
Diamond, John, 36, 179-186 Digger wasp, 8
Disraeli, Benjamin (as typewriter
transubstantiated), 138 DNA
Duplicating, 129 Fingerprinting, 31-32 Information content of, 94, 95 Junk, 97, 99
National database, 32-33 Parasitic, 129, 135
Selfish, 97f, 129
Sequencing, 108-112
Viral, 129
Dobzhansky, Theodosius, 12, 58
Dolly (sheep), 34, 36, 37, 118, 152-153 Double Helix, The, 107
Double-blind trials, 36, 180, 181-184,
185
Douglas-Hamilton, Iain and Oria, 236-239 Dusing, Carl, 71
Eberhard, W. C , 66 Ecological community
Of computer viruses, 134
Of genes, 227
Ecosystems, 225-227
Education, 7, 54-60, 232
Edwards, A. W. F. , 71
Einstein, Albert, 6, 16, 46, 79, 146, 147,
149
Eldredge, Niles, 188, 189, 199 Embryology (see also Development)
'Computing' a developing embryo, 113
Preformationistic vs epigenetic, 89 Entropy, 84-85, 96
Environment
Ancestral, 113
Interaction of genes with, 29,113, 227 Epidemiology
Informational, 130
In spread of scientific ideas, 145 Of childhood crazes, 136
Of convictions, 143, 145
Epigenesis, 89
Erectile organ, Mathematical
significance of, 49
Essentialism, 204 Ethics
Conjoined twins, 35
Human-centred view of, 114,
Of abortion, 34, 114
Of chimp/human hybrid, 24-26, 191 Of human cloning, 34
Of stem cell research, 34-35, 114 Reconstructing Lucy, 114-115 Science does not define, 34-36
Eucaryote, 209
Eugenics, 31
Evangelists, Television, 143
Evans, Christopher, 110
Ever Since Darwin, 187, 190-193, 197, 202 Evolution
As art of the developable, 200-202 As central to education, 58
As progressive, 101, 207-217
Does not violate Second Law, 84 Gradualistic, 81, 211-213
Myth of progress to man, 191, 205, 208
Nonadaptive, 81 (see also Neutral theory)
Nonrandom nature of Darwinian, 88 Of computer viruses, 135
Of evolvability, 209, 216
Of vertebrate eye, 212, 213
Positive feedback in, 213
Role of genes in, 222 Evolutionarily stable state, 193 Exam
Pressure, Destructive effects of, 54, 58
Syllabuses, Limited nature of, 58-59 Expression of the Emotions, The, 63, 72 Extended phenotype, 124, 222 Extinction, 21, 26, 34, 103, 114, 191,
205, 214
Fabre, Jean Henri, 8 Faith
As symptom of infection by mind virus, 138
Exercised by belief in impossible things, 139-141
Intolerance to apostates, heretics, and rival faiths, 141
Respect for, 142, 154-155, 156-157 Spread of, compared to scientific
ideas, 145
Suicide in the service of, 142, 158
Feedback, Positive, 125-126, 213 Female choice, see Sexual selection Feynman, Richard, 18
Fidelity in replication, see Gene, Meme Fisher, Kenneth, 59
Fisher, R. A. , 65, 67-72, 82, 86, 172, 213 Fossil, 18, 24, 72, 74-75, 112, 199f,
258
203-205, 210, 212, 225, 235, 239
? Foucault, Michel, 48 Freud, Sigmund, 78 FullHouse, 188,206-217 Fuller, R. Buckminster, 44
Gaia, 173
Galapagos, 79, 82 Galileo, 148
Games, Theory of, 173 Garte, Seymour J. , 69 Gene
As digital information, 105
As recipe, 89, 105
As software subroutine, 28 Cooperative, 126
Duplication and deletion, 97-99 Ecology of, 227
Fidelity in replication, 121-122, 125 For Huntington's Chorea, 33 Frequencies, 67, 80, 222
'Gay', 62, 104-106
Geographical distribution of, 111 Horizontal transmission in viruses,
119-120 Jumping, 129
Longitudinal transmission down generations, 119, 125
Not merely book-keeper, 222
Pool, 67, 80, 102-103, 113, 126, 134,
193, 222, 226, 227 Pseudogene, 96, 97, 98, 99
Role in evolution, 222
Selection, 193
Statistical effect of, 106 Transgenic imports, Revulsion to,
28-29
Genetic atomism, 193, 201
Genetic Book of the Dead, 113, 222 Genetic code, Digital nature of, 28-29,
107-108
'Genetic determinism', 62, 104-106,
193, 197
Genetic engineering, 28-29
Ghiselin, Michael, 66 Gini, Corrado, 71 Gish, Duane P. , 218 Globin, 97-98
God
Cruelty of, 8
Redefining, 147, 149
GodeT's Theorem, Misuses of, 50 Goldberg, Rube, 192 Goodenough, Ursula, 146, 147 Gould, Stephen J. , 101, 187-222 Grafen, Alan, 70, 140, 171
Gray, Asa, 8, 212
Great Ape Project, 5, 114
Gross, Paul, 14, 51, 53
Group selection, 201
Guattari, Felix, 47
Gull, 22, 38
Guthrie, Woody, 33f
Haemoglobin, 97 (see also Globin) Haig, David, 171
Haldane, J. B. S. , 95, 197 Hamilton, Christine, 175 Hamilton, Ruth, 177
Hamilton, W. D. , 64, 70, 164, 171-178 Hardy-Weinberg Law, 67
Hawking, Stephen, 146, 147, 149 Hayles, Katherine, 50
Heber, Bishop, 11
Heisenberg, Werner, 78, 147
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, 198-202 Higher-level selection, 205, 226 (see also
Group selection) Hinde, Robert, 118f
Hitler, Adolf, 9, 111, 158, 159f Hodgkin, Jonathan, 108-109 Hofstadter, Douglas, 138f, 139 Holloway, John, 195
Holy war, 142 Homeopathy
Double-blind trials of, 181-184
Failure to demonstrate effect of, 36 Homo erectus, 24, 74
Homo habilis, 24, 74, 239 Homosexuality, Genetic factors in,
104-106
Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton, 8 Housman, A. E. , 177
Hox, 113
Hoyle, Sir Fred, 199, 211-212, 214 Human Genome Diversity Project, 31 Human Genome Project, 30, 109,
110-111 (see also Genome, Human) Humans
As African apes, 23-24, 72-74 Evolution of, 72-77
Genetic closeness to chimpanzees,
72, 191 Hume, David, 179
Genetic fingerprinting, fingerprinting
see DNA
Genetic landscape, 83
Genetically modified foods, 29 Genetics, Molecular, 27-34, 107-115 Genome
As colonies of viruses, 134 Chimpanzee, 73, 114
Dinosaur, 115
Human, 30, 31, 32, 72-73, 96, 98,
99, 109, 110-111, 114 Information content of, 96-103 Reconstructing Lucy's, 114-115 Sequencing, 108-113
Genomes, Comparing, 72-73, 96-97, 99 Genotype, 31, 123, 193
Gibbs, Willard, 84
INDEX
259
? INDEX
Humphrey, Nicholas, 118f
Hunter gatherers, 76 Huntington's Chorea, 33, 144 Huxley, Aldous, 49, 75
Huxley, Elspeth, 223, 228-230 Huxley, Julian, 10, 11, 12, 75, 210 Huxley, T. H. , 10, 18, 67, 80 Hyman, L. H. , 208
Hyman, Ray, 184, 185
Ichneumonidae, 8
Imitation, 39, 119, 120 (see also Meme) Immunization against computer viruses,
131 Information
Epidemiology of, 130
Technical definition of, 92-93 Self-replicating, 117, 137 (see also
Meme)
Information technology, Genetics as,
107-108 Information theory, 92-96 Inheritance
Blending, 67
Particulate, 67-69, 80, 82 Lamarckian, 123, 124, Weismannian, 123
Intellectual Impostures, 47-53 'Intelligent design', see Creationism Intermediates, 21-25, 74, 114 Invasion, Evidence in genes of, 111 Irigaray, Luce, 49, 50
Jenkin, Fleeming, 67
Jerison, H. , 214
Johnson, Phillip, 218, 220, 221 Jones, Reverend Jim, 142-143 Judson, Olivia, 171, 176 Jurassic Park, 114, 115
Kamiya, Gary, 51
Kat, Pieter, 232
Kenny, Anthony, 138, 144, 145 Kimura, Motoo, 73, 87, 88 Kinesiology, 184-185
King, Martin Luther, 157 Kinship, Genetic theory of, 173 Koertge, Noretta, 14
Koestler, Arthur, 197
Kroto, Sir Harry, 44
Kuhn, Thomas, 16
Lacan, Jacques, 49
Lacks, Henrietta, 34-35
Ladder of life, 66, 72, 208
Laland, Kevin, 127f
Lamarckian theory, 9, 80, 88-90, 123,
124, 222 Lande, R. , 65
Language
As cultural barrier to gene flow, 77 Development of, 75
Evolution of, 136
Learning by imitation, 119 Quasi-genetic inheritance of, 124
Latour, Bruno, 50 Lawyers
Discontinuous minds of, 21-22 Gloating, 25
Histrionic, gallery-playing, 39
Leakey, Louis, 235
Leakey, Meave, 235, 239
Leakey, Richard, 215, 234, 235, 236,
239, 240 Levinton, J. S. , 216
Levitt, Norman, 14, 51, 53 Lewes, George Henry, 195 Lewin, Roger, 215
Lewis, C. S. , 231
Lion Children, The, 224, 231-233 Lucretius, 80
Lucy, 114-115
Lynch, A. , 127f
Lyotard, Jean-Francois, 50
Macromutation, see Mutation
Maddox, John, 17f
Magisterium, Conceding to religion its
own, 148, 150-151 Marx, Karl, 67, 78, 79 Matson, Katinka, 241 Maxwell's Demon, 85
May, Robert, 112, 173
Maynard Smith, John, 88f, 172, 173,
209, 215, 216f
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 187 Mao Tse Tung, 231
Matthiessen, Peter, 237
Mayr, Ernst, 89
McNeice, Angus, Maisie, Travers and
Oakley, 231-233
McShea, D. W. , 209-210, 214 Medawar, Peter, 6, 48, 107, 132, 188,
190, 194-198, 200, 201-202 Melchett, Lord, 28
Meme Machine, The, 117, 119-127 Meme, 117-127, 128, 129, 145,146f, 222
Analogy with computer virus, 117, 129-130, 137
Analogy with gene, 119-120
As Darwinian replicator, 127 Complex, Coadapted, see Memeplex Fidelity in transmission of, 121-124 Longitudinal and horizontal
transmission of, 121
Natural selection of, 125
Not digital, 121
Oxford Dictionary definition of, 120
Memeplex, 117, 126 (see also Religion) Memetics, 67, 120, 125
260
? Mendel, Gregor, 67, 69, 107 Mendelism, 68-69, 82
Middle Eastern politics, 159 Migration, Evidence in genes of, 111 Migratory mixing, 102
Miliband, David, 6 Mill, John Stuart, 195 Miller, Geoffrey, 77 Miller, Jonathan, 163 Mind
As seeker after pattern, 185
Darwin's materialistic view of, 64,191 Discontinuous, 21-26
Limitations of, 19
Meme hypothesis of, 127
Parasites, see Meme, Memeplex, Virus
of the mind, Religion Symptoms of infection, 137-144
Miracle stories, 150
Missing link, 114, 199
Modern Synthesis, see Neo-Darwinism Molecular biology, see Genetics, Molecular Molecular clock, 72, 73-74, 216 Monotheism, 157
Montgomery of Alamein, Viscount, 231 Moore's Law, 108
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 198 Multicellularity, 217
Mutations
As movement through genetic space, 83-88
Complex effect on developmental processes, 201
Frame-shift, 100
Macromutations, 86-88, 122, 202 Neutral, 73, 81, 192
Provide genetic variation, 102 Random nature of, 85, 88
Rate of, 122
Myhrvold, Nathan, 108 Mystery
As better unsolved, 138
Of the Transubstantiation, 138-139,
141, 144
Of the Trinity, 139
Mysticism, 147
Narrow Roads of Gene Land, 177 Natural Selection
Contributes information to gene pool, 102-103
Distinct from sexual selection, 65 Female preference subject to, 65 Hoyle's misunderstanding of,
211-212, 214
Influences evolution only when
acting on replicators, 222 Meme-based, 125
Neutral mutations hidden from, 192
Nature/nurture cliche, 61
Necker Cube, 16
Nematode worm, see Caenorhabditis
elegans
Neo-Darwinism, 67, 79, 80, 107, 126, 172, 173, 205, 221
Neoteny, 75
Neutral theory, 73, 88
New Age, 42, 45, 46
Newton, Isaac, 16, 49, 55, 178
Nicholls, Kate, 232
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 59 Northern Ireland, 154, 156, 158, 159, 248 Norton-Griffiths, Michael and Annie,
234-235, 236 Nucleotide sequence, 113
Oncogene, 129
Orchid, 212
Origin of Species, On the, 12, 13f, 61, 63,
67, 72, 80, 170, 234 Orrorin, 74
Orthogenesis, 191
Palumbi, Stephen, 220 Parasite
DNA, 129
Lineages favour decreased
complexity, 101, 210, 211 Of the mind, 117, 137 (see also
Meme, Religion) Resistance to, 64 Software, 129 Theory of sex, 173
Parental expenditure/investment, 70, 71 Patai, Daphne, 14
Pater, Walter, 195
Patriotism, Mindless, 55
Peacocks' tails, 140 (see also Sexual selection)
Phenotype, 100, 122, 123, 124, 125, 192, 193
Phylogenetic tree, 112 Physics Envy, 6
Picasso, Pablo, 27
Pierce, Naomi, 171 Piezoelectric effect, 45 Piltdown hoax, 198-199 Pinker, Steven, 211
Pius XII, 151
Placenta, As clone of baby, 35 Planck, Max, 78
Pluto's Republic, 48, 188, 194-197 Pope's message on evolution, 148 Popper, Karl, 16, 196 Postmodernism
Disrobed, 47-53
Meaning of, 7
Postmodernism Generator, 53
Preformationism, 89
Pringle, J. W. S. , 100, 102, 210
INDEX
261
? INDEX
'Pro life', as only pro human life, 22, 114 Procaryote, 209
Progress, Evolutionary, 208, 211-217 Protein, 73, 96, 97, 99, 105, 113, 192 Pseudogene, see Gene
Psychics, 6, 17f, 43
Punctuated equilibrium, 199, 212 Pyramids of Life, 223, 225-227
Quadrumana, 72 Quantum theory
Counter-intuitive nature of, 18 Misuse of, 50, 147
Races
Arising from sexual selection, 63,
76-77
Minimal genetic variation between,
31, 76
Victorian hierarchical view, 66
Radioactive dating, 72, 74 Randi, James, 17f, 183 Random walk, 88
Reader, John, 223, 225-227 Recipe vs. Blueprint, 89, 105 Red Queen Effect, 213
Red Strangers, 223, 228-230 Reductionism, 197
Redundancy (cf. information), 92, 94 Relativity, Theory of, 46, 50, 107 Religion
As cultural barrier to gene flow, 77 As handed-down traditions, 243, 247 As labjel, 158-161
As memeplex, 117, 126
As virus of the mind, 117, 128, 135,
137-145
Epidemiology of, 143
Generating sensations akin to sexual
love, 144
Organized, 117-118
Making scientific claims, 150
Not converging with science, 146-151
Religious
Atrocity, see September 11th 2001 Customs, Quasi-genetic inheritance
of, 124
Lobbies, 152,154
Privilege given to opinions of the,
118, 152-155 Propaganda, 150
Replicator, 11, 126, 127, 135, 137, 222, (see also Gene, Meme, Virus)
Reproductive success, Variance in, 72 Revelation, 243, 245-246
Ridley, Mark, 212
Ridley, Matt, 171
Ring species, 22
River Out of Eden, 14 Robinson, Heath, 192
Ross, Andrew, 52
Rubber Band Analogy, 105-106 Ruse, Michael, 63
Rushdie, Salman, 141, 244f Russell, Bertrand, 5, 54
His teapot, 117-118, 149 Ryder, Richard, 21f
Sagan, Carl, 29, 146, 147 Sahelanthropus, 74
Saltation, 86, 88 {see also Mutation:
macromutation) Sanderson, E W. , 7, 13, 54-60 Schliemann, Heinrich, 239 Science
As frequently counter-intuitive, 18 As proceeding by conjecture and
refutation, 16
Cannot define ethics, 34-36
Its claim to truth, 15
Not converging with religion, 146-151 Not a virus, 145
Spiritual nature of, 27
Wonder of, 43
Scientific method, 14, 32, 145, 156, 181, 195-196
Segmentation
As single macromutation, 86-87 Millipede cf. lobster, 100-101, 210
Selection, see Natural selection, Sexual selection, Higher-level selection
Selection, Unit of, 126 (see also Gene, Meme)
Selfish Gene, The, 97i
Selfishness, 173 Self-replicating
Computer program, 129 Element of culture, 120 Information, 117, 137 Virus, 133, 134
September 11th 2001, 118, 156-161 Sex
Economic view of, 69-72
Parasite theory of, 173
Sex ratio, 69-72, 172, 173 Sexual inequality, 71-72
Sexual recombination, 102, 103 Sexual selection
Darwin's theory of, 63-77, 80 Handicap theory of, 140-141 Positive feedback in evolution, 213 Wallacean view of, 77
Shakespeare, William, 61, 78, 202 Shannon, Claude, 92-96
Shapiro, L. H. , 216
Shaw, George Bernard, 9, 136 Simpson, O. J. , 40, 41
Singer, Peter, 5, 21f
Smith, Adam, 226
Smith, Logan Pearsall, 195
262
? Social Darwinists, 9
Sociobiology, 192
Software subroutine, see Gene Sokal, Alan, 6, 14, 47-53 Southwood, Dick, 174
Speciation, 97, 98
Species, Number of, 112, 199 Speciesism, 20, 21, 25, 26, 114, 191 Squire, J. C. , 160
St Paul, 143
Stasis, 214
Statistical sampling, 38-41 Steinbeck, John, 223
Stem cell research, see Ethics Stenger, Victor, 147
Sterelny, Kim, 187
Strauss, Richard, 95
Structure of Evolutionary Theory, The,
221-222 Sykes, Bryan, 11 If
Szathmary, E. , 216f
Taxonomy, 112
Teapot, Belief in orbiting, 117-118,
149-150
Templeton Prize, Author's Faustian
temptation, 147 Tertullian, 139
Thermodynamics, Second Law of, 84-85 Thimbleby, Harold, 132
Thompson, Sir D'Arcy, 195
Tinbergen, Niko, 38, 236
Tissue culture, 34-35 Transubstantiation, see Mystery Tree of life, see Phylogenetic tree Trial by jury, 6, 38^11
Trivers, Robert L. , 71, 72, 177 Trojan horse, 52, 128 Destructive program, 130
Twins
Conjoined, 35
Identical 30, 34, 153
Two Verdicts Concordance Test, 41
Unweaving the Rainbow, 32, 94f, 103, 113, 146, 188, 222
Vangelis, 237 Variation
Causes of genetic, 102 Superficial, as indicator of sexual
selection, 77
Directed, see Lamarckian theory Disappearance under blending
inheritance, 67
Effect on information content, 102 Human, 31, 76
Nonrandom survival of random, 88, (see also Adaptation, Natural selection)
Selectively neutral, 192, (see also Neutral theory)
Venn, John, 195
Venter, Craig, 30
Vidal, Gore, 157
Virtual reality, 11, 17, 46 Virus
As DNA parasite, 129
Computer, 117, 130-135, 145 Horizontal transmission of genes in,
119-120
Of the mind, 117, 128-145 (see also
Meme, Religion)
Similarity to crystals, 45
Use of data compression in RNA,
99-100
Walcott, C. D. , 203-204
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 64, 68, 82, 191 Ward, Lalla, 11, 165, 169, 232, 234, 236,
239
Watson, James D. , 27, 28, 63,107,108,124 Waugh, Evelyn, 235
Weaver, W. , 92f
Wells, H. G. , 9, 54, 57
Wells, Jonathan, 218, 220
Wells, S. , 11 If
Wesley, John, 143
Whittington, Harry, 203
Wilberforce, Bishop Sam, 80f
Williams, Barry, 91f
Williams, George C , 9, 10, 99, 132, 193 Wilson, E. O. , 171, 192f
Wittgenstein's mannerism, 119, 120 Wodehouse, P. G. , 195
Wolpert, Lewis, 18
Women's Studies, 14
Wonderful Life, 188, 203-205, 215
Wong, Yan, 112
Woodward, Louise, 40, 41
Wordsworth, William, 178
World Trade Center, 159, 160
Worm
Computer, 130
Gould on Darwin on, 200 'The', see Caenorhabditis elegans
Wray, G. A. , 216
Wright, Sewall, 83f
X chromosome, see Chromosome Yeats, W. B. , 13, 192, 241
Zahavi, Amotz, 64, 140-141, 143
INDEX
263
? 'Confirms IDawkins's) reputation as a superb prose stylist, perhaps tin- best popularizer of science working. . . Stunning. "
-- New York Review of Books
The first collection of essays from renowned scientist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins is an enthusiastic declaration, a testament to the power of rigorous scientific examination to reveal the wonders of the world.
In these essays Dawkins revisits the meme. the unit of cultural information that he named and wrote about in his groundbreaking work The Selfish Gene. Here also are moving tributes to friends and colleagues, including a eulogy for novelist Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-: correspondence wilh the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Could: and visits with the famed paleoanthropologists Richard and Maeve Leakey at their African wildlife preserve. The collection ends with a vivid note to Dawkins"-; ten-year-old daughter, reminding her to remain curious, to ask questions, and to live the examined life.
"A rare hreal Bach essay uili grip you at once . . . [Dawkins is I a master of clear exposition of science and its liberating power. " Nev Scientist
"[Dawkins's] genius fo na jmind ides wonder. '"
A LIBRARY JOUKNAI BES '
boggling possibilities out of the
Sunday Times
CH BOOK OF THE YEAR
RICHARD DAWKINS is the Charles Simony i Professor of the Public Understanding nf Science ai Oxford University. He has written manyhighly acclaimed books, includ- ing Unweaving the Rainbow. The Blind Watch maker, and. most recently. Vie Ancestor's Tale. He lives in Oxford. England.
SCItNCE/ESSAVS SI 4.
00
01
03
04
Break the Science Barrier with Richard Dawkins, Channel 4, Equinox Series, 1996
Times Literary Supplement, 11 September 1992. Originally published in Japanese as 'My Intended Burial and Why', Insectarium, 28 (1991), 238-47. Reprinted in English under the same title in Ethology, Ecology & Evolution, 12 (2000), 111-22 W. D. Hamilton, 'Innate social aptitudes of man: an approach from evolutionary genetics' in R. Fox (ed. ), Biosocial Anthropology (London, Malaby Press, 1975) W. D. Hamilton, Narrow Roads of Gene Land, vol. 1: Evolution of Social Behaviour (Oxford, W. H. Freeman and Stockton Press, 1996). Volume 2 (Evolution of Sex) has now appeared (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2001), with this eulogy as its Foreword
John Diamond, Snake Oil and Other Preoccupations (London, Vintage, 2001) K. Sterelny, Dawkins vs Gould: Survival of the Fittest (Cambridge, Icon Books, 2001)
A. Brown, The Darwin Wars: How Stupid Genes Became Selfish Gods (London, Pocket Books, 2000)
Lays of Ancient Rome
S. J. Gould, 'Self-help for a hedgehog stuck on a molehill' (review of R. Dawkins, Climbing Mount Improbable), Evolution, 51 (1997), 1020-3
S. J. Gould, 'The Pattern of Life's History' in J. Brockman (ed. ), The Third Culture (New York, Simon & Schuster, 1995), p. 64
P. B. Medawar, Art of the Soluble (London, Penguin, 1969)
Review of S. J. Gould, Ever Since Darwin: Reflections in Natural History (London, Andre Deutsch, 1978). First published in Nature, 276 (9 November 1978), 121-3
Reprinted as 'Caring Groups and Selfish Genes' in S. J. Gould, The Panda's Thumb (New York, W. W. Norton, 1980)
G. C. Williams, Adaptation and Natural Selection (Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1966), pp. 22-5 and 56-7
P. B. Medawar, Pluto's Republic (New York, Oxford University Press Inc. , 1982)
S. J. Gould, Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes (New York, W. W Norton, 1983)
P. B. Medawar, The Hope of Progress (London, Methuen, 1972)
R. Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, 2nd edn (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1989), pp. 271-2. See also R. Dawkins, The Extended Phenotype (Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 116-17, 239-47
ENDNOTES
253
? ENDNOTES
us Review of S. J. Gould, Wonderful Life (London, Hutchinson Radius, 1989). Published in the Sunday Telegraph, 25 February 1990
119
Daily Telegraph, 22 January 1990
120 R e v i e w 0 f s. J. Gould, Full House (New York, Harmony Books, 1996); published
in the UK as Life's Grandeur (London, Jonathan Cape, 1996). In Evolution, 51:3 June 1997), 1015-20
I have devoted a whole article to attacking the idea of progress in this sense: R. Dawkins, 'Progress' in E. Fox Keller and E. Lloyd (eds. ), Keywords in evolutionary biology (Cambridge, Mass. , Harvard University Press, 1992), pp. 263-72
122
123
124
125
126 127 128
129
130
131
132
133
134 135
136
137
138
139
121
254
J. Maynard Smith, 'Time in the Evolutionary Process', Studium Generate, 23 (1970), 266-72
D. W. McShea, 'Metazoan complexity and evolution: is there a trend? ', Evolution, 50 (1996), 477-92
J. W. S. Pringle, 'On the parallel between learning and evolution', Behaviour, 3 (1951), 90-110
J. Huxley, The Individual in the Animal Kingdom (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1912)
J. Huxley, Essays of a Biologist (London, Chatto & Windus, 1926)
S. Pinker, The Language Instinct (London, Viking, 1994)
M. Ridley, 'Coadaptation and the inadequacy of natural selection', Brit. J. Hist. Sci. , 15 (1982), 45-68
R. Dawkins and J. R. Krebs, 'Arms races between and within species', Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B, 205 (1979), 489-511
H. Jerison, Evolution of the brain and intelligence (New York, Academic Press, 1973)
J. Maynard Smith, 'Genes, Memes and Minds', New York Review of Books, 30 (30 November 1995). Review of D. Dennett, Darwin's Dangerous Idea
R. Leakey and R. Lewin, The Sixth Extinction (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1996)
G. A. Wray, J. S. Levinton and L. H. Shapiro, 'Molecular Evidence for Deep Precambrian Divergences Among Metazoan Phyla', Science 27A (1996), 568
http://www. arn. org/docs/pjweekly/pj_weekly_011202. htm
S. J. Gould, The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (Cambridge, Mass. , Harvard University Press, 2002)
D. Barash, 'Grappling with the Ghost of Gould', Human Nature Review, 2 (9 July 2002), 283-92
Foreword to H. Croze and J. Reader, Pyramids of Life (London, Harvill Press, 2000)
Originally published as article on E. Huxley, Red Strangers (London, Chatto, 1964) in the Financial Times, 9 May 1998; later as Foreword to the book, republished by Penguin Books (1999)
Angus, Maisie and Travers McNeice, The Lion Children (London, Orion Books, 2001)
? 140
141 142
143 144
First published as 'All Our Yesterdays' in the Sunday Times, 31 December 1995
R. Leakey, The Origin of Humankind (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1994) I. Douglas-Hamilton and O. Douglas-Hamilton, Among the Elephants (London, Viking, 1975). I. Douglas-Hamilton and O. Douglas-Hamilton, Battle for the Elephants (London, Doubleday, 1992)
P. Matthiessen, The Tree where Man was Born (London, Harvill Press, 1998) Published in J. Brockman and K. Matson (eds. ), How Things Are (New York, Morrow, 1995)
ENDNOTES
255
? A Shropshire Lad, 177-178
Abortion, see Ethics
Acquired characteristics, Inheritance of,
see Lamarckian theory Adams, Douglas, 139, 156-157, 163,
165-170 Adaptations
As state of order, 85
Ecosystems are not, 226 Lamarckian cannot explain, 90 Only cumulative evolution builds
complex, 87, 212
Result of nonrandom guiding
mechanism, 88 Adaptive radiation, 214
Agassiz, Louis, 198 Ageing
Medawar/Williams theory of, 132
W. D. Hamilton on, 173, 177 Agnostic conciliation, 149-150 Alpha globin, see Globin 'Alternative' medicine, 36, 179-186 Amino acid, 97, 113
Ammophila, see Digger wasp Ancestor, Common, 101
Of all living species, 66, 96
Of apes, 22-23
Of Cambrian phyla, 215, 216
Of humans and chimpanzees, 23-25,
74, 114
Of vertebrates, 98
Angier, Natalie, 171
Archimedes, 80f
Ardipithecus, 74
Assumption, Doctrine of, 151, 244, 245 Astrology, 6, 43
Aunger, Robert, 127f Australopithecus, 24, 74, 75, 114, 239 Autumn leaves, Hamilton on, 173 Axelrod, Robert, 173
Axolotl, 75
Bacteria
Animal as community of, 227
Antibiotic resistance among, 29
'Age of, 209
Balkin, J. M. , 127f
Barash, David, 222
Barlow, Horace, 94f
Bartz, Stephen, 172
Bateson, William, 79
Baudrillard, Jean, 50
Bauplan, 216
Benedict XIV, 151
Bentham, Jeremy, 25
Beta globin, see Globin Bipedality, 74-75
Birch, Martin, 176
Bishop of Oxford, 80f
Bit, 93, 94
Blackmore, Susan, 117, 123, 127f Blair, Tony, 6, 27, 156f
Blind Watchmaker, The, 11, 83f Bloom, H, 127f
Blueprint vs. Recipe, 89, 105 Boswell, James, 179
Boyer, Pascal, 118f
Bozzi, Luisa, 173, 174
Bradman, Sir Donald, 27
Brain, Human
As data duplicator, 135-136
As meme habitat, 124, 126, 128, 137 Enlargement of, 74-75
Enormous due to sexual selection, 77 Thwarts Darwinian designs, 11 Constructs useful model of world, 46
Braininess, as evolutionary progress, 209-214
Brenner, Sydney, 112, 113 Bricmont, Jean, 14, 47-53 Bridge, Frederick, 164 Brlggs, Derek, 203 Brockman, John, 62, 241 Brockman, Max, 241 Brodie, R. , 127f
Bromhall, Derek, 37 Brough, James, 204 Brown, Andrew, 187
256
INDEX
? Brown, Gillian, 127f Browne, Sir Thomas, 139 Buchsbaum, Ralph, 109f Buckminsterfullerene, 44 Burgess Shale, 203-205
Caenorhabditis elegans, 108-109 'Cambrian explosion', 192, 216 Cannibalism, 25, 35
Carroll, Lewis, 139
Chaos theory, Misuse of, 50, 147 Chardin, Teilhard de, 196-197, 198 Charles, Prince, 28, 36, 181 Charnov, EX. , 70
Chimpanzee Genome Project, 114 Chromosome
As computer tape, 105
Containing genes for globins, 97-98 Parasitic DNA splices itself seamlessly
into, 129
X chromosome, 62, 104, 106
Circumcision, 124-125
Civil liberties, 32-33
Clark, Ronald, 197
Clarke, Arthur C, 92f, 110
Climbing Mount Improbable, 83f, 187,
188, 212f Cloning
Human, see Ethics
Placenta as clone of baby, 35-36 Studio discussion of, 152-153
Cobb, J. A. , 71
Coevolutionary arms race, 191, 213,
214, 216, 217 Competition
For opposite sex, 65, 71 Survival of macromutations in
absence of, 87
Within species, causing extinction, 191
Complexity (see also Genome: Information content of)
As information content, 100-102
Increase in, 209-217 Complexity theory, Misuse of, 147 Convergence
Modern physics and eastern mysticism, 147-148
Science and religion, 146-151 ' Conway Morris, Simon, 203, 205 Cooperation, Evolution of, 173 Copying, see Fidelity under Gene, Meme Creationism
'Intelligent design', 102, 219-221
Young Earth Creationism, 58 Creationists
Propaganda of, 61, 91
Refusing to debate with, 188-189,
218-221
Regrettable gift of punctuated
equilibrists to, 199
Creator, The
Added to later editions of Origin, 13f Treats genomes of newts capriciously,
97
Litters genomes with pseudogenes, 99
Crick, Francis, 27, 28, 63, 89, 90, 107, 108, 124
Cronin, Helena, 64, 140 Crow, James, 88f
Croze, Harvey, 223, 225-227 Crystals
Alleged magical properties of, 42-43 Structure of lattices, 43-45 Self-assembly of, 45
Cultural relativism, 14-16, 17, 223, 229 Cultural Studies, 52
Culture, 127, 128 (see also Meme) Culturgen, 125
Cupitt, Don, 147 Curie brothers, 45 Cuvier, Georges, 201
Darwin, Charles, 5, 61
His coining of 'Devil's Chaplain', 8 His encyclopaedic knowledge, 66
His near anticipation of Fisher on sex
ratios, 70
His near discovery of Mendelism,
67-69
His 'other' theory, see Sexual
selection
His timeless achievement, 78-79 His disagreement with Wallace, 64 His Victorian outlook, 66, 76
His views on race, 64, 76
Not against punctuationism, 212 On worms, 200
Darwinism
Coining by Wallace, 64
Core, 81-90
Incompatibility with blending
inheritance, 67
Moral implications of, 8-13 Opposing as human being, 11 Universal, 61, 78-90, 127
Data
Independent, 39-41 Compression of, 94
Davies, Paul, 146, 147
Dawkins, Juliet, 233, 241-248 Dawkins' Law of the Conservation of
Difficulty, 6
Death, Forecasting, 33-34
Deleuze, Gilles, 47
Delius, Juan, 124
Dennett, Daniel, 66, 83f, 117, 147, 215
On memes, 127f, 128, 130
Descent of Man, The, 61, 63-77 Design, Illusion of, 79, 225 Determinism see Genetic determinism
INDEX
257
? INDEX
Development (see also Embryology) Complex recipe-like effects of genes
on, 29, 89, 105
Embryonic, Evolutionary change in
terms of, 200-202
Coding for complex life cycles, 99 Point at which foetus 'becomes
human', 22
Rubber band and blanket analogy
for, 105-106
Devil's Chaplain, A, 5, 8-13 Diamond, 43-44, 45, 46 Diamond, Jared, 76
Diamond, John, 36, 179-186 Digger wasp, 8
Disraeli, Benjamin (as typewriter
transubstantiated), 138 DNA
Duplicating, 129 Fingerprinting, 31-32 Information content of, 94, 95 Junk, 97, 99
National database, 32-33 Parasitic, 129, 135
Selfish, 97f, 129
Sequencing, 108-112
Viral, 129
Dobzhansky, Theodosius, 12, 58
Dolly (sheep), 34, 36, 37, 118, 152-153 Double Helix, The, 107
Double-blind trials, 36, 180, 181-184,
185
Douglas-Hamilton, Iain and Oria, 236-239 Dusing, Carl, 71
Eberhard, W. C , 66 Ecological community
Of computer viruses, 134
Of genes, 227
Ecosystems, 225-227
Education, 7, 54-60, 232
Edwards, A. W. F. , 71
Einstein, Albert, 6, 16, 46, 79, 146, 147,
149
Eldredge, Niles, 188, 189, 199 Embryology (see also Development)
'Computing' a developing embryo, 113
Preformationistic vs epigenetic, 89 Entropy, 84-85, 96
Environment
Ancestral, 113
Interaction of genes with, 29,113, 227 Epidemiology
Informational, 130
In spread of scientific ideas, 145 Of childhood crazes, 136
Of convictions, 143, 145
Epigenesis, 89
Erectile organ, Mathematical
significance of, 49
Essentialism, 204 Ethics
Conjoined twins, 35
Human-centred view of, 114,
Of abortion, 34, 114
Of chimp/human hybrid, 24-26, 191 Of human cloning, 34
Of stem cell research, 34-35, 114 Reconstructing Lucy, 114-115 Science does not define, 34-36
Eucaryote, 209
Eugenics, 31
Evangelists, Television, 143
Evans, Christopher, 110
Ever Since Darwin, 187, 190-193, 197, 202 Evolution
As art of the developable, 200-202 As central to education, 58
As progressive, 101, 207-217
Does not violate Second Law, 84 Gradualistic, 81, 211-213
Myth of progress to man, 191, 205, 208
Nonadaptive, 81 (see also Neutral theory)
Nonrandom nature of Darwinian, 88 Of computer viruses, 135
Of evolvability, 209, 216
Of vertebrate eye, 212, 213
Positive feedback in, 213
Role of genes in, 222 Evolutionarily stable state, 193 Exam
Pressure, Destructive effects of, 54, 58
Syllabuses, Limited nature of, 58-59 Expression of the Emotions, The, 63, 72 Extended phenotype, 124, 222 Extinction, 21, 26, 34, 103, 114, 191,
205, 214
Fabre, Jean Henri, 8 Faith
As symptom of infection by mind virus, 138
Exercised by belief in impossible things, 139-141
Intolerance to apostates, heretics, and rival faiths, 141
Respect for, 142, 154-155, 156-157 Spread of, compared to scientific
ideas, 145
Suicide in the service of, 142, 158
Feedback, Positive, 125-126, 213 Female choice, see Sexual selection Feynman, Richard, 18
Fidelity in replication, see Gene, Meme Fisher, Kenneth, 59
Fisher, R. A. , 65, 67-72, 82, 86, 172, 213 Fossil, 18, 24, 72, 74-75, 112, 199f,
258
203-205, 210, 212, 225, 235, 239
? Foucault, Michel, 48 Freud, Sigmund, 78 FullHouse, 188,206-217 Fuller, R. Buckminster, 44
Gaia, 173
Galapagos, 79, 82 Galileo, 148
Games, Theory of, 173 Garte, Seymour J. , 69 Gene
As digital information, 105
As recipe, 89, 105
As software subroutine, 28 Cooperative, 126
Duplication and deletion, 97-99 Ecology of, 227
Fidelity in replication, 121-122, 125 For Huntington's Chorea, 33 Frequencies, 67, 80, 222
'Gay', 62, 104-106
Geographical distribution of, 111 Horizontal transmission in viruses,
119-120 Jumping, 129
Longitudinal transmission down generations, 119, 125
Not merely book-keeper, 222
Pool, 67, 80, 102-103, 113, 126, 134,
193, 222, 226, 227 Pseudogene, 96, 97, 98, 99
Role in evolution, 222
Selection, 193
Statistical effect of, 106 Transgenic imports, Revulsion to,
28-29
Genetic atomism, 193, 201
Genetic Book of the Dead, 113, 222 Genetic code, Digital nature of, 28-29,
107-108
'Genetic determinism', 62, 104-106,
193, 197
Genetic engineering, 28-29
Ghiselin, Michael, 66 Gini, Corrado, 71 Gish, Duane P. , 218 Globin, 97-98
God
Cruelty of, 8
Redefining, 147, 149
GodeT's Theorem, Misuses of, 50 Goldberg, Rube, 192 Goodenough, Ursula, 146, 147 Gould, Stephen J. , 101, 187-222 Grafen, Alan, 70, 140, 171
Gray, Asa, 8, 212
Great Ape Project, 5, 114
Gross, Paul, 14, 51, 53
Group selection, 201
Guattari, Felix, 47
Gull, 22, 38
Guthrie, Woody, 33f
Haemoglobin, 97 (see also Globin) Haig, David, 171
Haldane, J. B. S. , 95, 197 Hamilton, Christine, 175 Hamilton, Ruth, 177
Hamilton, W. D. , 64, 70, 164, 171-178 Hardy-Weinberg Law, 67
Hawking, Stephen, 146, 147, 149 Hayles, Katherine, 50
Heber, Bishop, 11
Heisenberg, Werner, 78, 147
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, 198-202 Higher-level selection, 205, 226 (see also
Group selection) Hinde, Robert, 118f
Hitler, Adolf, 9, 111, 158, 159f Hodgkin, Jonathan, 108-109 Hofstadter, Douglas, 138f, 139 Holloway, John, 195
Holy war, 142 Homeopathy
Double-blind trials of, 181-184
Failure to demonstrate effect of, 36 Homo erectus, 24, 74
Homo habilis, 24, 74, 239 Homosexuality, Genetic factors in,
104-106
Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton, 8 Housman, A. E. , 177
Hox, 113
Hoyle, Sir Fred, 199, 211-212, 214 Human Genome Diversity Project, 31 Human Genome Project, 30, 109,
110-111 (see also Genome, Human) Humans
As African apes, 23-24, 72-74 Evolution of, 72-77
Genetic closeness to chimpanzees,
72, 191 Hume, David, 179
Genetic fingerprinting, fingerprinting
see DNA
Genetic landscape, 83
Genetically modified foods, 29 Genetics, Molecular, 27-34, 107-115 Genome
As colonies of viruses, 134 Chimpanzee, 73, 114
Dinosaur, 115
Human, 30, 31, 32, 72-73, 96, 98,
99, 109, 110-111, 114 Information content of, 96-103 Reconstructing Lucy's, 114-115 Sequencing, 108-113
Genomes, Comparing, 72-73, 96-97, 99 Genotype, 31, 123, 193
Gibbs, Willard, 84
INDEX
259
? INDEX
Humphrey, Nicholas, 118f
Hunter gatherers, 76 Huntington's Chorea, 33, 144 Huxley, Aldous, 49, 75
Huxley, Elspeth, 223, 228-230 Huxley, Julian, 10, 11, 12, 75, 210 Huxley, T. H. , 10, 18, 67, 80 Hyman, L. H. , 208
Hyman, Ray, 184, 185
Ichneumonidae, 8
Imitation, 39, 119, 120 (see also Meme) Immunization against computer viruses,
131 Information
Epidemiology of, 130
Technical definition of, 92-93 Self-replicating, 117, 137 (see also
Meme)
Information technology, Genetics as,
107-108 Information theory, 92-96 Inheritance
Blending, 67
Particulate, 67-69, 80, 82 Lamarckian, 123, 124, Weismannian, 123
Intellectual Impostures, 47-53 'Intelligent design', see Creationism Intermediates, 21-25, 74, 114 Invasion, Evidence in genes of, 111 Irigaray, Luce, 49, 50
Jenkin, Fleeming, 67
Jerison, H. , 214
Johnson, Phillip, 218, 220, 221 Jones, Reverend Jim, 142-143 Judson, Olivia, 171, 176 Jurassic Park, 114, 115
Kamiya, Gary, 51
Kat, Pieter, 232
Kenny, Anthony, 138, 144, 145 Kimura, Motoo, 73, 87, 88 Kinesiology, 184-185
King, Martin Luther, 157 Kinship, Genetic theory of, 173 Koertge, Noretta, 14
Koestler, Arthur, 197
Kroto, Sir Harry, 44
Kuhn, Thomas, 16
Lacan, Jacques, 49
Lacks, Henrietta, 34-35
Ladder of life, 66, 72, 208
Laland, Kevin, 127f
Lamarckian theory, 9, 80, 88-90, 123,
124, 222 Lande, R. , 65
Language
As cultural barrier to gene flow, 77 Development of, 75
Evolution of, 136
Learning by imitation, 119 Quasi-genetic inheritance of, 124
Latour, Bruno, 50 Lawyers
Discontinuous minds of, 21-22 Gloating, 25
Histrionic, gallery-playing, 39
Leakey, Louis, 235
Leakey, Meave, 235, 239
Leakey, Richard, 215, 234, 235, 236,
239, 240 Levinton, J. S. , 216
Levitt, Norman, 14, 51, 53 Lewes, George Henry, 195 Lewin, Roger, 215
Lewis, C. S. , 231
Lion Children, The, 224, 231-233 Lucretius, 80
Lucy, 114-115
Lynch, A. , 127f
Lyotard, Jean-Francois, 50
Macromutation, see Mutation
Maddox, John, 17f
Magisterium, Conceding to religion its
own, 148, 150-151 Marx, Karl, 67, 78, 79 Matson, Katinka, 241 Maxwell's Demon, 85
May, Robert, 112, 173
Maynard Smith, John, 88f, 172, 173,
209, 215, 216f
Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 187 Mao Tse Tung, 231
Matthiessen, Peter, 237
Mayr, Ernst, 89
McNeice, Angus, Maisie, Travers and
Oakley, 231-233
McShea, D. W. , 209-210, 214 Medawar, Peter, 6, 48, 107, 132, 188,
190, 194-198, 200, 201-202 Melchett, Lord, 28
Meme Machine, The, 117, 119-127 Meme, 117-127, 128, 129, 145,146f, 222
Analogy with computer virus, 117, 129-130, 137
Analogy with gene, 119-120
As Darwinian replicator, 127 Complex, Coadapted, see Memeplex Fidelity in transmission of, 121-124 Longitudinal and horizontal
transmission of, 121
Natural selection of, 125
Not digital, 121
Oxford Dictionary definition of, 120
Memeplex, 117, 126 (see also Religion) Memetics, 67, 120, 125
260
? Mendel, Gregor, 67, 69, 107 Mendelism, 68-69, 82
Middle Eastern politics, 159 Migration, Evidence in genes of, 111 Migratory mixing, 102
Miliband, David, 6 Mill, John Stuart, 195 Miller, Geoffrey, 77 Miller, Jonathan, 163 Mind
As seeker after pattern, 185
Darwin's materialistic view of, 64,191 Discontinuous, 21-26
Limitations of, 19
Meme hypothesis of, 127
Parasites, see Meme, Memeplex, Virus
of the mind, Religion Symptoms of infection, 137-144
Miracle stories, 150
Missing link, 114, 199
Modern Synthesis, see Neo-Darwinism Molecular biology, see Genetics, Molecular Molecular clock, 72, 73-74, 216 Monotheism, 157
Montgomery of Alamein, Viscount, 231 Moore's Law, 108
Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus, 198 Multicellularity, 217
Mutations
As movement through genetic space, 83-88
Complex effect on developmental processes, 201
Frame-shift, 100
Macromutations, 86-88, 122, 202 Neutral, 73, 81, 192
Provide genetic variation, 102 Random nature of, 85, 88
Rate of, 122
Myhrvold, Nathan, 108 Mystery
As better unsolved, 138
Of the Transubstantiation, 138-139,
141, 144
Of the Trinity, 139
Mysticism, 147
Narrow Roads of Gene Land, 177 Natural Selection
Contributes information to gene pool, 102-103
Distinct from sexual selection, 65 Female preference subject to, 65 Hoyle's misunderstanding of,
211-212, 214
Influences evolution only when
acting on replicators, 222 Meme-based, 125
Neutral mutations hidden from, 192
Nature/nurture cliche, 61
Necker Cube, 16
Nematode worm, see Caenorhabditis
elegans
Neo-Darwinism, 67, 79, 80, 107, 126, 172, 173, 205, 221
Neoteny, 75
Neutral theory, 73, 88
New Age, 42, 45, 46
Newton, Isaac, 16, 49, 55, 178
Nicholls, Kate, 232
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 59 Northern Ireland, 154, 156, 158, 159, 248 Norton-Griffiths, Michael and Annie,
234-235, 236 Nucleotide sequence, 113
Oncogene, 129
Orchid, 212
Origin of Species, On the, 12, 13f, 61, 63,
67, 72, 80, 170, 234 Orrorin, 74
Orthogenesis, 191
Palumbi, Stephen, 220 Parasite
DNA, 129
Lineages favour decreased
complexity, 101, 210, 211 Of the mind, 117, 137 (see also
Meme, Religion) Resistance to, 64 Software, 129 Theory of sex, 173
Parental expenditure/investment, 70, 71 Patai, Daphne, 14
Pater, Walter, 195
Patriotism, Mindless, 55
Peacocks' tails, 140 (see also Sexual selection)
Phenotype, 100, 122, 123, 124, 125, 192, 193
Phylogenetic tree, 112 Physics Envy, 6
Picasso, Pablo, 27
Pierce, Naomi, 171 Piezoelectric effect, 45 Piltdown hoax, 198-199 Pinker, Steven, 211
Pius XII, 151
Placenta, As clone of baby, 35 Planck, Max, 78
Pluto's Republic, 48, 188, 194-197 Pope's message on evolution, 148 Popper, Karl, 16, 196 Postmodernism
Disrobed, 47-53
Meaning of, 7
Postmodernism Generator, 53
Preformationism, 89
Pringle, J. W. S. , 100, 102, 210
INDEX
261
? INDEX
'Pro life', as only pro human life, 22, 114 Procaryote, 209
Progress, Evolutionary, 208, 211-217 Protein, 73, 96, 97, 99, 105, 113, 192 Pseudogene, see Gene
Psychics, 6, 17f, 43
Punctuated equilibrium, 199, 212 Pyramids of Life, 223, 225-227
Quadrumana, 72 Quantum theory
Counter-intuitive nature of, 18 Misuse of, 50, 147
Races
Arising from sexual selection, 63,
76-77
Minimal genetic variation between,
31, 76
Victorian hierarchical view, 66
Radioactive dating, 72, 74 Randi, James, 17f, 183 Random walk, 88
Reader, John, 223, 225-227 Recipe vs. Blueprint, 89, 105 Red Queen Effect, 213
Red Strangers, 223, 228-230 Reductionism, 197
Redundancy (cf. information), 92, 94 Relativity, Theory of, 46, 50, 107 Religion
As cultural barrier to gene flow, 77 As handed-down traditions, 243, 247 As labjel, 158-161
As memeplex, 117, 126
As virus of the mind, 117, 128, 135,
137-145
Epidemiology of, 143
Generating sensations akin to sexual
love, 144
Organized, 117-118
Making scientific claims, 150
Not converging with science, 146-151
Religious
Atrocity, see September 11th 2001 Customs, Quasi-genetic inheritance
of, 124
Lobbies, 152,154
Privilege given to opinions of the,
118, 152-155 Propaganda, 150
Replicator, 11, 126, 127, 135, 137, 222, (see also Gene, Meme, Virus)
Reproductive success, Variance in, 72 Revelation, 243, 245-246
Ridley, Mark, 212
Ridley, Matt, 171
Ring species, 22
River Out of Eden, 14 Robinson, Heath, 192
Ross, Andrew, 52
Rubber Band Analogy, 105-106 Ruse, Michael, 63
Rushdie, Salman, 141, 244f Russell, Bertrand, 5, 54
His teapot, 117-118, 149 Ryder, Richard, 21f
Sagan, Carl, 29, 146, 147 Sahelanthropus, 74
Saltation, 86, 88 {see also Mutation:
macromutation) Sanderson, E W. , 7, 13, 54-60 Schliemann, Heinrich, 239 Science
As frequently counter-intuitive, 18 As proceeding by conjecture and
refutation, 16
Cannot define ethics, 34-36
Its claim to truth, 15
Not converging with religion, 146-151 Not a virus, 145
Spiritual nature of, 27
Wonder of, 43
Scientific method, 14, 32, 145, 156, 181, 195-196
Segmentation
As single macromutation, 86-87 Millipede cf. lobster, 100-101, 210
Selection, see Natural selection, Sexual selection, Higher-level selection
Selection, Unit of, 126 (see also Gene, Meme)
Selfish Gene, The, 97i
Selfishness, 173 Self-replicating
Computer program, 129 Element of culture, 120 Information, 117, 137 Virus, 133, 134
September 11th 2001, 118, 156-161 Sex
Economic view of, 69-72
Parasite theory of, 173
Sex ratio, 69-72, 172, 173 Sexual inequality, 71-72
Sexual recombination, 102, 103 Sexual selection
Darwin's theory of, 63-77, 80 Handicap theory of, 140-141 Positive feedback in evolution, 213 Wallacean view of, 77
Shakespeare, William, 61, 78, 202 Shannon, Claude, 92-96
Shapiro, L. H. , 216
Shaw, George Bernard, 9, 136 Simpson, O. J. , 40, 41
Singer, Peter, 5, 21f
Smith, Adam, 226
Smith, Logan Pearsall, 195
262
? Social Darwinists, 9
Sociobiology, 192
Software subroutine, see Gene Sokal, Alan, 6, 14, 47-53 Southwood, Dick, 174
Speciation, 97, 98
Species, Number of, 112, 199 Speciesism, 20, 21, 25, 26, 114, 191 Squire, J. C. , 160
St Paul, 143
Stasis, 214
Statistical sampling, 38-41 Steinbeck, John, 223
Stem cell research, see Ethics Stenger, Victor, 147
Sterelny, Kim, 187
Strauss, Richard, 95
Structure of Evolutionary Theory, The,
221-222 Sykes, Bryan, 11 If
Szathmary, E. , 216f
Taxonomy, 112
Teapot, Belief in orbiting, 117-118,
149-150
Templeton Prize, Author's Faustian
temptation, 147 Tertullian, 139
Thermodynamics, Second Law of, 84-85 Thimbleby, Harold, 132
Thompson, Sir D'Arcy, 195
Tinbergen, Niko, 38, 236
Tissue culture, 34-35 Transubstantiation, see Mystery Tree of life, see Phylogenetic tree Trial by jury, 6, 38^11
Trivers, Robert L. , 71, 72, 177 Trojan horse, 52, 128 Destructive program, 130
Twins
Conjoined, 35
Identical 30, 34, 153
Two Verdicts Concordance Test, 41
Unweaving the Rainbow, 32, 94f, 103, 113, 146, 188, 222
Vangelis, 237 Variation
Causes of genetic, 102 Superficial, as indicator of sexual
selection, 77
Directed, see Lamarckian theory Disappearance under blending
inheritance, 67
Effect on information content, 102 Human, 31, 76
Nonrandom survival of random, 88, (see also Adaptation, Natural selection)
Selectively neutral, 192, (see also Neutral theory)
Venn, John, 195
Venter, Craig, 30
Vidal, Gore, 157
Virtual reality, 11, 17, 46 Virus
As DNA parasite, 129
Computer, 117, 130-135, 145 Horizontal transmission of genes in,
119-120
Of the mind, 117, 128-145 (see also
Meme, Religion)
Similarity to crystals, 45
Use of data compression in RNA,
99-100
Walcott, C. D. , 203-204
Wallace, Alfred Russel, 64, 68, 82, 191 Ward, Lalla, 11, 165, 169, 232, 234, 236,
239
Watson, James D. , 27, 28, 63,107,108,124 Waugh, Evelyn, 235
Weaver, W. , 92f
Wells, H. G. , 9, 54, 57
Wells, Jonathan, 218, 220
Wells, S. , 11 If
Wesley, John, 143
Whittington, Harry, 203
Wilberforce, Bishop Sam, 80f
Williams, Barry, 91f
Williams, George C , 9, 10, 99, 132, 193 Wilson, E. O. , 171, 192f
Wittgenstein's mannerism, 119, 120 Wodehouse, P. G. , 195
Wolpert, Lewis, 18
Women's Studies, 14
Wonderful Life, 188, 203-205, 215
Wong, Yan, 112
Woodward, Louise, 40, 41
Wordsworth, William, 178
World Trade Center, 159, 160
Worm
Computer, 130
Gould on Darwin on, 200 'The', see Caenorhabditis elegans
Wray, G. A. , 216
Wright, Sewall, 83f
X chromosome, see Chromosome Yeats, W. B. , 13, 192, 241
Zahavi, Amotz, 64, 140-141, 143
INDEX
263
? 'Confirms IDawkins's) reputation as a superb prose stylist, perhaps tin- best popularizer of science working. . . Stunning. "
-- New York Review of Books
The first collection of essays from renowned scientist and best-selling author Richard Dawkins is an enthusiastic declaration, a testament to the power of rigorous scientific examination to reveal the wonders of the world.
In these essays Dawkins revisits the meme. the unit of cultural information that he named and wrote about in his groundbreaking work The Selfish Gene. Here also are moving tributes to friends and colleagues, including a eulogy for novelist Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-: correspondence wilh the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Could: and visits with the famed paleoanthropologists Richard and Maeve Leakey at their African wildlife preserve. The collection ends with a vivid note to Dawkins"-; ten-year-old daughter, reminding her to remain curious, to ask questions, and to live the examined life.
"A rare hreal Bach essay uili grip you at once . . . [Dawkins is I a master of clear exposition of science and its liberating power. " Nev Scientist
"[Dawkins's] genius fo na jmind ides wonder. '"
A LIBRARY JOUKNAI BES '
boggling possibilities out of the
Sunday Times
CH BOOK OF THE YEAR
RICHARD DAWKINS is the Charles Simony i Professor of the Public Understanding nf Science ai Oxford University. He has written manyhighly acclaimed books, includ- ing Unweaving the Rainbow. The Blind Watch maker, and. most recently. Vie Ancestor's Tale. He lives in Oxford. England.
SCItNCE/ESSAVS SI 4.
