pjeby comments on Scott Aaronson's "On Self-Delusion and Bounded Rationality" - Less Wrong

16 Post author: cousin_it 18 August 2009 07:17PM

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Comment author: pjeby 19 August 2009 06:14:38PM 2 points [-]

Next, regarding forced reproduction, if it had to be forced, it was a kind of reproduction that the victim's evolved architecture did not judge to be genetically optimal.

By the way, this isn't necessarily the case. Depending on the species, it could also be the case that force is part of the selection process for determining a mate's suitability. Evolution isn't a kind and loving god, alas. (Some species' mating rituals involve the death of one or both partners, for example.)

Comment author: SilasBarta 19 August 2009 07:48:23PM 0 points [-]

I mean "forced", as I think PH did, in the sense of "the being that was forced did not want to do it". The cases of beetles that get their heads bitten off after mating with a female wouldn't be a relevant example, since, in the appropriate sense, the male seems to want that.

But then, if resistance is part of some test, than PH's example wouldn't be relevant anyway.