--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: By separating the function of adaptation…" description: "\"By separating the function of adaptation from the function of maintaining the integrity of individual genes, sex allows much greater diversity while st..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/944/seth-lloyd-13748_adaptation_by-separating-the-function-of-adaptation_2912501.jpg" --- # By separating the function of adaptation from the function… ![“By separating the function of adaptation from the function of maintaining the integrity of individual genes, sex allows much greater diversity while still keeping genes whole. Sex is not only fun, it is good engineering practice.” quote by Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/944/seth-lloyd-13748_adaptation_by-separating-the-function-of-adaptation_2912501.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/944/seth-lloyd-13748_adaptation_by-separating-the-function-of-adaptation_2912501.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/944/seth-lloyd-13748_adaptation_by-separating-the-function-of-adaptation_2912501.jpg) > “By separating the function of adaptation from the function of maintaining the integrity of individual genes, sex allows much greater diversity while still keeping genes whole. Sex is not only fun, it is good engineering practice.” [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Sex separates genetic adaptation from gene integrity, boosting diversity and acting as effective engineering. **In simple terms:** Sex enhances diversity while preserving genes, like good engineering. Key Takeaway Value diversity and functional design in biology. Themes biology genetics engineering diversity Mood analytical thought‑provoking Type scientific philosophical When to use this quote - research labs - educational curricula - public health policy Key Concepts evolutionary theory systems biology biotechnological design Questions to Reflect On - How does this perspective inform genetic research? - What ethical considerations arise? A Different Perspective May oversimplify complex reproductive biology. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Adaptation](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/adaptation/) [Diversity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/diversity/) [Engineering](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/engineering/) [Fun](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/fun/) [Function](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/function/) [Genes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genes/) [Genes Sex](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/genes-sex-4202482/) [Greater](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greater/) [Individual](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/individual/) [Individual Genes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/individual-genes-4202484/) [Integrity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/integrity/) [Keeping Genes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/keeping-genes-4202483/) [Maintaining](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/maintaining/) [Practice](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/practice/) [Separating](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/separating/) [Sex](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sex/) [Sex Allows](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sex-allows-2628911/) [Stills](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stills/) [Whole](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/whole/) ## Related quotes > [“At conception, we start as a single cell that contains all the DNA needed to build our body. The plan for that entire body…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/neil-shubin/at-conception-we-start-as-a-single-cell-that-contains-all-the-dna/) [Neil Shubin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/neil-shubin/) > [I can detach my waist from the rest of my body during sex. It allows me a free range of motion, and I can…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chad-ochocinco/i-can-detach-my-waist-from-the-rest-of-my-body-during-sex-it-allows/) [Chad Ochocinco](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chad-ochocinco/) > [The sale of sex in modern societies is not about spreading genes. Sex has been taken over by the memes.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-blackmore/the-sale-of-sex-in-modern-societies-is-not-about-spreading-genes-sex/) [Susan Blackmore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-blackmore/) > [If we turn to the differences separating Communist, Fascist, and National Socialist regimes, we find that they can be accounted for by contrasting social,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-pipes/if-we-turn-to-the-differences-separating-communist-fascist-and/) [Richard Pipes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-pipes/) > [To write the lives of the great in separating them from their works necessarily ends by above all stressing their pettiness, because it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/simone-weil/to-write-the-lives-of-the-great-in-separating-them-from-their-works/) [Simone Weil](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/simone-weil/) > [Walls are very important when you're separating two urban areas where if you're actually able to get over the border you can probably get…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-yarmuth/walls-are-very-important-when-you-re-separating-two-urban-areas-where/) [John Yarmuth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-yarmuth/) > [Boundary, n. In political geography, an imaginary line between two nations, separating the imaginary rights of one from the imaginary rights of another.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ambrose-bierce/boundary-n-in-political-geography-an-imaginary-line-between-two/) [Ambrose Bierce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ambrose-bierce/) > [I think anything which promotes heterogeneity on the Internet promotes stability. Diversity in services, service providers, and separating the layers of the networking stack…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/david-ulevitch/i-think-anything-which-promotes-heterogeneity-on-the-internet/) [David Ulevitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/david-ulevitch/) > [I remember driving home one evening while they were reviewing the papers on the radio. One of the articles was about me separating from…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rory-bremner/i-remember-driving-home-one-evening-while-they-were-reviewing-the/) [Rory Bremner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rory-bremner/) > [It is hereby decreed that the wall separating the sacred and the profane be toen down. From now on everything is sacred.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/it-is-hereby-decreed-that-the-wall-separating-the-sacred-and-the/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [If we run a hundred miles an hour to the other end of the continent in order to get away from the obstacle, we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pema-ch-dr-n/if-we-run-a-hundred-miles-an-hour-to-the-other-end-of-the-continent/) [Pema Chodron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pema-ch-dr-n/) > [The Oslo Accords in 1993 determined that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are a single territorial entity which cannot be divided. Immediately,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/noam-chomsky/the-oslo-accords-in-1993-determined-that-the-gaza-strip-and-the-west/) [Noam Chomsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/noam-chomsky/) > [Since, however, it is immaterial whether the work is done by assistants or a machine, I decided to build a machine equivalent to an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/since-however-it-is-immaterial-whether-the-work-is-done-by-assistants/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The impossibility of separating the nomenclature of a science from the science itself, is owing to this, that every branch of physical science must…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/antoine-lavoisier/the-impossibility-of-separating-the-nomenclature-of-a-science-from/) [Antoine Lavoisier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/antoine-lavoisier/) > [Religions are not for separating men from one another, they are meant to bind them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mahatma-gandhi/religions-are-not-for-separating-men-from-one-another-they-are-meant/) [Mahatma Gandhi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mahatma-gandhi/) ## More by Seth Lloyd > [Every physical system registers information, and just by evolving in time, by doing its thing, it changes that information, transforms that information, or, if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/every-physical-system-registers-information-and-just-by-evolving-in/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [“The significance of a bit depends not just on its value but on how that value affects other bits over time, as part of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/the-significance-of-a-bit-depends-not-just-on-its-value-but-on-how/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [ \[With quantum computers\] you can calculate how many bits are in the universe, how much energy it takes to flip them, how much energy… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/with-quantum-computers-you-can-calculate-how-many-bits-are-in-the/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [In this metaphor we actually have a picture of the computational universe, a metaphor which I hope to make scientifically precise as part of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/in-this-metaphor-we-actually-have-a-picture-of-the-computational/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [Yes, I am a quantum mechanic! Those darn quantum computers break all the time.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/yes-i-am-a-quantum-mechanic-those-darn-quantum-computers-break-all/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [What's happened with society is that we have created these devices, computers, which already can register and process huge amounts of information, which is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/what-s-happened-with-society-is-that-we-have-created-these-devices/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [Meaning is like pornography, you know it when you see it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/meaning-is-like-pornography-you-know-it-when-you-see-it/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [If you wanted to build the most powerful computer you could, you can't do better than including everything in the universe that's potentially available.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/if-you-wanted-to-build-the-most-powerful-computer-you-could-you-can-t/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [There are considerable advantages to using many degrees of freedom to store information, stability and controllability being perhaps the most important.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/there-are-considerable-advantages-to-using-many-degrees-of-freedom-to/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [When it comes to their capacity to screw things up, computers are becoming more human every day.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/when-it-comes-to-their-capacity-to-screw-things-up-computers-are/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [It's also a reasonable scientific program to look at the dynamics of the standard model and to try to prove from that dynamics that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/it-s-also-a-reasonable-scientific-program-to-look-at-the-dynamics-of/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [Some folks think life and technology and mind can keep expanding forever. Others say it can't. We are still not clear on that.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/some-folks-think-life-and-technology-and-mind-can-keep-expanding/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [Of course, one way of thinking about all of life and civilization is as being about how the world registers and processes information. Certainly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/of-course-one-way-of-thinking-about-all-of-life-and-civilization-is/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [Programmed by quanta, physics gave rise first to chemistry and then to life; programmed by mutations and recombination, life gave rise to Shakespeare; programmed…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/programmed-by-quanta-physics-gave-rise-first-to-chemistry-and-then-to/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) > [Instead of having to be a member of the Royal Society to do science, the way you had to be in England in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seth-lloyd/instead-of-having-to-be-a-member-of-the-royal-society-to-do-science/) [Seth Lloyd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) [Explore all 49 Seth Lloyd quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seth-lloyd/) ## More Adaptation quotes > [“The global population of Earth are involved in the following corporate government experiments: The long term effects of - 1. Nuclear bomb fallout radiation.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/steven-magee/the-global-population-of-earth-are-involved-in-the-following/) [Steven Magee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/steven-magee/) > [I do think that theater is a great venue for science fiction, and not just adaptations but also original work. I also think some…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edward-einhorn/i-do-think-that-theater-is-a-great-venue-for-science-fiction-and-not/) [Edward Einhorn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edward-einhorn/) > [“Why I am Passionate and Dedicated 1000% to producing and bringing my books Loving Summer, Bitter Frost, and other book series to the Screen…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kailin-gow/why-i-am-passionate-and-dedicated-1000-to-producing-and-bringing-my/) [Kailin Gow](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kailin-gow/) > [My familiarity with the successful use of very long steel ropes for mining purposes naturally suggested their adaptation to the new purpose of deep…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-agassiz/my-familiarity-with-the-successful-use-of-very-long-steel-ropes-for/) [Alexander Agassiz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-agassiz/) > [The survival of the fittest is the ageless law of nature, but the fittest are rarely the strong. The fittest are those endowed with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dave-smalley/the-survival-of-the-fittest-is-the-ageless-law-of-nature-but-the/) [Dave Smalley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dave-smalley/) > [The facts of variability, of the struggle for existence, of adaptation to conditions, were notorious enough; but none of us had suspected that the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-facts-of-variability-of-the-struggle-for-existence-of-adaptation/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal perfectly in harmony…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/it-is-a-law-of-nature-we-overlook-that-intellectual-versatility-is/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The world may not be ready yet for the film equivalent of books on tape, but this peculiar phenomenon has arrived in the form…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elvis-mitchell/the-world-may-not-be-ready-yet-for-the-film-equivalent-of-books-on/) [Elvis Mitchell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elvis-mitchell/) > [“Evolution is more about adaptivity than adaptability.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/raheel-farooq/evolution-is-more-about-adaptivity-than-adaptability/) [Raheel Farooq](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/raheel-farooq/) > [There is change by necessity or adaptation, and there is contrived change or novelty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wendell-berry/there-is-change-by-necessity-or-adaptation-and-there-is-contrived/) [Wendell Berry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/wendell-berry/) > [“The tendency for depression to repeat reflects the normal default settings of a plastic mood system that is open to experience. 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When you pour water in a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bruce-lee/you-must-be-shapeless-formless-like-water-when-you-pour-water-in-a/) [Bruce Lee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bruce-lee/) > [“On the rare occasions on which a movie was shown, there was as much suspense in the audience over whether the electricity would hold…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-a-caro/on-the-rare-occasions-on-which-a-movie-was-shown-there-was-as-much/) [Robert A. Caro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-a-caro/) > [Working on an adaptation is not as satisfying, because it's not your original work: you're interpreting. With 'L.A. Confidential,' I loved the book. In…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/brian-helgeland/working-on-an-adaptation-is-not-as-satisfying-because-it-s-not-your/) [Brian Helgeland](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/brian-helgeland/) [Browse all 476 Adaptation quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/adaptation/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "By separating the function of adaptation from the function of maintaining the integrity of individual genes, sex allows much greater diversity while still keeping genes whole. 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