From: Thomas Lunde <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>You must get the feeling of being under attack. I was rereading some of
I LIKE to be under attack, that means I am getting through! <G>
>these posts and glanced at this one long enough to have a dissenting
>thought. What you are saying is there is the potential for equal success
>(a) if you can fake it (b) if you naturally have it. My question would be
>as a gene builder, to build a good self deception gene or to build a human
>who is totally sincere? And which might be the evolution success story -
>something even the gene builder can't predict?
Well, the answer depends upon the definitions, and on whether one is
talking about love, politics, or business.
In love, evolution would measure "success" in number of babies. So
the more women a man can impregnate, the greater his evolutionary
success. On the other hand, women have evolved to mate with men who
will stay home and raise their children. So we can see that a
totally sincere person is at great disadvantage in love.
In our kind of politics, the most popular candidate is the one who
pleases as many people as possible. In essence, this means being
ambiguous while giving the impression that you are telling people
exactly what they want to here. Obviously, a totally sincere person
has no place in politics at all.
In business, the most successful (defined as the most profitable)
is one who takes advantage wherever he can. A totally sincere
person probably has some moral prohibitions against screwing the
employees (e.g., raiding the pension fund). So in business, there
is some disadvantage against sincerity -- although it is not as
pronounced as with the other two.
If we change the definitions, then of course we will reach different
conclusions. But that's how evolution works. The genetic program
for lying persists because it contributes to reproductive success.
(I suppose that's why women lie about their age. <G>)
Sincerity could only become dominant if the reproductive payoff was
greater than that for lying.
Evolution is interesting stuff. Several books have been recently
published on the subject.
Jay
