From: The Low Golden Willow (phoenix@ugcs.caltech.edu)
Date: Tue Apr 15 1997 - 17:45:43 MDT
On Apr 15, 4:31pm, Michael Lorrey wrote:
} high social pressures for conformity (if you reproduce asexually, you
} are producing identical clones) with low growth, low interest, long term
} investments being the norm. I predict that such a society will not
} survive long in the face of possible world ecological disasters, threats
} from within or without. Its stability and conformity will not make it
I see no reason for the production of clones to translate into social
pressure to conform. One could easily argue just the opposite, that
large populations of clones would desperately search out ways to
individualize themselves.
Growth rates should be largely controlled by room to grow in. Such
beings might be unwilling to grow rapidly if this involved much personal
risk, but there are ways around that, especially in an SF future. And I
don't see the problem with long term investments being normal. In fact,
such a mentality would indicate that they would spend a lot of time
trying to foresee, forestall, and hedge against ecological disasters
and threats of many kinds. Redundancy and flexibility.
Merry part,
-xx- Damien R. Sullivan X-) <*> http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~phoenix
Natural selection, the blind idiot suzerain of evolution.
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