RolfAndreassen comments on Why officers vs. enlisted? - Less Wrong

13 Post author: JoshuaFox 30 October 2013 08:14PM

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Comment author: RolfAndreassen 31 October 2013 09:02:17PM 4 points [-]

if one army figured out a better way to do things, they would win.

Well... it is generally agreed, I think, that the Wehrmacht was, man for man and gun for gun, a better fighting force than any of the Allied armies that defeated it.

Comment author: JoshuaFox 01 November 2013 06:53:08AM 1 point [-]

OK ... but they had the same two-ladder system, so that is not an example of an alternative to the two-ladder system.

Comment author: DanArmak 01 November 2013 02:09:47PM 4 points [-]

The point is that most wars are won or lost on non-military grounds: economics, politics, technology, strategy, and even just the size of the army. For the one component of military organization to be naturally-selected, you would need many more wars and generations than have in fact existed.

Comment author: RolfAndreassen 01 November 2013 03:50:48PM 3 points [-]

Yes, but my point is that the organisation of even victorious armies is not necessarily optimal, or better than that of the army that it defeated. There hasn't been enough selection (and arguably, armies are insufficiently accurate replicators anyway) to make Darwinian arguments have the power you ascribe to them.