> But remember that your selfish genes cooperated well enough to create the
> vast complex history of life on this planet. Selfishness is not in and of
> itself bad. Selfish does not equal competitive. Roger Lewin put it well.
> Genes always behave in their own short tem interest. More often than not this
> involves cooperation rather than competition (the only example of pure
> competition amoung genes is between different of the same gene - allelles -
> that can increase or decrease only at each other's expense - a zero sum game.
> Non-zero sum games are much more productive since they allow for many winners
> and increase the pot if you will. Humans are selfish but we have some
> advantages over our genes. We can and have conceived of the notion of
> non-selfish altruism - giving up your genetic heritage for the betterment of
> others. We can also plan for more than one generation. It isn't easy but it
> can be done (I think it is being done).
>
Well let's say there's cooperation AND competition in nature. However, the
United States seems to empahsize the competitive side (Social Darwinism
was real popular here...) at the expense of the cooperative side, while
other cultures do not over-value individualism and therefore can cooperate
better. *That* gets us back to politics. (Oh, can somebody give this
thread a title? I haven't figured out how to edit the header in this
particular program.)
K.
