From: Rafal Smigrodzki (rms2g@virginia.edu)
Date: Tue Jan 14 2003 - 12:39:18 MST
Anders wrote:
>
> On the other hand, extending altruism and trust might be useful.
> If the altruist network can be extended, more cooperation and
> security would result. But since social complexity grows with
> the number of possible interactions and the probability of
> defection remains finite, there is likely an upper bound on the
> workable size of even an altruist-enhanced family. On the other
> hand, it might be useful to disconnect the altruism from genetic
> similarity and explore the possibilities to create non-genetic
> families. If altruistic bonds could be *deliberately* created
> between people (right now we rely on people falling in love, or
> being married and growing to love each other), then families
> could be extended to new functions.
### Indeed this might be the case. Since one of the main limitations to
altruism is the ability to cheat, a group allowing full scrutiny of all
motivational circuits in every member's mind could vastly extend the number
of individuals who could cooperate as well as a loving family. At some point
such extended families could become the main constituents of the society,
displacing non-bonded individuals to niche status. Of course, one of the
answers available to individuals would be spawning to produce large number
of copies, able to cooperate with each other even better than
altruism-enhanced families.
Rafal
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