[ExI] Group Selection Advances

[Damien Broderick]

At 10:12 AM 5/1/2009 -0700, spike wrote:

>Imagine a group of hungry pre-technology humans, where some extropian minded
>individual comes up with the idea of agriculture.  Some agree this is a
>great hi-tech way to get reliable food, but the majority insist on the
>traditional way of praying to Etaoin Shrdlu for divine guidance in finding
>roots, berries and squirrels.  Over time, the agriculturalists have a more
>reliable food source, become richer and more numerous, and eventually
>everyone is an agriculturalist.  If this is not a clear example of group
>selection I don't know what else to call it.

Learning? There'd be some genetic components to that--aptitude for 
observation and analysis, maybe, or for following a persuasive 
leader--but I'd imagine there could be many diverse paths to 
agriculture or industry or Twitter. Big brains, even hidebound 
conservative big brains, beat the hell outta blind watchmakers.

Damien Broderick