On 01/20/2014 02:22 PM, Marcus G. Daniels wrote: > > Depends what you mean by normal. Some epigenetic change, say, caused by > a toxic environment or poor diet or lifestyle choices, might cause > proteins to express at an unusual rate, or cause tumor suppressing cells > (e.g. civil servants, teachers, civil rights advocates, etc.) to fail to > reproduce at a fast enough rate. All that matters is that clonal > evolution tips in a different direction. The causes of that could be > very complex, but in the end still be populated by lots of `normal' > cells. I think the interesting part on both sides of the metaphor are > probably more on the adaptive (immune system) end than on the static > side (DNA / laws / religion).
True. The symptomatic failure, what kills the organism, in both cancer and totalitarianism lies in systemic regulation, for whatever that's worth. But we're dealing with a drastic difference in scale. So, while reductionist methods may well work (are working) against cancer, it is much more doubtful that they'll work against totalitarianism. In particular, it is much easier for an individual to change their environment in specific ways than it is for the families/groups in a society to change theirs. So, even if the analogy triggers a dopaminergic reward in calling totalitarianism "evil" or "bad" (by analogizing with cancer, which nobody really considers "good"), it doesn't seem help us in any other way. At least _I_ can't see any other way the analogy helps us. -- ⇒⇐ glen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com
