Nick, Sorry--it was late and I was getting goofy. I remembered an old joke about physicists and chickens. Neither you nor I are physicists, but we do have to contend with them sometimes.
On Sat, Apr 12, 2014 at 10:40 AM, Nick Thompson <[email protected]>wrote: > Merle, > > > > Not quite sure what was the thrust of your response here, but my original > post was written in that fanciful way only because I could not recall the > details of the experiment or the citation. Nothing spherical about my > Libertarian or Socialist chickens. They actually existed in a poultry > husbandry lab in Indiana. Do you want the citation? The basic message > here is, Be careful what you select for. > > > > Nick > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > > Clark University > > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > > > *From:* Friam [mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Merle > Lefkoff > *Sent:* Friday, April 11, 2014 11:47 PM > > *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] Openness amplifies Inequality? > > > > A farmer has some chickens who dont lay any eggs.The farmer calls a > physicist to help.The physicist does some calculations and says, "I have a > solution, but it only works for spherical chickens in a vacuum." > > > > On Fri, Apr 11, 2014 at 10:44 PM, Nick Thompson < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Marcus, > > Once upon a time, chickens were bred and selected individually for growth > rate and egg production. This, of course, produced chickens which, when > put > in individual cages, produced huge amounts of bird and egg. But industrial > egg production requires that chickens live in cages of 9, and when these > supper chickens with put in the cages, they immediately fell to pecking > each > other, so then, in the end, each cage had one chicken laying a lot of eggs, > and a lot of half dead ones. This led to the costly practice of de-beaking > laying hens. I call these your libertarian chickens. > > Then some poultry husbandry professor got a bright idea. Instead of > breeding chickens by the individual, he bred and selected them by the cage, > so that it was the best CAGES that got to parent the next generation. In > remarkably few generations the level of aggression went down, cage > productivity went up, and de-beaking was no longer necessary. I call > these > your socialist chickens. > > It's my understanding that something like this was actually done ... in > Indiana. > > > N > > > > > > Nicholas S. Thompson > Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology > Clark University > http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ > > -----Original Message----- > From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Marcus G. > Daniels > > Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 8:37 PM > To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Openness amplifies Inequality? > > On 4/11/14, 8:19 PM, Nick Thompson wrote: > > And, it [Prozac] moves monkeys up the hierarchy. > New monkeys are at least a novelty compared to the old monkeys. > > > Marcus > > ============================================================ > 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 > > > ============================================================ > 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 > > > > > > -- > Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. > President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy > Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA > [email protected] > mobile: (303) 859-5609 > skype: merlelefkoff > > ============================================================ > 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 > -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA [email protected] mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff
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