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We're living in a novel environment. Being unable to imagine the juxtaposition of rocks which would shield your turned back from view of the sabertooth tiger, f

• Brian_K_White 4y ago
  Just to point out it's not simple and any differentiating characteristic could be not only different levels of net negative, but could also be net positive, even something like the absense of a capability. Lack of a facility seems like it can only be a net negative, almost no matter what the facility is, but life is not simple like that and there could be any number of processes by which an ability creates a net liability in some context or environment. A crude and not to be taken literally please example would be something like the ability to imagine comes attached to an increased level of distraction or inattention. Maybe the insights and creativity from the imagination pays enough dividends to be worth more than the occasional accident costs, or maybe in some environment the accidents or missed observations cost more. And the effects from posessing or not posessing any given trait, including an ability, could be something like 600 different positive effects and 600 different negative effects, and they all weigh differently, and most of them no one can even guess at let alone quantify, making it as good as pointless to try to talk about.