Imposed and Chosen Environments: Talking Fish & Religion
 

Our essential conflict: Do as environment orders and put on a tight pair of shoes. Or change them to fit you. This endless mutual sculpting between critters and nests appeared in a cartoon in this morning's paper.

Two fish looked at each other, one in the water and the other standing on his fins on shore: "I asked you to take a walk with me. It's not like I want you to change your religion!" (Guess the gender of each fish!)

Similar genes in each fish? Probably but not identical. Thus, comfort and keeping sync with lots of other fish keep the second one in the water. (For fish, mice, and men, culture usually encourages keeping things the same!) The first fish, however, ignored sync, challenged boundaries, and found a new world.

David Cohen remarks on page 69:

"Truth is, for better or worse, individuals learn best in their own way, assimilating information as they assimilate food, by breaking it down into elements that are recreated in their own fashion. It is why, even when exposed to the same conditions, biologically different people wind up different, and also why, even when exposed to different conditions, biologically similar people wind up similar."
And as Eiseley once commented, a Devonian fish wound up as a character in a straw hat.

References:
Cohen, D. (1999) Stranger in the Nest: Do Parents Really Shape Their Child's Personality, Intelligence, or Character? NY: Wiley.
Lykken, D. (1998) The genetics of genius. In A. Steptoe (Ed.) Genius and the Mind: Studies of Creativity and Temperament. NY: Oxford, pp. 15-38.
Lykken, DT, McGue, M, Tellegen, A, & Bouchard, TJ (1992) Emergenesis: Genetic traits that may not run in families. American Psychologist, 47(12) 1565-1577.

Copyright, James Brody, 2005, all rights reserved