:Analogies for Sustainable Development/Adaptive flexibility as musical instrument


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“Our open-ended behavioral flexibility, as individuals and as cultures, requires a genetically evolved architecture ... A more poetic metaphor than a “Darwin machine” is a musical instrument. It can produce an infinite number of songs but also has a single 'nature.'" (Wilson, 2009)[1]


Overview

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David Sloan Wilson uses the metaphor of a musical instrument to demonstrate the difference between evolved innateness or “genetic determinism” and evolved adaptive flexibility or capacity for change. An instrument like a guitar, violin or saxophone has a certain inflexible structure, designed for a certain purpose, but the number of sounds and melodies one can produce with it are infinite. They are up to the player, but whether a tune sounds nice and appropriate is also dependent on the environment. The human brain can certainly be thought of as one of those instruments. Although all instruments have a rigid structure, some instruments are built to be more flexible (in the types of sounds they can make) than others - consider the difference between a woodblock, a flute, and a synthesizer.

Analogy Map

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Instrument Biological Human
Physical structure Genome Human genomee
Variability of notes Gene expression behavioral and psychological flexibility
Musician
Listeners

Discussion

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This analogy helps clarify the difference and relationship between “genetic determinism” and adaptive flexibility. Flexibility is a result of genetically evolved structure. Other examples of genetically rigid structures with evolved flexibility are the immune system and the human brain.

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Further Resources

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References

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  1. Wilson, D. S. (2009). Does evolution explain human nature? Yes and no. Does Evolution Explain Human Nature? John Templeton Foundation, 44–47.