The Meme Machine

‘AN ORGASM SAVED MY LIFE’ 123
genes. But evolution has also given us intelligence, which has enabled us to
work out the function of sex and manipulate things so as to get the pleasure of
sex without the costs of child care. The genes could not have foreseen this and
so we have no adaptation against contraception – although, if you agree with E.
O. Wilson, you might expect the genes eventually to pull in the leash again and
somehow prevent us from reducing our birth rates too far. On this argument our
present behaviour is simply a mistake.
Life is full of mistakes. Male frogs quite frequently try to mate with other
males and in some species even have to make a ‘release call’ to escape the
unwanted – and extremely lengthy – clutch. Homosexuality in many animals,
and even in humans, is sometimes interpreted in a similar way, just as a mistake.
Birds with elaborate courtship displays can be induced to strut and flutter and
sing for stuffed birds or even for just a few appropriately coloured feathers.
Male sticklebacks will fight with very simple dummies and even their own
reflections. Presumably the mistakes have not been serious enough to warrant
the cost of creating more accurate perceptual systems. Courtship rituals have
proved a good way to get a mate even if you occasionally end up dancing and
singing for a pile of feathers.
Eating inedible things is another common mistake that is not worth the cost
of eliminating completely. Most species survive with very crude systems for
distinguishing food from non-food. Chicks will peck at anything of roughly the
right size on the ground in front of them, and frogs’ tongues will dart out at any
small object that moves in the right way. They generally get by perfectly well
unless some devious experimenter comes along to trick them. We modern
humans have far better visual systems and rarely make such crude mistakes, but
we make equally dangerous ones. Selection during our hunter-gatherer past
fitted us well for liking sweet and fatty foods. Fish and chips with dollops of
sweet tomato ketchup, followed by apple pie with cream and ice-cream would
have been extremely good fuel for a Homo habilis or an archaic Homo sapiens.
So we like those tastes, and we enjoy eating chocolates, and doughnuts, and
creamy mashed potatoes with sausages and mustard. This is not healthy for an
overfed modern Homo sapiens. Such mistakes are common in living things.
On this view, birth control and sex for fun, and many other aspects of modern
sexual life, are mistakes which the genes have not eliminated – either because
the costs would have been too high or simply because the genes, not having
foresight, could not eliminate them. However, even if these are mistakes,
sociobiologists would argue that most of our sexual behaviour is not. It is the