Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Female monkeys use wile to rally troops

yahoo.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 163 posts

Re: Female monkeys use wile to rally troops

#51

Post by DanielleMolloy »

dijit wrote: post #42
DanielleMolloy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please resist trying to teach other users.

This is completely off the subject but are you trying to indicate that he is somehow "man-splaining". Educating readers as to the code of conduct of the site is required otherwise you would be downvoted without understanding why and just blaming it on "them bloody MRA's".

This is also completely off the subject, but I expect that in few minutes all my comments disappear as [flagged]. I am -20 from my score before the few comments in this thread now.

The OP's strongly offensive statement is still one of the top comments for this article.

Maybe there is something in here to "learn" for you guys.

Re: Female monkeys use wile to rally troops

#52

Post by reddytowns »

chongli wrote: post #13
epicureanideal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. It may be good for the species, but very bad for the individual monkey that loses the fight.

Species and individual are human classifications; they have no ultimate biological significance. If I reproduce successfully, then my genes benefit by becoming more common. If I die before reproducing successfully but manage to assist those who are closely related to me in reproduction, I still score a partial victory by having my genes become more common. The only way in which I truly lose is when my whole tribe get…

Just by being more common in the short term doesn't mean success in the long term, though.

It's funny to even try and think what success means, given that success only has meaning in the future. I sometimes think of life as a very long proposed logical proof where each step depends on a a step later then it by one tick of the clock. And as time goes by it's continually reduced, a step at time, and eventually we will come to reveal its basis, somewhere out in the future, which is probably is logical false, and will unravel the original proposition, like it never existed in the first place (ie we all die in the end).

Maybe that's all we are, anyway, pieces of a logical computation, which trying to determine something, some solution to a problem that was proposed at the beginning of life on this planet...

Re: Female monkeys use wile to rally troops

#53

Post by da1 »

ainiriand wrote: post #38
gspetr wrote: post #16

Males have evolved to extract resources from the environment. Females have evolved to extract resources from males.

I think this is a reductionist point of view. There are bazillions of cases in which is not true. Female lions for example.

I think he means restricted to humans.

In the animal kingdom you have uncommon scenarios such as seahorses where the male caries the fertilized eggs or spiders where many times the male is just eaten by the female.

Re: Female monkeys use wile to rally troops

#54

Post by dmichulke »

marvin wrote: post #18

Humans do this too, on occasion. Apart from the obvious but difficult-to-verify night club anecdotes, here's a well-known historical example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_feather#World_War_I

Wow, in essence this means:

"Dear husband, please take that chance to die. Love you, honey"

Re: Female monkeys use wile to rally troops

#56

Post by douche »

DanielleMolloy wrote: post #51
dijit wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is completely off the subject but are you trying to indicate that he is somehow "man-splaining". Educating readers as to the code of conduct of the site is required otherwise you would be downvoted without understanding why and just blaming it on "them bloody MRA's".

This is also completely off the subject, but I expect that in few minutes all my comments disappear as [flagged]. I am -20 from my score before the few comments in this thread now. The OP's strongly offensive statement is still one of the top comments for this article. Maybe there is something in here to "learn" for you guys.

Complaining about downvoting is never productive. They are just internet points.

Re: Female monkeys use wile to rally troops

#58

Post by da1 »

chongli wrote: post #7
taneq wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Female vervet monkeys manipulate males into fighting battles by lavishing attention on brave soldiers while giving noncombatants the cold shoulder, researchers said on Wednesday. Title is basically the first sentence of the article.

Is this really manipulation or is it just sexual selection for bravery/aggression/dominance? Are the female monkeys being disingenuous with their attentions or are they sincere? When I read some of the criteria for manipulation on Wikipedia [0] it seems to me like a pretty high bar to show these sorts of behaviours in monkeys. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_manipulation

> Is this really manipulation or is it just sexual selection for bravery/aggression/dominance?

What's the difference?

Re: Female monkeys use wile to rally troops

#59

Post by DanielleMolloy »

da1 wrote: post #53
ainiriand wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a reductionist point of view. There are bazillions of cases in which is not true. Female lions for example.

I think he means restricted to humans. In the animal kingdom you have uncommon scenarios such as seahorses where the male caries the fertilized eggs or spiders where many times the male is just eaten by the female.

How do you mean "restricted to humans"? What exact cases do you have in mind?
Post reply on HN