Tim_Tyler comments on Adaptation-Executers, not Fitness-Maximizers - Less Wrong
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Re: "Individual organisms are best thought of as adaptation-executers rather than as fitness-maximizers".
It's a bit like saying deep blue is an instruction executor, not an expected chess position utility maximizer.
The statement muddles up the "why" and "how" levels of explanation.
Executing instructions are *how* chess programs go about maximizing expected chess position utility.
Of course organisms cannot necessarily maximise their fitnesses - rather they attempt to maximise their *expected* fitness, just like other expected utility maximisers.
Tooby and Cosmides go on to argue the even more confused thesis:
"[Goals such as "maximize your fitness" or "have as many offspring as possible"] are probably impossible to instantiate in any computational system."