4 ms·
The problem is the high long term (dozens of generations) cost of favoring short term and small area beneficial strategies for a long period of time (millennia)
by kleer001 9y ago
The problem is the high long term (dozens of generations) cost of favoring short term and small area beneficial strategies for a long period of time (millennia).
The problem is kind of like the species level of version of the tragedy of the commons. These different tribes/breeds/races all preferring the short term preference of saving their territory/mate/child/self versus saving the lives (and infinite potential) of their stranger neighbors.
The evolution of life shows us the grand benefit of higher and higher levels of organization. Scaling rules. It forces the previously multi-use smaller pieces to over specialize, but the gain are unimaginable as the voyager space probe is to a amoeba.
- Amezarak 9y ago> The evolution of life shows us the grand benefit of higher and higher levels of organization. Scaling rules. It forces the previously multi-use smaller pieces to over specialize, but the gain are unimaginable as the voyager space probe is to a amoeba. It also shows us that complex systems are especially prone to catastrophic systems collapse. Scaling is not a better strategy, it's just a different strategy.
- golemotron 9y agoI agree. That's why I think that universalism is short-sighted. Having many societies with very different cultures might lead to conflict but the alternative is one global society with no alternatives if it becomes dystopian or fails.
- laretluval 9y ago> The evolution of life shows us the grand benefit of higher and higher levels of organization. Multicellular life did not arise from cells being universalist. It arose from cells banding together with their mitotic offspring against other groups of cells. Similarly, the Voyager probe only happened because of us-vs-them competition in the cold war.
- ktRolster 9y agoI'd rather not have another cold war. There are other ways to achieve interstellar probes.
- kleer001 9y agoCold war was an arms race, arms race fruit some fantastic solutions. Check sexual selection in beetles.
- anigbrowl 9y agoTeleological claims. REaction to selection pressure is not the same thing as opposition. You're trying to obviate the possibility of willing cooperation despite its obvious existence.
- kleer001 9y agoGood point. Termites will never build spaceships. I guess I'm just partial one side of the coin, when both must be present for it to spin. Still, it's a shame to waste all that potential... even if recent research into General Adversarial Networks hints to us that us/them is a lever buried deep.
- rhizome 9y ago>Similarly, the Voyager probe only happened because of us-vs-them competition in the cold war. BZZT Post hoc fallacy. Voyager could have happened regardless.
- kleer001 9y agoI disagree. We can't predict what would have happened, but the specific chain of events starting from agriculture (like ants and wasps and termites do) and ending with a little bit of magical metal leaving the solar system is... unique. Unless you wanna talk a sufi like constant explosion of super positioned universes. But that's silly.
- rhizome 9y ago
- Juliate 9y agoFor who/what is the gain? (and what sort of gain?)
- amelius 9y ago> The problem is the high long term (dozens of generations) cost of favoring short term and small area beneficial strategies for a long period of time (millennia). Can we counteract the effect (making long-term strategies more favorable) by politics, or by changing the way the economy works?