Re: Allowing Evolution To Take It's Course

Anders Sandberg (nv91-asa@nada.kth.se)
Tue, 17 Dec 1996 12:50:18 +0100 (MET)

On Mon, 16 Dec 1996, Chris Hind wrote:
> Now a few years later I have this icky feeling as
> though I've cheated evolution and allowed bad genes to continue when I know
> that it was still a noble thing to do by moral standards. Am I infected
> with some sort of "100% natural" meme?

Which phylum do you owe your allegiance to, your genes or your memes? If
you are "loyal" to the genes, saving "weak" people might be wrong (but as
others have pointed out, in our modern environment many "weak" genes do
not decrease fitness anyway). If you are loyal to the memes, then it was
definitely a good thing, since that person will continue to think and
communicate despite his genetic effect.

Evolution isn't good in itself, but by interacting with it we can turn it
to a good force (as determined by our values).

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Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension!
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