Forum on Public Policy Beyond Darwin:Systems Dynamics Issues in Adaptation and Speciation

Darwin had only the merest physical access to the work of Mendel (which he did not apply to his theory or mechanisms). Nor did he have access to present-day concepts of adaptation, nor of the systems dynamics of Prigogene, the memes of Dawkins, endosymbiontic synthesis of Margulis, or holographic assemblage (as exemplified by Gabor’s or Pribrim’s work), among other present-day tools. This paper explores a few of the ideas and implications of such 20th Century systems-related concepts which must now advise Darwin’s seminal work. In it, we caution against debating Darwin or any other 19th Century scientific work “Chapter and Verse ” without depth of more modern contexts. This discussion includes an explorative Systems Dynamics definition of “species ” as “a functional (reproductive) set of genetics at dynamic equilibrium within the adaptive context of its local ecosystem.” Such a definition implies that a species only exists within the context of its environment, that it must be conserved or examined as an extension of that ecosystem, and that it is only as genetically stable as the controlling parameters of that ecosystem