timtyler comments on Intelligence Explosion vs. Co-operative Explosion - Less Wrong

20 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 16 April 2012 11:01AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (61)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: timtyler 17 April 2012 11:06:50AM *  2 points [-]

The "new" group selection (e.g. here and here) works with both organic and cultural evolution.

Dogs pass on fleas they acquired during their lifespan to their offspring - much as humans pass on ideas they acquired during their lifespan to their offspring. Both the fleas and the ideas can mutate inside their hosts - and those changes are passed on as well.

The differences between organic and cultural evolution are thus frequently overstated. Critically, Darwinian evolutionary theory applies to both realms.

Comment author: Armok_GoB 17 April 2012 06:49:34PM 1 point [-]

except it's more like viruses than flies: singificant amounts of evolution can hapen within a single host generation, and entirely different species can crospolinate if they end up within the same host.

Comment author: timtyler 17 April 2012 07:21:23PM *  2 points [-]

Depends on yer memes - but sure, often more like viruses.

"Species" is one of the more tricky areas - if there's much interbreeding, then maybe it's not two species. It isn't just memes, though - bacteria and viruses exhibit this too, as you say.

Comment author: Armok_GoB 17 April 2012 08:43:27PM 0 points [-]

Yea, I oversimplified a bit.