134 REAL GENES, REAL INTELLIGENCEthe real picture of genes and environments is far removed from such
simple additive mechanisms.
Th e main diff erence is that the interface is itself a dynamical system
that makes the real decisions about form and variation in constantly
changing environments through vast signaling networks. Th e system is
needed because unpredictable environments can only be made predict-
able by the informational structure lying deeper within. Th at cannot be
achieved through the linear code in DNA. So the dynamical system of the
cell has evolved to abstract the statistical patterns in changing environ-
ments and guide responses accordingly. In this network, genes are uti-
lized as resources for a self- organized, intelligent system.
It is now clearer than ever that, as Eric Turkheimer claimed, that sys-
tematic causal eff ects of ge ne tic and environmental diff erences are lost in
the developmental complexity of the network (see chapter 1). In adaptable
systems, correlations between ge ne tic and phenotypic diff erences (except
in rare deleterious conditions) are transcended in those networks. All
form and variation (and, therefore, potential) is created from the evolved
dynamics responding to informational patterns at many diff er ent levels.
Th e great deception of the behavioral ge ne ticists has been in mislabel-
ing such system variation as ge ne tic variation and convincing large
swathes of psy chol ogy, the general public, and governments, that they are
really separating the eff ects of genes from those of environments. And all
without a scientifi c model or theory of intelligence or other potential.
As we shall see, intelligent systems evolved in more spectacular ways as
living things encountered more complex environments. Above all, they
are systems for embracing and creating variation to extents far outstrip-
ping that allowed by genes. Th e next few chapters follow that evolution.
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