From: Robert J. Bradbury (bradbury@aeiveos.com)
Date: Sat Jul 26 2003 - 08:33:53 MDT
On Fri, 25 Jul 2003, Robin Hanson 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?
Frak Robin this is a complicated analogy. I my book your
hubris rating just went up a couple of points -- Eliezer's
comments aside.
So, looking at the question...
"why don't the meta-foxes eat the rabbits?"
Because they don't have to. Neither the foxes, nor the meta-foxes
have to eat the rabbits. In my knowledge base its generally
accepted that eating plant protein sources rather than animal
protein sources is about an order of magnitude more efficient (in
terms of the raw energy resources that went into the protein
production). The foxes (and meta-foxes) would engineer themselves
to eat grass (if they were initially unable to do so).
Now I could be completely missing the point of this proposal.
Looking at the alternate question...
From a simple "biological" standpoint "Why focus on a few hard
to catch foxes?" the answer is "because you are designed by natural
evolution such that the foxes are essential to your survival".
Humans require essential vitamins that are produced by bacteria
and other organisms and can at this point only be obtained by
serving as a host (for the bacteria) or consuming (e.g. fruits
for Vit. C) products which provide those necessary nutrients.
For the proposed scenario to make the points I think you are trying
to make I think you have to add some strong constraints (like the
foxes and meta-foxes are not aware of more efficient resources
or foxes and meta-foxes are not able to modify themselves to
take advantage of such resources). It seems (to me) very
difficult to assert that an advanced technological civilization
(i.e. one capable of interstellar travel) would lack such
capabilities.
Of course I may be completely misunderstanding the direction
of the scenario -- in which case ignore all of the above.
Robert
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