%A William H Calvin
%J Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission
%T The Six Essentials? Minimal Requirements for the Darwinian Bootstrapping of Quality
%X Selectionism emphasizes carving patterns, memes remind us of minimal replicable patterns, but a full-fledged Darwinian process needs six essential ingredients to keep going, to recursively bootstrap quality from rude beginnings. While there may be situations ("sparse Darwinism") in which a reduced number suffice, another five ingredients, while not essential, greatly enhance the speed and stability of a Darwinian process. While our best examples are drawn from species evolution, the immune response, and evolutionary epistemology, the Darwinian process may well be a major law of the universe, right up there with chemical bonds as a prime generator of interesting combinations that discover stratified stabilities. 

%D 1997
%L cogprints3217
%V 1

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