On 8 Sep 2001, at 11:03, Nick Arnett wrote:
> I'd like to try another way of thinking about selfishness and altruism
> in nature (which is to say, ignoring for the moment the reality that
> people are part of nature).
>
> It makes sense (and it is quite modern, in the sense of Darwinism) to
> say that living things know how to be selfish and competitive. I
> think we all understand what that means. I'd like to suggest that it
> is equally meaningful, though less well understood, to say that
> biological communities know how to cooperate within themselves.
Aha. We've hit something I'm intensely interested in here.
Animals behave selfishly, in terms of their genes. That dosn't mean
that they won't help blood relatives or mates, mind you, because
they have a selfish interest in them as well.
Humans...well, genetics would indicate we, too, are selfish.
But we are not ruled by genes. We have memes as well. Memes -
a meme is an idea or concept. It is a concept of imformation, and it
can spread, change and adapt much like a gene can. However, it is
a social concept rather than a physical one, and memes can be
either selfish, or altruistic.
What we call "Society" is a collection of altruistic memes.
Andy
Dawn Falcon
