(3089/898) Genes and memes and Ferris wheels

1097) Nothing in biology makes sense except in light of evolution.

Theodosius Dobzhansky
"Nothing in Biology Makes Sense
Except in Light of Evolution" in
American Biology Teacher (v.35/1973)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1098) Evolution is a change from a nohowish untalkaboutable all-alikeness, to a somehowish and ingeneral-talkabutable, not-all-alikeness, by continuous somethingelsifications and sticktogetherations

Kirkman, a mathematician
cited by P.G. Tait in
"Prof Tait on the Formula of Evolution" in
Nature (v.23/1880)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1099) Frozen accidents.

Francis Crick
describing the results of evolution by natural selection
"The Origin of the Genetic Code" in
Journal of Molecular Biology (v.38/1968)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1100) Biological macromolecules have a storage capacity that exceeds that of the best present-day information stores by several orders of magnitude. For example, the "information density" in the genome of E. coli is about 10e27 bits/m[cubed]

Bernd-Olaf Kuppers
Information and the Origin of Life (1990)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1101) Human beings owe their biological supremacy to the possession of a form of inheritance quite unlike that of other animals: exogenetic or exosomatic heredity. In this form of heredity information is transmitted from one generation to the next through nongenetic channels - by word of mouth, by example, and by other forms of indoctrination; in general, by the entire apparatus of culture.

Peter Medawar
"Unnatural Science" in
New York Review of Books (2/3/1977)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1102) Most of what is unusual about man can be summed up in one word: 'culture'.

Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Gene (1989)

1103) Examples of memes are tunes, ideas, catch-phrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches. Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperm or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation. If a scientists hears, or reads about, a good idea, he passes it on to his colleagues and students. He mentions it in his articles and his lectures. If the idea catches on, it can be said to propagate itself, spreading from brain to brain.

Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Gene (1976)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1104) We have the power to defy the selfish genes of our birth and, if necessary, the selfish memes of our indoctrination. [...] We are built as gene machines and cultured as meme machines, but we have the power to turn against our creators. We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators.

Richard Dawkins
The Selfish Gene (1976)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1105) It is just as foolish to complain that people are selfish and treacherous as it is to complain that the magnetic field does not increase unless the electric field has a curl.

John von Neumann
quoted by William Poundstone in
The Prisoner's Dilemma (1992)
cited by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1106) Scientists have power by virtue of the respect commanded by the discipline. We may therefore be sorely tempted to misuse that power in furthering a person prejudice or social goal - why not provide that extra oomph by extending the umbrella of silence over a personal preference in ethics or politics? But we cannot, lest we lose the very respect that tempted us in the first place.

Stephen Jay Gould
Bully for Brontosaurus (1991)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1107) C.P. Snow, in the Two Cultures, extolled the great discoveries of science as "scientific Shakespeare." But in one way he was fundamentally mistaken, Shakespeare's plays were Shakespeare's plays and no one else's. Scientific discoveries, by contrast, belong - ultimately - to no one in particular.

Nicholas Humphrey
"Scientific Shakespeare" in the
Guardian (8/26/1987)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1108)
The road to wisdom?
Well, it's plain and simple to express:
Err and err and err again
but less and less and less.

Piet Hein
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1109) Traditional scientific method has always been at the very best, 20-20 hindsight. It's good for seeing where you've been. It's good for testing the truth of what you think you know, but it can't tell you where you ought to go.

Robert M. Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974)

1110) Science is wonderful at destroying metaphysical answers, but incapable of providing substitute ones. Science takes away foundations without a replacement. Whether we want to be there or not, science has put us in the position of having to live without foundations. It was shocking when Nietzsche said this, but today it is commonplace; our historical position - and no end to it is in sigh - is that of having to philosophize without "foundations".

Hilary Putnam
The Faces of Realism (1987)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)

1111) Is no one inspired by our present picture of the universe? This value of science remains unsung by singers, you are reduced to hearing not a song or poem, but an evening lecture about it. This is not yet a scientific age.

Richard Feynman
What Do YOU Care What People Think? (1988)
quoted by Daniel C. Dennett in
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995)