Hi virians,
I have a quick question regarding my recent reading of The Selfish
Gene (Richard Dawkins, 1976). In chapter 5, on page 93, Dawkins
writes:
"The gene pool will become an /evolutationary stable set/ of genes,
defined as a gene pool which cannot be invaded by any new gene. Most
new genes which arise, either by mutation or reassortment or
immigration, are quickly penalized by natural selection: the
evolutationary stable set is restored. Occasionally a new gene does
succeed in invading the set: it succeeds in spreading through the gene
pool. There is a transitional period of instability, terminating in a
new evolutationary stable set -- a little bit of evolution has
occured. [...] Progressive evolution may be not so much a steady
upward climb as a series of discrete steps from stable plateau to
stable plateau."
So my question is -- when did Puncuated Equilibrium enter the meme
pool? And has anybody else written on the relationship between
evolutationary stable strategies and puncuated equilibrium?
ERiC