The Economics of Eden
The Reith Lectures
BBC
4.2 • 770 Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 1991
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr Steve Jones, Reader in Genetics at University College, London gives a series of lectures on the new biological insight into humanity.
In his fourth lecture, Dr Jones examines the correlation between genetic change and economic development. While society tends not to be driven by its genes, social and economic changes produce many of the genetic patterns seen in the world today.
He also draws parallels between the evolution of languages and the evolution of genes. Languages evolve, he argues, like genes, producing dialects and whole new languages and lines of descent can be produced using languages as well as genetics.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a podcast from the archives of the BBC Ruth Lectures. |
| 0:04.7 | This lecture in the series The Language of the Genes, given by Steve Jones, was originally broadcast in 1991. |
| 0:12.8 | Renaissance painters on religious themes had a problem. |
| 0:16.2 | When they showed Adam and Eve, should they have navels? |
| 0:19.3 | If they did, then surely it was blasphemous, as it |
| 0:22.2 | implied that they must have had a mother. If they did not, then it looked silly. Although |
| 0:28.4 | some compromised with a strategic piece of shrubbery, this didn't really solve the problem. |
| 0:33.8 | And where was the Garden of Eden? Various theories had it in Israel, Africa, and even the United States. |
| 0:40.8 | When it existed, seemed more obvious. Adding up the ages of the descendants of the primal couple, |
| 0:46.0 | given in the Bible, set the beginning of history as October the 23rd, 4004 BC. |
| 0:53.7 | The reason for leaving Eden was also clear. |
| 0:56.5 | Adam and Eve had, with the help of an apple, |
| 0:59.2 | learned to do something new and as a punishment were forced out into the world. |
| 1:04.1 | No longer could they depend on a God-given supply of food falling into their hands. |
| 1:09.7 | Instead, they had to make a living for themselves. |
| 1:12.8 | The first economy was born. |
| 1:17.2 | This lecture is about the escape from Eden, about colonising the world and how genetic |
| 1:22.6 | change is linked to economic development. |
| 1:25.6 | It's long been realized that there are ties between the theories |
| 1:28.5 | of economics and those of evolution. Economics is often seen as a kind of enlightened self-interest. |
| 1:35.6 | The desire to increase one's own wealth may, as Adam Smith has it, be the foundation of all social |
| 1:41.3 | progress. Exactly the same argument has been used by some evolutionists. |
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