Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id JAA22705 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk); Tue, 21 Aug 2001 09:33:25 +0100 From: <joedees@bellsouth.net> To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 02:50:07 -0500 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Subject: Re: Spoiled Reward-Pathway Hypothesis Message-ID: <3B81CC5F.17306.7FA755@localhost> In-reply-to: <998316678.3b811a8651f8b@rugth1.phys.rug.nl> References: <3B8055B5.8367.2C4117@localhost> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c) Sender: fmb-bounces@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
On 20 Aug 2001, at 16:11, Philip Jonkers wrote:
> Philip:
> > > Natural selection ought to favor birds who aren't drunk
> > an
> > > entire season. I am well aware also that drugs (including alcohol)
> > are
> > > not uncommon for usage in the animal kingdom. I cannot imagine,
> > > really, that natural selection would allow for animal `druggies'
> > > to emerge and maintain in the extremely competitive and demanding
> > natural
> > > world.
> Joe:
> > It's a cost-benefit analysis; when fermented barries are the only
> > (or the major) source of food available, the collateral damage some
> > drunken birds do to themselves could be much less than the massive
> > die-off afflicting starving flocks. Of course, selection pressures
> > would progressively weed out those birds unable to handle their
> > liquor, the ones who could handle it would live to reproduce, and
> > subsequent generations would find the equation more and more in
> > favor of the berry-eating stoners.
>
> Hi Joe, thanks also for the feedback. Fair enough, natural selection
> seems to favor the sober animal and permits the occasional user. So
> much for the animal kingdom, I'm still left with humans who, I think
> it's safe to say, generally are susceptible to develop addiction of
> whatever kind. Can you account for this with arguments ignoring human
> culture?
>
We may feel a greater need to keep our bigger brains occupied.
>
> Philip.
>
> ===============================================================
> 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 archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Aug 21 2001 - 09:42:56 BST