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From: jason@harlequin.co.uk (Jason Trenouth)
Subject: Re: Darwinian selection for intelligence
In-Reply-To: buihh@cs.curtin.edu.au's message of 13 May 1995 11:27:05 GMT
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Date: Mon, 15 May 1995 12:26:13 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:29861 comp.ai.philosophy:28089 comp.ai.alife:3385

In article <3p2529$e3b@info.curtin.edu.au> buihh@cs.curtin.edu.au (Hai Hung Bui) writes:

Hai> War leads to intelligence! To some extent I would agree with that
Hai> statement, however, with a very diffenent reason.

OK. Thanks for the response.

Hai> War leads to intelligence because it promotes "war-avoidance"
Hai> skills?? NOPE!!!

No need to shout. :-j

Hai> But rather,
Hai> 
Hai> War leads to intelligence because it promotes the skills needed
Hai> to build better and better warfares!!! And just what those skills
Hai> are.. you name it.. its knowledge itself (and ofcourse, how to
Hai> make use of that knowledge). So those "tribes" who are more
Hai> intelligent would be able to make better "war-tools", and
Hai> consequently are dominant over other "tribes" who got killed in
Hai> the process of wars.
Hai> 
Hai> ...

Obviously a gene in an organism on the winning side can accrue some
benefits. It usually amounts to more resources for its phenotype:
living space, farm land, minerals, etc... and these can lead to
increased reproduction. However, direct participation in a war as a
combatant is extremely dangerous (:-j). Victories are often Pyrric in
terms of the individual soldiers. A battle may be won and the enemy
defeated, yet more immature males are dead on the winning side (e.g.
because they stormed a fortification). So it while it sometimes pays
to have your side go to war and win, it also often pays to avoid
personal involvement.

Hmmm. One solution would be to evolve a subspecies of sterile
fighters... but wouldn't this reduce evolutionary pressure on
intelligence? Maybe ants aren't so smart after all? :-j

Perhaps we should have predicted the collapse of Soviet communism 1-2
generations after WW-II? The Russian people suffered in the extreme
(The Russian casualties for Operation Berlin were greater than the
British casualties for the entire war.) What types of young Russians
weren't fighting: perhaps the highly skilled? Is it any wonder that
the world chess champion is a post-war Russian? What further
intellectual feats can be expected from a population subjected to such
brutal and systematic selection?

__Jason
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