Wilson, who died a few months ago, was also quite racist. Although I respect his advocacy for ecological preservation, he should probably have stuck to his specialty of ants instead of pretending to be an authority on people.

[freethoughtblogs.com]

To be fair Wilson (with Lumsden) had an interesting idea of gene-culture coevolution. Milk usage arguably had a genetic impact on dairying human populations resulting in lactase persistence. Their concept of culturgens intended to leash culture in a manner similar to the developmental chreodes put forward by Waddington. The idea lost in a popularity contest with Dawkins’ memes, an overly atomized notion of Darwinian cultural units now relegated to shared images on social media. Wilson even, if memory serves, seemed fond of Jung’s archetypes in the mold of culturgens. Yet another idea that has been found lacking even before he (Jung) flirted with synchronicity.

Dawkins wound up unhappy with Wilson’s flirtations in a group selectionist mode toward the last part of the latter’s career. Yeah because gene selectionism is so much better a shoehorn.

Who