Frozen Evolution. Or, that’s not the way it is, Mr. Darwin. A Farewell to Selfish Gene.

Variabilityof the properties of systems or their elements is a necessary, but not sufficient condition for the action of natural selection. The changes that gradually occur must be hereditary. Various degrees of heritability of properties can exist; in some systems, a characteristic property of a certain individual can be passed on to its progeny in unaltered form and degree, at other times to a lesser degree or may appear in progeny only with increased probability.

Amongst modern organisms, heredity is based on copying genetic information, instructions for creation of the body of organisms. Theoretically, completely different mechanisms could also exist, based, for example, on direct copying of the actual structure of the organism itself (Cairns-Smith 1982).

In modern organisms, the genetic information does not determine the properties of the organisms directly, but only indirectly in that it determines the structure of the macromolecules from which and through which the bodies of the organisms are formed during their individual development (ontogeny). Certain properties of the organisms were formed with participation of genetic information contained in a number of sections of the genome. The effect of a certain section (a certain gene) on the relevant property (e.g. on the size of a certain structure) can be positive in one case and negative in another case, according to the information that is contained in the other sections of the genome in the given individual. This means that, in sexually reproducing organisms, i.e. organisms in which random mixing of the maternal and paternal genes occurs in each generation, heritability of properties can be very low or can be completely absent. Some authors are consequently of the opinion that sexually reproducing species have such low inheritance of properties that Darwinist natural selection of the best adapted individuals cannot occur ( Dawkins 1976) or that it can occur only under certain, narrowly defined circumstances ( Flegr 1998, Flegr 2008 )(see IV.9.2).