Genes, Brains, and Human Potential The Science and Ideology of Intelligence

130 REAL GENES, REAL INTELLIGENCE

changing environments. As Mae- Wan Ho explains, “Numerous mecha-
nisms for generating mutations are involved that appear to be under the
control of the cell or organism as a whole in diff er ent environmental
contexts.”^23 Other ways have come to light of how “environment di-
rectly instructs the organism how to vary” and how such variations are
inherited.^24
Th is is now referred to as natu ral ge ne tic engineering. In a paper in
Physics of Life Reviews, James Shapiro says that “the standard model of a
‘Read- Only’ tape that feeds instructions to the rest of the cell about
individual characters” is a “dangerous oversimplifi cation.” Now, he says,
“we have to reconsider the genome as a ‘read– write’ (RW) information
storage system.”^25
On his blog in Huff Post Science (April 30, 2013), Shapiro says, “NGE
[natu ral ge ne tic engineering] is shorthand to summarize all the biochem-
ical mechanisms cells have to cut, splice, copy, polymerize and other wise
manipulate the structure of internal DNA molecules, transport DNA
from one cell to another, or acquire DNA from the environment. Totally
novel sequences can result from de novo untemplated polymerization
or reverse transcription of pro cessed RNA molecules.”
One startling implication is that organisms can help direct their own
evolution as well as their development. Biologists discuss what they call
the “evolvability” of organisms. Th is refers to the probability of actively
generating benefi cial ge ne tic diversity for evolution through natu ral
se lection. In such a view, it is easy to associate the potential of organisms
with their genomes. However, the potential of intelligent systems lies in
their ability to develop: actively creating potential, not merely expressing
it. As Robert Lickliter explains, “Th e pro cess of development generates
the phenotypic variation on which natu ral se lection can act.”^26 Th anks to
intelligent systems, the “developmentability” of organisms has greatly
enhanced, and tended to eclipse, their evolvability.
An impor tant consequence is that environmental experiences at other
levels— physiological, psychological, and/or social— can exert top- down
infl uence on the utilization of genes. In an article for the Institute of
Science in Society, Mae- Wan Ho also says, “Researchers are identifying
hundreds and thousands of genes that are aff ected by our subjective mental
states. Feeling constantly sad and depressed can genuinely turn on genes

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