From: Eugene Leitl (Eugene.Leitl@lrz.uni-muenchen.de)
Date: Sat Sep 15 2001 - 02:58:09 MDT
On Sat, 15 Sep 2001, John Clark wrote:
> It doesn't matter if you like it, it's the attitude American civilians
> would inevitably take, Afghan civilians believe the same thing with
> just one minor change. Three billion years of evolution has
> constructed us in such a way that your death is bad but my death is an
> unimaginable horror. Did you expect something else?
Difference in relative evaluation of damage is also what drives violence
autofeedback loops. "They killed 5 of us, men who were in their prime. The
widows are grieving, the enemy has torn a hole into our midst. We will
retaliate, and hurt them as much as they hurt us. This will require at
least 50 of them.". Iterate.
This is the neolithic algorithm that is still in operation. It arose when
communities counted around ~100 individua, and went to war with neighbour
tribes. Conflicts petered out naturally then. Allowing this algorithm to
guide our actions now is suicide.
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