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发表于 2009-3-13 17:03:44
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18 The CD of Life: the Genome
also describe the weaknesses in the original that my alternatives seek
to correct. They in turn have weaknesses of their own of course.
ORIGINAL: now they swarm in huge colonies. The force of this
statement is that, like swarms of bees or locusts, genes are numerous
individuals forming a large collective, each having its own interests
and freedom to act. The colony does what it does as a result of these
actions of the individuals. They ‘choose’ to swarm inside bodies as
one of their innately ‘selfish’ actions.
ALTERNATIVE: now they are trapped in huge colonies. From the
viewpoint of the organism, genes are captured entities, no longer
having a life of their own independent of the organism. They are
forced to co-operate with many other genes to stand any chance of
survival. As Maynard Smith and Szathmáry (1999: 17) express it, ‘coordinated
replication prevents competition between genes within a
compartment, and forces co-operation on them. They are all in the
same boat.’
Both statements share the idea that there was a time early in the
evolution of life when nucleic acid molecules (probably RNA)
really were individuals in the chemical soup, when the objects of
selection were molecular (Maynard Smith and Szathmáry 1999).
Whether one then views the genes as ‘invading’ the organisms or
organisms as ‘capturing’ the genes is largely a matter of viewpoint.
Most likely, cells and genes evolved together, just as genes and
proteins must have done. In both cases, neither makes sense without
the other.
ORIGINAL: safe inside gigantic lumbering robots. This colourful
metaphor resonates on many levels, but the main effect is to denigrate
the ‘lumbering’ organism compared to its (presumably nimble) genes.
The impact of the word ‘robot’ is powerful. Probably to Dawkins’
dismay, this is one of the words that have led people to read a fully
gene-determinist viewpoint into his book. A robot, after all, is
entirely in the control of something or somebody else. In later books,
Dawkins significantly qualifies his position in The selfish gene. Thus, in
The extended phenotype he writes: ‘In many cases the two ways of
looking at life will, indeed, be equivalent’, which implies that he
acknowledges the validity of the higher-level viewpoint. |
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发表于 2009-3-13 16:39:48
）话，将这句话跟帖提交即可。后面请注明这本书的书名及作者。
发表于 2009-3-13 16:59:13
发表于 2009-3-13 22:17:50
