At last: Serious consideration

For a long time several natural phenomena have been considered unproblemati cally selection processes in the same sense of "selection." In our target a rticle we dealt with three of these phenomena: gene-based selection in biol ogical evolution, the reaction of the immune system to anti ens, and operan t learning. We characterize selection in terms of three processes (variatio n, replication, and environmental interaction) resulting in the evolution o f lineages via differential replication. Our commentators were largely supp ortive with respect to variation and environmental interaction but critical with respect to replication, in particular its appeal to information. With some reservations, our commentators think that our general analysis of sel ection may fit gene-based selection in biological evolution and the reactio n of the immune system but not operant learning. if nothing else, this arti cle shows that the notion of selection is not as straightforward as it may seem.