: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)

Overview

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

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

Discussion

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.

References

Analogies for Sustainable Development