Re: Instinct (was: Re: Is Eugenics Really A Bad Thing?)

From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Mon Jul 03 2000 - 22:57:28 MDT


Nigel Hammersted wrote:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/library/review/070200genome-review.html
>
> > "Can our self-image of fuzzy free spirits long
> survive when the genome proves that life, at its
> deepest level, is scripted by a logical program? The
> program's control is so tight that, as has long been
> known, a single error in the instructions can cause
> malfunctions such as sickle-cell anemia and other
> hereditary diseases"

Bloody load of Standard Social Sciences Model rubbish. Complexity
creates adaptibility, it doesn't constrain it. Domain-specific
instructions don't prevent the acquisition of general knowledge, they
permit the acquisition of general knowledge. I hate to sound like a
broken record, but: "The Psychological Foundations of Culture", in "The
Adapted Mind".

-- 
        sentience@pobox.com    Eliezer S. Yudkowsky
              http://singinst.org/beyond.html


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