Organisms (like us) help to evolve and replicate codes of many types, not only genes [1]. Hence inheritance trees for other types of codes may be worth putting together. Citation rules in the scientific literature, for example, already work to that end. In that spirit here, first find some notes on code types and delivery modes. Then find specific examples of codes and their inheritance path.
What parts of such trees do you think might be fun to work on, and from who and what did you (and your mentors) receive inspiration? In more practical terms, how might we gather (and visualize for sharing) information on these less rule-bound aspects of our inheritance?
The table below lists some common ways for transmitting codes (e.g. genes & ideas) between organisms:
| Channel \ Delivery... | by Behavior | or by Code Transfer |
| Substance | gifts, space, touch, pheromones | molecular code |
| Aural | music, song | spoken language |
| Visual | design, dance | writing, printing |
| Combined | serving as an example, acting | film, digital multimedia |
Note that the codes themselves may be translated from one language to the next (e.g. your genetic code can be transcribed from molecular DNA base pairs into writing), while of course the modes of transmission via behavior are often channel specific (i.e. it's difficult to teach folks to dance well, with voice lessons alone). McLuhan [2] pointed out that profound effects on our lives and culture (for better and worse) have accompanied all of the major developments in technology for the replication of codes (i.e. in our technology for communication). These developments have included invention of the phonetic alphabet, the printing press, moving pictures, electronic media (teletype, radio, telephone and television), copy machines and quite presently the world wide web.
McLuhan's leap from a focus on messages, to the effects of the media carrying those messages, was at first counter-intuitive, in much the same way that was Dawkins' leap [1] from a focus on the organism's perspective, to the point of view of the code. Just as the ecologists of the 1950's (e.g. the Odum brothers) were calling our attention to the environment of organisms, so was McLuhan in the 1960's calling our attention to leaps in reproductive choice for codes. This was well before Dawkins, in the 1970's asked us to consider the codes' viewpoint, in the partnership with them we call life.
Tom Whybers provided Esther Whybers' paternal DNA. Alice Wunderbean provided Esther's maternal and mitochondrial DNA. She also nurtured the process of both their combination, and subsequent expression, by traditional means in the time-frame of the years 1901-1902. Delivery mode: molecular code.
Lilly Ferguson provided Joline Wandless with profound inspiration on taking care of herself, giving her access to individual or inward-looking body we-memes (and perhaps a few genes as well) that promise to keep her looking very young, like her mother, well into her second half-century. Delivery mode: by both talk and example.
The discovery of inter-cell symbiosis (a pair-bond or outward-looking body we-meme for simiple or prokaryotic cells) several billion years ago [3] by some un-named pair of simple-celled organisms lead to the first eukaryotic cell: a living form (comprised of those and other simple-cell descendants as cell-body, mitochondria, chloroplasts, nucleus and flagella) which underlies the existence of all multi-celled organisms on earth still today! Delivery mode: gifts.
Some of my ideas about how to be a loyal friend (and hence some of my pair-bond or outward-looking body we-memes) came from the adventures of Spin and Marty on Walt Disney's M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E series on television in the late 1950's. Delivery mode: acting.
Male bowerbirds, in the Pacific islands between Australia and Vietnam, discovered millenia ago [4] that building houses with arches and pillars, and decorating them with colorful piles of objects carefully sorted according to pattern, was an effective way to interest mates in starting a family during times when male protection or food-gathering abilities, for example, were not really needed. This idea (a family or inward-looking gene-pool we-meme) remains useful even for human males today. Delivery mode: by building space and artistic design, or in a word (via extension of meaning) "by bower".
Although many of my ideas about how to "do family" (and hence my inward-looking gene-pool we-memes) came from my mom and dad, a bit of inspiration came in my younger days from an unlikely source: A Canadian lawyer and corporate executive named Frank who, in spite of his "old money" roots and work on the boards of more corporations than you can shake a stick at (including Chairmanship of the Board of Ralston Purina Canada), had a large family with kids in their teens who seemed to love him very much. Delivery mode: example.
Wolf packs, according to Konrad Lorenz in his book On Aggression [5], operate their hierarchy according to an unspoken rule: Member wolves can fight each other to submission, but may not kill each other. Since Lorenz was one of the early observers in this area, the universality of the rule was not addressed. Nonetheless, this hierarchy (or outward-looking gene-pool) we-meme likely predates it's expression in human culture, where it is delivered via the familiar legal commandment that "thou shalt not kill fellow citizens". Delivery mode: molecular code and example?
The living idea of one or more deities has evolved over millennia, to incorporate in it at various times respect for the elements of nature, for one's meme-pool (i.e. those of common faith), for the integrity of one's family, and more recently for other members of our species as well. In that sense, this idea and its diverse descendants easily comprise the most effective and abiding set of inward-looking meme-pool we-memes in human experience to date. Delivery modes include spoken language and writing.
Bo-Diddley (Elias Bates), with his "shave-and-a-haircut--6-bits" beat, provided (more than many are aware) musical inspiration to rock musicians of the 1950's and 1960's, and hence a subset of our own culture (inward-looking meme-pool) we-memes as well. Delivery mode: song.
Edwin T. Jaynes in the field of statistical inference, like Alan Turing in the field of computer science, have left an abiding legacy for others in their respective fields. Hence their contribution to the professional (or outward-looking meme-pool) we-memes of others will continue long after their death. Delivery mode: primarily writing.
References:
[1] cf. The Selfish Gene, by
ethologist Richard Dawkins, for a classic on how organisms can
(sometimes unwittingly and to their personal dis-interest) serve
replicators for better and worse.
[2] cf. The Gutenberg Galaxy and The
Medium is the Message, by Marshall McLuhan (196x), U.
Toronto Press.
[3] cf. MicroCosmos, by Lynn
Margulis and Dorion Sagan, for a popular treatment, and Five
Kingdoms, by Margulis and Karlene V. Schwartz (W H Freeman,
1982,1988,1998) for more specifics.
[4] cf. Attenborough in Paradise, a
Public Broadcasting System special on song, dance, theatre, and
leafy shelter design and construction among the Birds of Paradise
on islands of New Guinea, which for example aired
on PBS Wednesday, July 23, 1997, 8:00 p.m. ET (Written by Sir
David Attenborough, photographed by Richard Kirby and Mike Potts,
and Produced by the BBC Natural History Unit).
[5] cf. King Solomon's Ring, and On
Aggression, by Konrad Lorenz, one of the fathers of ethology
(the study of animal behavior).
UM-StL Physics & Astronomy,
Copyright 1999 P.
Fraundorf
More on the roots and implications of
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