Concerning your statement "...[you're] thinking long the lines of a generic
variation-selection process, where the important thing is variation or the
conscious preservation of variability.", I see the important thing as the
conscious preservation of perfection, or INVARIABILITY. It would seem that
survival of the fittest and mutation take care of variability as do chance
and growth. Within the norm, the masses represent the greatest variability
possible. It is not the mean (common, vulgar, gross, peasant, pagent, or
"pagan") but the ideal toward which I aspire. What is the chance that a
variation will continue? What is the chance that that which is invariable
will continue? Seems genes take care of the first instance and is the
responsibility of the breeding stock.
"Meme" me up Scottie there are no intelligent lifeforms here.
Brett
Not Spell-Checked,
rBERTS%n
A Blob Nest Net Terror