Michael Ragland  wrote or quoted:

> Ernst Mayr at 93 - evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr talks about his
> book, 'This Is Biology,' and his perspective in life - Interview
> Natural History, ?May, 1997 ?by Natalie Angier

[...]

> Q: Do you think the proximate fields like molecular biology are in
> ascendance these days? You've quoted biochemist George Wald, who said,
> "All biology is molecular. "
> 
> MAYR: George Wald's claim was based on strict reductionism, and
> reductionism is dead. [...]

>From this quote, Ernst Mayr does not understand what reductionism is :-(

> It's now so clear that every time you have a more complex system, new 
> qualities appear that you could not have predicted from the components. 
> That's the principle of emergence.

It seems that Ernst Mayr doesn't understand what emergence is either :-(

> Q: Where do you think the human species is going? Do you believe we can
> continue to evolve in a genetic sense?
> 
> MAYR: There's absolutely no chance of the human species evolving. First
> of all, we can never speciate. We cover every niche, every spot on the
> earth, so there's no opportunity for isolation. Moreover, I do not feel
> there's any natural selection in any positive sense going on right now.
> Of course, there are those who have talked about eugenics, but we all
> know that eugenics is impossible for many reasons. I can't see the
> development of man into superman or anything like that. Theoretically we
> could have cultural evolution and develop higher and better concepts.
> But if you have no basis for a change in genes, then unfortunately you
> can only develop through cultural evolution.

Ernst Mayr doesn't have a clue about human evolution :-(
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