Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #03482



To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: afarley@sas.upenn.edu (Alexander H Farley)
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 13:30:24 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Evolution Comparison


I do not think that an individual organism needs to be selfish to
suceed. That is, unless the word individual is replaced with a synonim
which conotates a singualr entity rather than a singular being. A
collections of indiviuals that can collectively release individual wants
can suceed as a whole against alien collectives. This topic is dealt
with in Thomas More's "Utopia". In fact an individual can rarely suceed
alone exactly because of harsh environmental conditions an example that
comes to mind are wolves where the pack allows for cooperative hunting
and nuturing, while a lone wolf has a much more difficult time
surviving. Perhaps rather than forward an idea of selfishness a the sole
means a forwarding evolution, laws of interaction between like organisms
(ie robots (here BEAM robots)) be set such that they can collectively
work towards a common survival (I do not mean that they act as a hive or
as a collective, rather they are indepentdent but at the same time benign
towards or cooperative in simple tasks with like robots). All this while
"selfishly" operating free of their "creators'" prescribed control.
Alex Farley

------------------------------------------------------------------------

eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/alt-beam
http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications



Home