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Why would something being a default imply that there is no real disadvantage to adopting the alternative position? Taking other examples, if the default is for
by alldayeveryday 4y ago
Why would something being a default imply that there is no real disadvantage to adopting the alternative position? Taking other examples, if the default is for women to have sex with only a single man, why is it implied that there are no disadvantages to women having sex with many men? At least in the way I think of defaults, the value of the default vs the alternative is an entirely different variable.
- wizofaus 4y agoIt was arguably a poor choice of word. If a particular behaviour obviously has a significant selective advantage (at a cultural level) and becomes predominant it's done so on that basis. Whereas I'd think of a "default" as what would arise if you tried to start a new culture from scratch with a group of unconnected individuals with no exposure to other cultural ideas. The only defaults I'd expect to see are those driven by our biological makeup, e.g. we'd come up with a shared language that had certain basic properties, we'd adopt some sort of method of pair-bonding, we'd probably continue to have sex in private, and so forth, but to the level of specific taboos (whether it's discussion of sex, eating particular foods, wearing particular clothing etc.), I'm less convinced it makes sense to talk about defaults.