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Vincent Campbell wrote: "Aren't other animals capable of laziness, or idleness perhaps?"
It is true that some members of other species give the "appearance" of laziness, but I think there is a difference between their idleness and human laziness. Animals such as lions probably spend a lot of time doing nothing to conserve energy. If a gazell runs across a lion's visual field, it would probably leap at it. A human on the other hand might just look at the gazell and think "... shall I catch it? Nah! Too much hassle, I can't be bothered. I'd rather sit around and do nothing." This is a choice that the lion doesn't have the ability to entertain.
The idea that doing nothing is desirable, is an idea that is unique to humans. It could be passed on by observing the pleasure others take in relaxing. This leads me to believe that laziness is a behavior that has memetic causes.
Cheers...
Brent.
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----- Original Message -----
From: Vincent Campbell
To: 'memetics@mmu.ac.uk'
Sent: Thursday, October 12, 2000 11:33 PM
Subject: RE: memetic or genetic laziness
Aren't other animals capable of laziness, or idleness perhaps?
For example, male lions do very little but fight for mates, and mate, the
hunting is done by the females, as is the rearing of young. Would it be
wrong to see the male lions' use of their 'spare' time as laziness if they
simply lie around and sleep (which I believe they do for the majority of
hours in the day)?
I've also seen (on TV documentaries) chimps seem capable of acts that imply
they haven't anything 'better' to do (i.e. feeding, fighting, mating,
cementing social bonds by grooming etc.), including a remarkable scene in
which a chimp appeared to simply be watching the flowing water of a stream
rush over their hand in the sunlight. Also there are occasions, such as
during heavy rainfall, where there's little for the chimps to do but to try
and get under a bit of cover and avoid getting wet.
Perhaps a related question is the origins of boredom, but I suspect this too
could have its pre-cursors in other animals' behaviour.
Vincent
> ----------
> From: phil066@it.canterbury.ac.nz
> Reply To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2000 11:08 pm
> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
> Subject: memetic or genetic laziness
>
>
> >It's totally and completely and only laziness, Tim.
> >
> >- Wade (who is prone, he admits)
>
> I am interested in whether traits such as laziness are memetic or genetic.
> Our ancestors might have had some survival difficulties if laziness was a
> biologically endowed trait, so I think it might be a socially acquired
> behavior. But where would such a behavior have its origin?
>
> Brent.
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Brent Silby
> Room 601a
> Department of Philosophy
> University of Canterbury
> New Zealand
>
> ______________________________________________________________
>
>
>
> ===============================================================
> 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
===============================================================
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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