From: "Paul Marsden" <paulmarsden@msn.com>
To: <memetics@mmu.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: astrology-talk behaviour
Date: Thu, 20 May 1999 11:16:59 +0200
Derek said,
>This response strategy rests on the assumption that any one offering the
>stimulus is likely to be a cheat, since the scenario above shows how such a
>game would so easily tend to cheating (and who wants to mate with a
cheat? -
>unless cheating is a good resource-accumulation strategy in which case
>natural selection begins to intrude on cultural territory).
But cheating is a good resource-accumulation strategy (and any capacity to
cheat would be selectively retained) - so any blind variation that throws
up a cheater detector strategy for mate selection will also be selectively
retained, and a virtuous (?) circle of ever-better cheaters would evolve.
Interesting spin on the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis - like it.
Paul
>
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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