[ExI] Evolution - 'Nature versus Nurture', but random noise as well

[William Flynn Wallace]

Well Ben, what can we do?  If I say that my height is mostly genetic am I
wrong?  If I say that learning my name is mostly nurture, an I wrong?  How
could I express myself without giving a lecture?   bill w

On Mon, Mar 23, 2020 at 3:25 PM Ben Zaiboc via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> I hate the phrase "Nature Versus Nurture". It's far too dumbed-down. In
> fact, it's totally misleading, imo.
>
> "Everything not chalked up to genetic control tends to get attributed to
> diverse environmental factors"
>
> Maybe by journalists, it does, but not by anyone who has any understanding
> of developmental biology. Development is as much a set of feedback loops as
> just about every other aspect of biology, so you can't separate out genetic
> and environmental factors, they influence each other constantly. There is
> no one vs. the other, that's just silly.
>
> “The genome is not a blueprint"
>
> So far so good, but this seems to be a missed opportunity to actually
> explain what really goes on, and to ditch the abominable phrase altogether.
>
> Rant over.
>
> --
> Ben Zaiboc
>
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