Re: Watches & Necklaces

From: Chris Taylor (Christopher.Taylor@man.ac.uk)
Date: Thu 29 May 2003 - 13:06:35 GMT

  • Next message: Reed Konsler: "Pursuit of Happiness and Genetic Fitness"

    > So you're saying we'll only save the college graduates when the meteor
    > comes?

    Yeah. That's a rule I could use :)

    Well no. What I was getting at is that there is a pyramid of numbers of people x educational levels, and to some extent you couldn't have pushed the apex so high if the base wasn't wide enough (a developed technical society is required to get off-planet because it provides the context for the 'rocket scientists').

    Actually I'd (specifically) save the engineers first (which I'm not).

    Richard Brodie wrote:
    > So you're saying we'll only save the college graduates when the meteor
    > comes?
    >
    > Richard Brodie
    > www.memecentral.com
    >
    > -----Original Message-----
    > From: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk [mailto:fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk]On Behalf
    > Of Chris Taylor
    > Sent: Thursday, May 29, 2003 2:18 AM
    > To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
    > Subject: Re: Watches & Necklaces
    >
    >
    > Education is not parasitic any more than producing armour plate on an
    > animal that is never attacked is somehow a 'selfish' trait. Scott is
    > right about the r vs K analogy - education equips you, although you may
    > never need the knowledge. It is not parasitic, because it has
    > demonstrable benefits. Mutualist, or at worst commensalist on balance.
    >
    > Wait till that meteor is heading for us, then tell me that an educated
    > population has effectively lower fitness for being educated [I see a
    > pyramid where a generally educated populace supports a very clever 'top'
    > class, because knowledge is valued; although I wouldn't want to start
    > trying to make group-based arguments...].
    >
    > Cheers, Chris.
    >
    > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    > Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
    > http://pedro.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
    > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    >
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > 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
    >
    >
    >
    > ===============================================================
    > 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
    > 

    -- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  Chris Taylor (chris@bioinf.man.ac.uk)
  http://pedro.man.ac.uk/ »people»chris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
===============================================================
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

    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Thu 29 May 2003 - 13:12:38 GMT