virus: FLASH: Richard Brodie on Internet talk show TODAY
michael heraghty (michael@futurenet.ie)
Fri, 24 Jul 1998 19:48:17 +0100
Eric Boyd wrote:
Indeed-even from a genetic standpoint, we rule. There are certainly more copies of our gene's than of any other animal of our size.
However, I don't think that one can support any ideology which derives what should be from what is... that is, just becuase we out number them doesn't mean we should.
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It doesn't matter whether you support an ideology that 'derives what should be from what is'. Through the indifferent eyes of Mother Evolution, there is no such thing as should. What's important is ACTUALITY not POSSIBILITY.
Humans genes do well in actuality, and nothing else matters, from an evolutionary perspective. There are far many more ways of being dead than being alive; far many more ways of being possible than being actual. But evolution only works with actualities, with genes/organisms that actually exist, with memes/ideologies that actually exist, and works from there. Mother Evolution doesn't care about track records. Evolution is indifferent, it just filters out the unfit.
To speak of 'should' and 'aught' imply morality - as if there is some overarching TRUTH out there. Now, morality shouldn't be abandoned - it would be terrible if meme-theorists fell into the trap that snared the Spencerians and social Darwinists in the early part of this century. We need morality precisely because it is a meme-complex that has evolved over the history of our species, and works well for us (in fact, we have come to depend on it).
But it's of little use to say that maybe humans aught not to have the privileged position they occupy among the species of our planet. It's of equally little use to say that a certain book (Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch', say) ought not to be a best seller because it's badly written, or contains bad concepts. A book gets to be a best seller because it is the 'fittest' book around in a certain cultural environment. (Nick Hornby's book seems to take advantage of the current identity crisis of English and other Western males.)
Michael H.