Earlier quoted context omitted.
# of copies of DNA is just a proxy for probability of propagation.
The gene is the unit of selection.
The current fashion is subgenes (domains): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3258039/
People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
31–40 of 453 posts
Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hear hear, the agricultural revolution has trapped us in a Faustian bargain! "The currency of evolution is neither hunger nor pain, but rather copies of DNA helixes. Just as the economic success of a company is measured only by the number of dollars in its bank account, not by the happiness of its employees, so the evolutionary success of a species is measured by the number of copies of its DNA. If no more DNA copies…
# of copies of DNA is just a proxy for probability of propagation.
Probability of propagation is just a proxy for consuming energy gradients more efficiently.
Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hear hear, the agricultural revolution has trapped us in a Faustian bargain! "The currency of evolution is neither hunger nor pain, but rather copies of DNA helixes. Just as the economic success of a company is measured only by the number of dollars in its bank account, not by the happiness of its employees, so the evolutionary success of a species is measured by the number of copies of its DNA. If no more DNA copies…
There is something curious about posters on a techie site lauding the superiority of the hunter-gatherer life.
It may not be obvious from the context and the limited excerpt, but in the book Sapiens, the author is careful to make the point that this is not an invitation to revert to the hunter/gatherer lifestyle, in fact, we're past the point where that's a possibility. Rather we have to innovate our way out of the predicament we find ourselves in (the irony of fighting fire with fire is not lost on me). But in my mind, it makes this a perfect quote to consider on a techie site.
Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
#34This is probably the greatest argument for big government. If we were to eliminate the supervision of the establishment over the safety and security of everyday life, it would be very time consuming to handle every single aspect of it.
There is always the issue of an overreaching government, and that's where the left/right party split comes in. Each party either creates more regulation and protection or take some away. As voters, we have to recognize this duality of our system and embrace it. It's our only way to control the people we elect.
Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
With you 100% on this one. Your last illustration there reminds me a little of this: https://www.npr.org/2018/07/08/627082032/1-year-old-shows-up... >>> His name is Johan. He drank a bottle of milk and played with a purple ball as he waited for the immigration judge, The Associated Press reported. John W. Richardson, the judge at the Phoenix courthouse, said he was "embarrassed to ask" if the defendant understood the…
That’s isn’t a matter of smart vs dumb. That is a farcical process subverting the judiciary to abuse someone’s rights. If the judge had integrity he would resign or be disbarred.
> That’s isn’t a matter of smart vs dumb.
It was a reference to the quote above which is saying the reason individual people loose is not because they are dumb but because they are unable to match their opponents resources.
> “Well I just don’t get why the baby didn’t defend itself from the bear."
How can individuals defend themselves when the system and corporations subvert their rights.
Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
#36Life is hard, it's harder if you're stupid. - John Wayne
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Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
#37We’re dumb in comparison to the systems we’ve created. Increasingly, the disparity between what our technology is capable of and our own limitations as animals will become a pressing issue. One thing that always bothers me is how we have this myth of personal responsibility that supposes an individual is equipped to defend their own interests against a multinational corporation on their own. “Well I just don’t get wh…
It's not just technology per se. We are dumb when it comes to understanding the behavior of any complex system with lots of emergent properties and feedback loops. I doubt the Roman Empire was understandable by its leaders either.
We are also fairly dumb when it comes to understanding things like ecosystems, genetic regulatory networks, the climate, the brain, etc. Those are all systems that have similar properties.
Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
With you 100% on this one. Your last illustration there reminds me a little of this: https://www.npr.org/2018/07/08/627082032/1-year-old-shows-up... >>> His name is Johan. He drank a bottle of milk and played with a purple ball as he waited for the immigration judge, The Associated Press reported. John W. Richardson, the judge at the Phoenix courthouse, said he was "embarrassed to ask" if the defendant understood the…
That’s isn’t a matter of smart vs dumb. That is a farcical process subverting the judiciary to abuse someone’s rights. If the judge had integrity he would resign or be disbarred.
A complicating factor here is that when a child is separated from their parents and put into foster care a guardian ad litem can be assigned who have been known to argue that it's in the best interests of the child to remain in the US regardless of whether the parents have been returned to their country of origin.
Re: People Aren’t Dumb, the World Is Hard
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
With you 100% on this one. Your last illustration there reminds me a little of this: https://www.npr.org/2018/07/08/627082032/1-year-old-shows-up... >>> His name is Johan. He drank a bottle of milk and played with a purple ball as he waited for the immigration judge, The Associated Press reported. John W. Richardson, the judge at the Phoenix courthouse, said he was "embarrassed to ask" if the defendant understood the…
That’s isn’t a matter of smart vs dumb. That is a farcical process subverting the judiciary to abuse someone’s rights. If the judge had integrity he would resign or be disbarred.
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