On Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 12:00 PM, Michael Harney <[email protected]> wrote:
snip > Or, an idea may have > negative survival value for the individual, but positive value for the > group. ex: the Aztecs would sacrifice people to the gods during times of > famine to try and appease the gods to end the famine. I think the Aztecs sacrificed captives almost exclusively. But "group selection" does not make sense. Genes are the selection level. You can account for what looks like group selection entirely by inclusive fitness. On the wider point of believing false information, this is going to have negative selection effects compared to sorting out true information and acting on that.. My guess is that the propensity for humans to believe false information in the face of negative selection is a side effect of the strong genetic advantage (under *some* circumstances) of going to war with neighbors, even it the truth is that they are just people like you. Keith _______________________________________________ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
