From: Grant Callaghan (grantc4@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue 05 Nov 2002 - 01:42:30 GMT
>You could just as easily have made the case with a wolf pack, but we
>are still discussing an instinctive, not a chosen, series of actions.
>Self-
>preservation trumps sex in the ram hard-wire hierarchy, and the female
>doen't seem to have the choice of mating with the smaller ram because
>she thinks he is cute. The pecking order is a lockstep structure.
> >
Sounds to me like you're anthropromorphizing. Cute is a human way of
looking at things. There's no reason to think it plays any part in the
choices of other species. Every species has to make choices based on the
way they live and the way their bodies are structured -- even humans. Like
I said, if memes in your scheme require culture as we know it, humans are
the only ones capable of having them. If all it requires is learning
something from other members of the same species, almost every species can
demonstrate it. If you say animals don't make decisions based on what they
learn from other dogs or people, even my dog can refute your arguement.
Grant
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