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Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
11–20 of 140 posts
Re: Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
#12-
You're getting a lot of downvotes but no-one is helping you understand why.
> "kindness" in the human world is similar to kindness in the animal world. It translates to weakness, which is why evolution naturally weeds it out of most animals.
Kindness among kin groups translates to stronger groups, so There's a reason that humans are naturally altruistic and punish crimes against their in-group so vigorously: A solitary human outside of civilisation will struggle and probably die. A bunch of humans working together rules the planet.
Re: Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
#13Feels like there is a type mismatch error in the title. Survival of the fittest covers all fitness functions, so we can't contrast it with kindness. Something like "survival of the cruelest" or the "strongest" would be more correct though it doesn't read as well.
The title does not infer contrast between fitness and kindness, it infers that (were one to write a fitness function that was made up of a conglomerate of every human personality trait) kindness is the prime mover in what separates the fittest from the least fit.
I also think you might misunderstand what the word kindness means, as you refer to cruelty and strength as some measure of adequate relation to what would be deemed fit in some similar function.
I think it's a fairly cogent statement, as great and influential persons are, by and large, incredibly kind. Of course, if one thinks that power equates with influence, or that fitness is best represented by wealth, I would posit that there is a huge correlation between wealth, kindness, and authority. For instance, President Obama is quite obviously an incredibly kind man. William Gates, Jr., a philanthropist (read: about as far away from unkind as you can get), Her Majesty the Queen of England, the titular head of an Empire, leads a family that donates a huge amount of their wealth to the citizenry of the United Kingdom, and is as sunny as anyone in her position could possibly be (have you ever once seen her upset in public, because I haven't), these instances alone give clear indication that kindness is, indeed, perhaps an indisputable barometer of what is meant by being fit for survival.
By contrast, who do you know who is sought by society for capital punishment? The unkind, that's who. Those who are cruel are brought up before magistrates, tribunals, and high courts and told in no uncertain terms that their survival is undesirable by the masses.
Fitness in a world of more than a few is entirely dependent on symbiotic, cohesive, gentile (in the French sense, though Christ is an inordinately germane example of kindness too) behavior.
Re: Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
#14This is really sloppy. Altruism is also the basis for Altruistic Punishment which can promote some of the most vicious behavior that humans are capable of. Social systems are much more complex than this simplistic reductionism.
"Social systems are much more complex than this simplistic reductionism."
Bit of a misnomer that, surely, as reductionism is all about simplifying things into digestable components.
Also this is an interview piece, its not going to go in depth.
Re: Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
#15This is really sloppy. Altruism is also the basis for Altruistic Punishment which can promote some of the most vicious behavior that humans are capable of. Social systems are much more complex than this simplistic reductionism.
Not to mention that altruistic behavior towards members of the in-group is often paired with extreme violence towards outsiders.
Humans are literally Jekyll and Hyde.
Re: Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
#16In 'The God Delusion' Richard Dawkins mentions a few ways altruism and compassion etc could've evolved in humans (by way of selfish genes). I remember one fascinating example about Arabian babblers which use altruism to assert dominance. They seek out increasingly dangerous positions to alert the herd of potential predetors. And by feeding others as a way to say 'look at me I am so superior to you I can afford to fee…
The Arabian Babbler is a bird, for anyone else who was imagining a babbling Arabian human.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_babbler#Behaviour - interesting
Re: Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
#17Kindness is a poor word choice, except in its most literal sense. Care is much more apt. Mammals' key evolutionary advantage over reptiles is that they care for each other, forming social groups which enable greater fitness. Likewise with primates > mammals, and humans > apes.
(One could argue that intelligence and brain size have more to do with evolutionary fitness, but I would speculate that intelligence is a result of increased care, not the other way around. Give a thing more time, space, and resources to grow, and it will.)
As a species, the more we collectively care for each other--through actions, not feelings--, the greater chance we have for survival and growth.
Re: Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
#18In 'The God Delusion' Richard Dawkins mentions a few ways altruism and compassion etc could've evolved in humans (by way of selfish genes). I remember one fascinating example about Arabian babblers which use altruism to assert dominance. They seek out increasingly dangerous positions to alert the herd of potential predetors. And by feeding others as a way to say 'look at me I am so superior to you I can afford to fee…
The Arabian Babbler is a bird, for anyone else who was imagining a babbling Arabian human. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabian_babbler#Behaviour - interesting
I was thinking it might be a sub group of Arabians I'd never heard of, like berbers.
Re: Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
#19Feels like there is a type mismatch error in the title. Survival of the fittest covers all fitness functions, so we can't contrast it with kindness. Something like "survival of the cruelest" or the "strongest" would be more correct though it doesn't read as well.
I believe the article is indeed trying to educate that the phrase re."fittest" is a poor framing, and further that
survival of the best fitted to their environment does not automatically degenerate into survival of the strongest and/or most ruthless.
Re: Forget Survival of the Fittest: It Is Kindness That Counts (2009)
#20Kindness is a poor word choice, except in its most literal sense. Care is much more apt. Mammals' key evolutionary advantage over reptiles is that they care for each other, forming social groups which enable greater fitness. Likewise with primates > mammals, and humans > apes. (One could argue that intelligence and brain size have more to do with evolutionary fitness, but I would speculate that intelligence is a resu…
Well, I would rather call it organization rather than just care. While the highest level of animal organization is called eusociality, humans are not hardwired to be eusocial but can display very advanced division of labor.
Now, I would not really say advantage or disadvantage. Each species have a specific role in the ecosystem and sometimes they're related in very unexpected ways. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q