At around 9/11/06 10:07 am, Michael Nuwer wrote:
> Walt Byars wrote:
>> One of the pretty common arguments against (planned) socialism that I see
>> is argument by analogy with biological evolution. In the most popular
>> version of the argument, firms under capitalism face selection pressures
>> which result in a more "fit" economy.
>
[elsewhere in the message, the term "evolutionary efficiency" is
introduced which I respond to below]
Some additional thoughts (to the excellent points already mentioned in
the message) that perhaps have not been brought up (and my apologies if
they already have been): evolution as a process of selecting the best
solution is not necessarily the most efficient. Say you want to make the
chicken cross the road (for its own benefit)... you could wait around, I
suppose for the road-crossing gene to appear, or you could take a second
and move the chicken yourself, or offer it rewards to induce the
behaviour. Evolution works because it encodes a fitness behaviour or
capability into an organism, but we (as humans) have better ways to
achieve the same result. For humans, competition perhaps works as a
motivation but I see no reason why it is a means that cannot be replaced
with others (I hesitate to offer the free software issue since it
presses a few hot buttons around here).
--ravi
