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This is even more interesting if you think of all human artifacts as being equivalent to anthills and beaver dams.

1) Trees are natural and trees create leaves with a solar efficiency of x

2) Humans are natural and we create solar panels with efficiency x + y



This is Dawkins' idea of "extended phenotype". Normally a gene's phenotype refers to its effects on the body of an individual organism posessing that gene, like hair colour or immune response.

A gene's extended phenotype includes effects external to particular organisms, like nests, deforestation, changes to the chemical makeup of the atmosphere, etc.




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