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Function Quotes

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Function Quotes

“Darwinian natural selection only yields adaptation to changing local environments, and better function in an immediate habitat might just as well be achieved by greater simplicity in form and behavior as by ever-increasing complexity.”

Wells Might Form Natural Environment Greater Behavior Function Simplicity Locals Complexity Yield Selection Adaptation Natural Selection Habitat Natural Habitats

Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms

Source: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms

“Repression is an evolutionary adaptation permitting us to function under the burden of our expanded consciousness. For what we are conscious of could drive us mad.”

Consciousness Conscious Function Mad Burden Adaptation Repression

Book:Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism

Source: Free Women, Free Men: Sex, Gender, Feminism

“By separating the function of adaptation from the function of maintaining the integrity of individual genes, sex allows much greater diversity while still keeping genes whole. Sex is not only fun, it is good engineering practice.”

Stills Whole Individual Fun Sex Practice Greater Integrity Diversity Function Genes Engineering Adaptation Maintaining Separating

Author:Seth Lloyd

“To wade in marshes and sea margins is the destiny of certain bird, and they are so accurately made for this that they are imprisoned in those places. Each animal out of its habitat would starve. To the physician, each man, each woman, is an amplification of one organ. A soldier, a locksmith, a bank-clerk, and a dancer could not exchange functions. And thus we are victims of adaptation.”

Source: The works of Ralph Waldo Emerson in one volume: including the poems, philosophic and inspirational essays, and biographical studies

“I established the opposite view, that this history of the embryo (ontogeny) must be completed by a second, equally valuable, and closely connected branch of thought - the history of race (phylogeny). Both of these branches of evolutionary science, are, in my opinion, in the closest causal connection; this arises from the reciprocal action of the laws of heredity and adaptation... 'ontogenesis is a brief and rapid recapitulation of phylogenesis, determined by the physiological functions of heredity (generation) and adaptation (maintenance).”

“Precise adaptation, with each part finely honed to perform a definite function in an optimal way, can only lead to blind alleys, dead ends, and extinction.”

Way Ends Function Blind Definite Precise Adaptation Extinction Alleys Dead Ends Optimal

Author:Stephen Jay Gould

“The degree to which a surviving parent copes is the most important indicator of the child's long-term adaptation. Kids whose surviving parents are unable to function effectively in the parenting role show more anxiety and depression, as well as sleep and health problems, than those whose parents have a strong support network and solid inner resources to rely on.”

Source: Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, 20th Anniversary Edition

“Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals. It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation. Civilization, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function. When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces.”

Wells May Mean Individual Force Failing Groups Achieve Civilization Function Intelligence Internals Adaptation Ongoing Combining Unifying Adaptive External Forces

Book:Earthseed: The Complete Series

Source: Earthseed: The Complete Series

“All living organisms are but leaves on the same tree of life. The various functions of plants and animals and their specialized organs are manifestations of the same living matter. This adapts itself to different jobs and circumstances, but operates on the same basic principles. Muscle contraction is only one of these adaptations. In principle it would not matter whether we studied nerve, kidney or muscle to understand the basic principles of life. In practice, however, it matters a great deal.”

“The laws of Coexistence;-the adaptation of structure to function; and to a certain extent the elucidation of natural affinities may be legitimately founded upon the examination of fully developed species;-But to obtain an insight into the laws of development,-the signification or bedeutung, of the parts of an animal body demands a patient examination of the successive stages of their development, in every group of Animals.”

May Body Law Science Certain Natural Animal Groups Stage Development Demand Function Structure Species Patient Insight Adaptation Examination Affinity Coexistence

Author:Richard Owen