From: Xela@yabbs
To: arachnoi@yabbs
Subject: re: social groups
Date: Wed Jun 29 01:38:16 1994

"Hahahahaa, ask Natalie.  I infer...that by letting Society preserve the 
STUPID, and even giving them jobs in the government we are headed for 
destruction..."

According to "free" market economics, even the stupid will have a place in 
the private sector, right?  (A low place, but they will be in the power 
hierarchy nonetheless)  And under "free" market pressures, we should be 
heading to Randy Rand's old Utopia in a mountain, right?  Since we are 
headed towards (we = U.S.A.) a gradually totalitarian consumer power base, 
the stupid won't bother you anymore.

But I digress.  As I have said before, the GENE programs for (what we 
label) the species.  It programs for statistical behavior IN ORDER TO 
PROPAGATE ITSELF WITH THE HIGHEST FIDELITY AND MAXIMAL COPIES.  If the 
environment promotes genes towards social, and not individual, behavior, 
then those genes (i.e. human genes, to use a tired example) will reproduce 
optimally when it configures itself (figure of speech: genes don't 
configure themselves, they evolve) to program for SOCIAL behavior.  In OUR 
case, it happened that SOCIAL genes evolved over INDIVIDUAL behavior 
genes, in order to copy itself to the highest degree.  When the 
ENVIRONMENT promotes INDIVIDUAL genes, then your example works.

X