richard_dawkins_-_the_god_delusion

198 T H H GOD D E L U SIGN
Different kinds of gene cartel emerge in different gene pools.
Carnivore gene pools have genes that program prey-detecting sense
organs, prey-catching claws, carnassial teeth, meat-digesting
enzymes and many other genes, all fine-tuned to co-operate with
each other. At the same time, in herbivore gene pools, different sets
of mutually compatible genes are favoured for their co-operation
with each other. We are familiar with the idea that a gene is
favoured for the compatibility of its phenotype with the external
environment of the species: desert, woodland or whatever it is. The
point I am now making is that it is also favoured for its compatibility
with the other genes of its particular gene pool. A carnivore
gene would not survive in a herbivore gene pool, and vice versa. In
the long gene's-eye-view, the gene pool of the species - the set of
genes that are shuffled and reshuffled by sexual reproduction - constitutes
the genetic environment in which each gene is selected for
its capacity to co-operate. Although meme pools are less
regimented and structured than gene pools, we can still speak of a
meme pool as an important part of the 'environment' of each meme
in the memeplex.
A memeplex is a set of memes which, while not necessarily being
good survivors on their own, are good survivors in the presence of
other members of the memeplex. In the previous section I doubted
that the details of language evolution are favoured by any kind of
natural selection. I guessed that language evolution is instead
governed by random drift. It is just conceivable that certain vowels
or consonants carry better than others through mountainous
terrain, and therefore might become characteristic of, say Swiss,
Tibetan and Andean dialects, while other sounds are suitable for
whispering in dense forests and are therefore characteristic of
Pygmy and Amazonian languages. But the one example I cited of
language being naturally selected - the theory that the Great Vowel
Shift might have a functional explanation - is not of this type.
Rather, it has to do with memes fitting in with mutually compatible
memeplexes. One vowel shifted first, for reasons unknown - perhaps
fashionable imitation of an admired or powerful individual, as
is alleged to be the origin of the Spanish lisp. Never mind how the
Great Vowel Shift started: according to this theory, once the first
vowel had changed, other vowels had to shift in its train, to reduce