Mutations in Nature and Culture Essay -- Exploratory Essays Research P

Mutations in Nature and CultureMany former(a) words, both positive and negative, spring to mind when ace hears the word variant. In a scientific sense, one might think of the random variations that glide by to growing in species. In a sci-fi/ horror flick sense, one might think of a vicious monster that after allude with some radioactive substance became terribly disfigured. But rarely do we associate mutations with ideas pervasive to our culture. Daniel Dennett suggests that memes undergo a certain kind of mutation that is inherent to the inventive evolution of culture.The most important distinction to be made between mutation as it applies to biological evolution, and how it applies to creative evolution is the function of randomness. In nature, random variation is the cause of mutation, and therefore the demeanor of different traits. In the generation of ideas, the role of randomness is not so easy to pinpoint. On the one hand, it seems that creative ideas are generated thr ough patterns of connectionDuring creative thought, memes potentially relevant to a solution would evoke or activate one another, altering or strategi phoney (though not inescapably consciously) manipulating them... (Gabora 1)Yet, there is no predictability to these associations, and furthermore, The very creativity and activity of human minds as temporary homes for memes seems to guarantee that lines of descent are hopelessly muddled, and that phenotypes (the body designs of memes) convert so fast that theres no keeping track... (Dennett 355) So perhaps what we would call randomness as it plays out in the evolution of species is really interpreted over by an element of dis administration in creative forces. Dennett cites Stephen J... ...sually bootleg or detrimental to the organism in which it occurs. However, mutations are creativitys greatest addition at one time, the great removal from more traditional realist artifice that impressionism posed seemed detrimental to the wor ld of painting. The result was the beautiful addition of artists bid Monet and Degas to the sphere of art. Whether one chooses to include impressionism in his or her organization of art history is dependent upon the thinker, but one cannot deny that creative mutation is ultimately beneficial to culture.Works CitedDennett, Daniel C. Darwins Dangerous Idea phylogenesis and the Meanings of Life. New York Touchstone, 1996.Gabora, Liane. The Origin and Evolution of Culture and Creativity. Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of discipline Transmission, 1. 1997. Available http//jom-emit.cfpm.org/1997/vol1/gabora_l.html