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Wow, it's like someone invented a time machine and invited a 14-year-old-me to come and comment on hacker news. Seriously though, many hackers have loved Ayn R
by shimon 18y ago
Wow, it's like someone invented a time machine and invited a 14-year-old-me to come and comment on hacker news.
Seriously though, many hackers have loved Ayn Rand's ideas, but the simple biological fact is that we get gratification from helping people and we feel, to some extent, the pain of people whose suffering we see. Our evolved nature is hacked to make us not perfectly selfish.
- nazgulnarsil 18y agoactually, empathy is simply the most effective way of convincing others that you care about their interests. this perceived commonality of interests is what holds society together. but the motivation is ultimately selfish because we only want to band together to increase our own chances for survival and the survival of our offspring.
- shawndrost 18y agoThat's just empirically false, unless you're using "motivation" in some convoluted and incorrect way. Humans are innately motivated to help each other[1], and though that motivation was evolutionarily selected for its positive effects on gene survival, it is now a fundamental human desire that I find noble and beautiful. [1] See http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/03/02/altruism060302.html http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/03/02/altruism060302.htm... or http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com http://www.justfuckinggoogleit.com
- nazgulnarsil 18y agoit is now a fundamental human desire I didn't claim otherwise. we are adaptation executers, not gene survival maximizers. this is why it is so important to keep in mind how changes in our environment can have unintended consequences. witness the dual rise of food processed heavily with sugar and degenerative diseases such as diabetes.