From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Tue Apr 15 1997 - 20:42:07 MDT
In a message dated 4/15/97 2:12:35 PM, hanson@hss.caltech.edu (Robin Hanson)
wrote:
>But will our future descendants want what we want? Or will
>evolutionary pressures change the distribution of values in our
>descendants?
>
>As we become better at exchanging information in ways other than via
>sexual reproduction, it seems the longer time-horizon of asexual
>reproduction should win out. This suggests a future of very patient
>risk-averse asexual Bayesians, in contrast to the impatient optimistic
>risk-taking young males who dominate science fiction.
Well, I would think of myself as patient, risk-averse, and Bayesian, or at
least more so than the general population. I sure like good sci-fi, but only
rarely take the protagonists as role models. So I see this as claiming that
people will be more like me in the future.
(I would miss sex, though :-)
Do these papers take into account evolution of memetic parasites? Fashion,
fantasy, and religious-type beliefs interfere with patience, risk-aversion,
and inductive reasoning, and they haven't been doing poorly of late.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 14:44:22 MST