From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Sat Jul 26 2003 - 03:57:44 MDT
I wrote:
> Imagine a field full of slow plump rabbits, munching on grass.
> Imagine a fox sitting in a tall clump of grass eating the
> rabbits that happen to wander into that clump. This fox is
> thinks that he shouldn't leave his clump, because there are
> meta-foxes out there, who only eat foxes. He thinks the
> reason that there are so many uneaten rabbits out there is that
> any time a fox comes out to eat a rabbit, a meta-fox sees it
> and runs in and eats the fox. And his reason for not seeing
> any meta-foxes out there eating foxes is that this is a very
> rare event, due to the fact that meta-foxes are very efficient
> and foxes are rare.
> My key problem with this scenario is: why don't the meta-foxes
> eat the rabbits? Why focus on a few hard to catch foxes?
On 7/26/2003, Damien Broderick responded:
>Why don't the meta-foxes eat grass? Consider the elephant, which doesn't
>eat the rabbit- and fox-eating lions but can stomp them if they get in the
>way. (Maybe that's entirely beside the point, though.)
Since the field is full of rabbits eating grass, good grass
is hard to find, and you can't grow using that strategy. Eating
the rabbits, in contrast, seems to allow fast growth. The
evolutionary puzzle is why the fast growth strategy is ignored.
On 7/26/2003, Emlyn O'regan responded:
>Because the foxes can become metafoxes, and so are a threat to the existing
>metafoxes. Further, the Rabbits cannot become foxes or metafoxes, so they
>are not threatening. Metafoxes don't need to consume for food, just to
>destroy enemies.
Accepting your assumptions, a fox that can become a meta-fox is
no more of a threat to any given meta-fox than another meta-fox is.
So why doesn't that meta-fox run in and eat any meta-fox it sees
eating a fox? Also, any given meta-fox should care much less about
what threatens the set of all meta-foxes as what threatens it
personally. Eating rabbits would seem to give it a much bigger
personal gain than searching out foxes to attack.
Robin Hanson rhanson@gmu.edu http://hanson.gmu.edu
Assistant Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326 FAX: 703-993-2323
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