> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On
> Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[snip]
> Perhaps I'm misunderstanding... and I know I'm probably moving off at a
> tangent here.... but I don't think that collaboration and cooperation are
> strictly necessary to establish order in a given system. And I
> think we must
> be very careful when referring to a tendency towards selfishness
> or altruism
> when referring to organisms and systems that aren't human. This
> would include
> 'parts' of our own bodies... like our cells.
You're bringing up an interesting tangent, I think. You are right, for the
most part, that at a chemical level there seems to be nothing intentional
about the selfishness of competitors or the cooperativeness of
collaborators. Or at a cellular level. And so forth. Intention seems to
emerge at some higher level of order. But having said all that, I'm not
sure I buy it. In a sense, life in this universe exhibits a kind of
intention at all levels. If you look for things that reach and manipulate
their surroundings to their benefit (seemingly selfish), you'll find them at
all sorts of levels. And you'll find them co-evolving (seemingly
cooperative).
Having said all that, I would also ask rhetorical questions -- how could it
be otherwise? Could any living thing exist without manipulating its
surroundings? Could any living thing fail to co-evolve?
Nick
