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You are exactly right. Certainly there can still be some criteria upon which the sorting of leader, alphas, follows from. There is some heuristic which may avo

by PKop 4y ago

You are exactly right. Certainly there can still be some criteria upon which the sorting of leader, alphas, follows from. There is some heuristic which may avoid having to fight it out all the time, but this does not disprove that an alpha exists based on being more fit/dominant/strong/intelligent whatever, even fighting ability! Maybe age, or strength, or assertive personality, etc..all are proxies or different permutations for "fitness" which combine to promote some alpha above the rest. The general point here is that there still can be a hierarchy. As I said in another comment[0] all of this is propaganda to muddle reality and disprove hierarchies, to re-assert egalitarianism/equality as dominant political ideology. And a previous comment from yesterday seems applicable[1]... that constant fights don't need to occur to be able to identify and reward alphas even for fighting ability or other proxies of fitness, strength, capability etc shouldn't be surprising. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35308341 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35308341 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35299569 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35299569

jrochkind1 4y ago
The way science works, if you have a theory, like "fitness promotes an 'alpha' above the rest", you need to find evidence to support it. You don't just come up with a way you think the world works, and insist it works that way because it's _possible_ that the findings don't _disprove_ it. Here we have a guy who's been studying wolves for decades, and says it doesn't work like you describe. But you are so certain it works that way, that you say, well, he hasn't proved absolutely with certainty that it _doesn't_. That is not the way scientific knowledge works. The people actually studying wolves for years say it does not in fact work like you are simply assuming it does.

by PKop 4y ago

jrochkind1 4y ago

The way science works, if you have a theory, like "fitness promotes an 'alpha' above the rest", you need to find evidence to support it. You don't just come up with a way you think the world works, and insist it works that way because it's _possible_ that the findings don't _disprove_ it. Here we have a guy who's been studying wolves for decades, and says it doesn't work like you describe. But you are so certain it works that way, that you say, well, he hasn't proved absolutely with certainty that it _doesn't_. That is not the way scientific knowledge works. The people actually studying wolves for years say it does not in fact work like you are simply assuming it does.