JoshuaZ comments on Consequentialism Need Not Be Nearsighted - Less Wrong

53 Post author: orthonormal 02 September 2011 07:37AM

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Comment author: markrkrebs 27 September 2011 02:21:47AM -1 points [-]

Well, they could EVOLVE that reticence for perfectly good reasons. I'll dare in this context to suggest that evolution IS intelligence. Have you heard of thought as an act of simulating action and forecasting the results? Is that not what evolution does, only the simulations are real, and the best chess moves "selected?"

a species thereby exhibits meta-intelligence, no?

Comment author: JoshuaZ 27 September 2011 02:58:19AM *  3 points [-]

I'm not completely sure what you are trying to say. I agree they could potentially evolve such an attitude if the selection pressure was high enough.

But evolution doesn't work like a chess player. Evolution does what works in the short term, blindly having the most successful alleles push forward to the next generation. If there were a chess analogy, evolution would be like a massive chess board with millions of players and each player making whatever move looks best at a quick glance, and then there are a few hundred thousand players who just move randomly.

Comment author: markrkrebs 27 September 2011 10:17:16AM 1 point [-]

Good point.. Easy to imagine a lot of biologically good designs getting left unexpressed because the first move is less optimal.