From: Robin Hanson (rhanson@gmu.edu)
Date: Sat Jul 26 2003 - 15:16:10 MDT
On 7/26/2003 Eliezer S. Yudkowsky wrote:
>>Imagine a field full of slow plump rabbits, munching on grass.
>>Imagine a fox sitting ... meta-foxes ... who only eat foxes.
>
>I'm not sure I understand the analogy.
>My guess: We're the fox, the rabbits are the uneaten stars we see all
>around us, and the metafoxes are the supposed destroyers of colonizers?
Yup, that's the idea.
>If so, then the scenario constrains its supporter to postulate an Exotic
>Meta-Fox Motive: Eat Only Foxes. ...
I don't think evolutionary stories can be built on motives. We would want
a story about why such motives arose and continue be selected for relative
to alternatives.
Steve Witham wrote:
>My assumption is that a metafox can invisibly eat a fox,
>but trying to eat rabbits (planets) is such a large-scale
>activity that it makes you visible (i.e. a fox).
I don't see why this would be so, at least per "pound of flesh" or per
useful units acquired. If anything I'd think it would be the other way
around; foxes could make a lot of noise while they struggle for their life.
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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