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Agreed; that's not at all what I'm saying. See my edit. I've made several posts supporting her position on Google Buzz in the past few hours. You'll notice t

by tsally 17y ago

Agreed; that's not at all what I'm saying. See my edit. I've made several posts supporting her position on Google Buzz in the past few hours. You'll notice that I lead off my post with an expression of support for her. It's the other 99% of her blog that I'm criticizing. Also, her view is not a political position any more than rejecting evolution is a political position.

lsc 17y ago
Much like the evolution debate, does it really matter? I mean, if we're trying to write software, build a business or otherwise live our lives, does it matter where we think we came from, or how much of our behavior we think descends from what bits of our biology? Personally, I find both those questions about as useful as trying to figure out your behavior based on tracing the racial characteristics of your ancestors; I mean, I think most people would agree that your ancestor's DNA effects you in some way, but it just seems like a poor way of getting to know you.
- derefr 17y ago
  It's not about getting to know other people, it's about getting to know yourself, and realize your inbuilt biological and evolutionary biases so that you may balance for them. Pretending your cognitive software is hardware-neutral is just making those biases something you "don't know that you don't know."
- tsally 17y ago
  On a philosophical level you may be right, and you make an interesting argument. :) My only goal was to point out the factual error in believing that there is no biological component of behavior.
- araneae 17y ago
  Yes, it does, because a correct understanding of human behavior is extremely important for design of economic and political systems... and even in finding a significant other. Much the way that an understanding of evolution is critical to prevent the spread and creation of multi-drug resistant bacteria. We created MRSA through our ignorance and we're not going to fix it by pretending evolution doesn't happen.

by tsally 17y ago

lsc 17y ago

Much like the evolution debate, does it really matter? I mean, if we're trying to write software, build a business or otherwise live our lives, does it matter where we think we came from, or how much of our behavior we think descends from what bits of our biology? Personally, I find both those questions about as useful as trying to figure out your behavior based on tracing the racial characteristics of your ancestors; I mean, I think most people would agree that your ancestor's DNA effects you in some way, but it just seems like a poor way of getting to know you.

derefr 17y ago
It's not about getting to know other people, it's about getting to know yourself, and realize your inbuilt biological and evolutionary biases so that you may balance for them. Pretending your cognitive software is hardware-neutral is just making those biases something you "don't know that you don't know."
tsally 17y ago
On a philosophical level you may be right, and you make an interesting argument. :) My only goal was to point out the factual error in believing that there is no biological component of behavior.
araneae 17y ago
Yes, it does, because a correct understanding of human behavior is extremely important for design of economic and political systems... and even in finding a significant other. Much the way that an understanding of evolution is critical to prevent the spread and creation of multi-drug resistant bacteria. We created MRSA through our ignorance and we're not going to fix it by pretending evolution doesn't happen.