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Unconventional bed mates: Gaia and the selfish gene
Author(s) -
Dagg Joachim L.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
oikos
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.672
H-Index - 179
eISSN - 1600-0706
pISSN - 0030-1299
DOI - 10.1034/j.1600-0706.2002.960120.x
Subject(s) - mainstream , meaning (existential) , atmosphere (unit) , darwinism , epistemology , extension (predicate logic) , evolutionary theory , ecology , environmental ethics , sociology , computer science , biology , philosophy , law , geography , political science , meteorology , programming language
In this forum, David M. Wilkinson argued that Gaia‐type phenomena can be explained by conventional ecological ideas meaning that such phenomena do not require major changes to existing ecological or evolutionary theory. Overstating my case a little, I will argue that a reconciliation between Gaia and Darwinism will not be conventional in the sense of mainstream ecology. The main addition of this essay is an exploration in how far the claim that the atmosphere is an extension of life on Earth is logically correct. In a thought experiment, the idea of extended phenotypes by Richard Dawkins can be integrated with the one of Gaia. The problem of cheats remains pertinent, however, because the atmosphere will not select differentially between cheats and non‐cheats. Conclusion: Gaia‐type phenomena will be by‐products of naturally selected traits. As such they are not jeopardised by cheats, because side effects can be free to self‐organise, while the main effects will be naturally selected for evolutionarily stable states. Understanding the laws of self‐organisation of such side effects will be of major importance to all environmental sciences.