Re: I know one when I see one

From: joedees@bellsouth.net
Date: Sun 03 Nov 2002 - 20:03:55 GMT

  • Next message: Wade T.Smith: "Re: There is never pure perception or pure action"

    > Joe,
    > > Selfishness cannot exist in the absence of self-consciousness, for
    > > one must be conscious of one's self in order to be self-ish.
    > > Bacteria,
    > viruses
    > > and genes do not possess the prerequisite complexity to allow the
    > > emergence of a self-conscious awareness necessary for selfishness.
    > > Instead, some of us fallaciously anthropomorphize the replicating
    > > products of blind evolutionary processes.
    >
    > Oh come on Joe, are you that blind !?
    > Selfishness is said to be ways by which genes and all propagate
    > for their own account through nature !
    >
    They do not say to themselves, "I am doing this for my own benefit", nor CAN they; thus, although you may categorize the behavior as
    (metaphorically) selfish, the organisms themselves cannot literally BE selfish.
    >
    > Self- consciousness is not needed. Young lions kill cubs of an
    > older one in order to get laid on the fast lane.
    > Self- aware !? I don 't think so, they just kill in a ' selfish',
    > instinctive way.
    >
    Instinct is not self-awareness. Acting out the hard-wired program is not engaging in a selfish choice among a set of alternatives. Read my previous comments.
    >
    > I begin to wonder Joe if not you are willing to set aside the
    > idea that humans are the top of nature's latter !
    > Behind the scenes of what you write I detect a somewhat
    > religious- inspired bias... never saw that coming from you, though!
    >
    > That is what I see,
    >
    I recognize that self-conscious awareness is a special emergent quality born of a quantity/complexity quotient, and, though quite common on planet Earth (although still comprising only a miniscule percentage of the life forms here), is exceedingly rare in the universe at large as far as we know. It grants us freedom of choice and some degree of imaginative awareness of the consequences of our choices, and allows us to view our interrelations with each other and with the ecosystem we share, and develop sets of rights and responsibilities to allow for both our own perpetuation and the perpetuation of our environment (and these are intimately connected).
    >
    > regards,
    >
    > Kenneth
    >
    >
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    =============================================================== This was distributed via the memetics list associated with the Journal of Memetics - Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission For information about the journal and the list (e.g. unsubscribing) see: http://www.cpm.mmu.ac.uk/jom-emit

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