[extropy-chat] 300 and the Gates of Fire

[Damien Broderick]

At 06:29 PM 3/11/2007 -0700, Stuart LaForge wrote:

>Also Spartan women were somewhat fascinating as well.
>Their whole tradition of sending their husbands off to
>battle by giving them their shields and saying "with
>this or on this" is rather powerful as they were in
>effect saying "come back victorious, dead, or not at
>all." How refreshingly Darwinian is that?

Well, no, Stuart. It's no more "Darwinian" than any other strategy. 
Were the Athenians less Darwinian? And far from being 
"refreshing"--as Hamilton noted--evolution is a heinously heedless, 
mostly horrible process. (I'm fairly sure we agree about this, though.)

Damien Broderick