3 ms·
Our values do come from evolutionary fitness. It's just that cooperation, exchange, and division of labour benefit all of us better than some zero-sum game. If
by 6ren 13y ago
Our values do come from evolutionary fitness.
It's just that cooperation, exchange, and division of labour benefit all of us better than some zero-sum game. If this were not the case, savagery would rule the world, instead of global trade.
Enlightened self-interest favours respect of diversity and non-conformance - because exploration is more effective when everyone tries a different approach (instead of the same one). And exploration, especially in science and technology, benefits us all, particularly in increasing carrying capacity so we needn't choose between intertribal warfare, infanticide and starvation.
I took the following from studying world war two in school (though I don't think it was explicitly stated): the Nazis started WWII and sought to eliminate many groups, including Jews, on the basis of eugenics (apparently, eugenics was broadly popular at the time). Yet Einstein, a German Jew, created the basis of atomic weapons which ended the war (if not, they would have ended it).
Eugenics is a misunderstanding of the Darwinian value of a human life.
To some people, this point of view may seem cynical, ugly and horrible. But to me, it is the most hopeful view I've ever seen. It means that if some overly-controlling group tries to enslave the world, they will likely fail - because their very nature weakens them. It also means that over time, the Darwinian pressure is for us to become ever more good, as that is what gets rewarded. Therefore, if one day we meet powerful aliens, they are likely ethical aliens. Taken to the furthest extreme, one could see symbiosis as the nature of the universe.
Is that taking it too far? Maybe. But it follows from the evidence, and the logic of division of labour. Of course, it's just a probability - selfishness can strike at cooperation at any time. And does. All I claim is that cooperation is the way to bet.
Ethics is power.
- aac 13y agoWhy are bringing Einstein into this? That has nothing to do with the original topic. Your post also contains quite a number of inaccuracies and self-observations. Ethics is power? You can try expanding upon that a bit next time you post a comment similar to that.
- nikatwork 13y agoThe comment made perfect sense. OP was extrapolating the "animals are jerks because of evolutionary pressure" idea to humans, and reasoning that non-zero-sum ethics are also the result of that pressure. "Ethics is power" was the summation, not the initiation. It seems like you need to work on your critical reading skills before getting so snarky.
- vacri 13y agoaac is trolling by creating a throwaway account and intentionally violating a few of the comment-posting guidelines.
- stcredzero 13y agoIt means that if some overly-controlling group tries to enslave the world, they will likely fail - because their very nature weakens them. You see, the unspoken assumption of many bad-guys throughout history as well as just about all of the annoying jerks on the Internet is the same. It's the assumption that one is somehow special, ultimate, or "exceptional." It's really the unacknowledged blasphemous assumption of nearly every human being -- that we are all some kind of significant shard of God. Well, we're all significant as valued individuals, but in the grand scheme of things, we are just one iteration and point of view amongst billions. To be unaware of this and rampage about the world is to use the confidence our species had to evolve to survive in a rough and uncertain world. To be open to the possibility of our being wrong is to be enlightened. Ethics is power. The ethical codes of behavior we inherited from our cultural traditions are a lousy approximation of the way a superior intellect would behave. That said, it's still a lot better for most people than no ethical code. Any ethical code that could fit into a human mind is probably such a lousy, static approximation. However, to rampage about the world without one is a good way of becoming another of history's villains -- especially if you think of yourself as one of the good guys. Almost all of history's villains thought of themselves as the "good guys." (Also, I'm not religious.)
- dctoedt 13y agoFor a readable popularization of the "cooperation trumps competition -- sometimes" view, see Robert Wright's Non-Zero: The Logic of Human Destiny at http://www.amazon.com/Nonzero-The-Logic-Human-Destiny/dp/0679758941 http://www.amazon.com/Nonzero-The-Logic-Human-Destiny/dp/067... (not an affiliate link). From the publisher's summary at Amazon: "In Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, Wright asserts that, ever since the primordial ooze, life has followed a basic pattern. Organisms and human societies alike have grown more complex by mastering the challenges of internal cooperation. Wright's narrative ranges from fossilized bacteria to vampire bats, from stone-age villages to the World Trade Organization, uncovering such surprises as the benefits of barbarian hordes and the useful stability of feudalism. Here is history endowed with moral significance–a way of looking at our biological and cultural evolution that suggests, refreshingly, that human morality has improved over time, and that our instinct to discover meaning may itself serve a higher purpose. Insightful, witty, profound, Nonzero offers breathtaking implications for what we believe and how we adapt to technology's ongoing transformation of the world."
- nichtich 13y ago> It also means that over time, the Darwinian pressure is for us to become ever more good, as that is what gets rewarded. Therefore, if one day we meet powerful aliens, they are likely ethical aliens. I can't agree with this kind of reasoning. Evolution doesn't have direction, there's no such thing as "good" in this process. Even historically some factors made certain level of cooperation better for survival it doesn't mean it'll be true forever and the balance is always shifting even in recent history. And aliens is guaranteed to have a vastly different "evolution" history than us, using the word "ethical" is nonsense.