Tim_Tyler comments on Adaptation-Executers, not Fitness-Maximizers - Less Wrong

42 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 11 November 2007 06:39AM

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Comment author: Tim_Tyler 09 July 2008 07:50:38PM -2 points [-]

Re: The point of the post is that the organisms themselves don't actually care about fitness

Most of them certainly act as though they do. Kick someone in the testicles, steal their girlfriend, threaten their son, or have sex with their wife and observe the results.

Of course people don't always profess to caring about their own fitness. Rather many profess to be altruists. That is an expected result of wishing to appear altruistic - rather than selfish - to others. Indeed, people are often good at detecting liars and are poor at deception - and the best way of appearing to be an altruist is to believe it yourself, and then use doublethink to rationalise away any selfish misdeads. So don't expect to be able to access your actual motives through introspection. Consciousness is part of the brain's PR department - not a hotline to its motive system.

Re: teenage suicides

Adaptive explanations were never intended to cover all cases. Organisms suffer from brain damage, developmental defects, cancer, infectious diseases, misconceptions, malnutrition, and all manner of other problems that prevent them from having as many grandchildren as they otherwise might. However, these deviations from the rule do not indicate that adaptive explanations are vacuous, or that they are compatible with any outcome.