[ExI] ep thought experiment

[Keith Henson]

<spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

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>>...AI fighting robots may be coming, but they are not here yet...

> Actually I was thinking of firearms.

People still have to point them and fire.

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>...Ah, we *have* evolved into bulbous-headed creatures.  Ever looked at the
cranial capacity of Australopithecines?  William Calvin thinks the big brain
evolved to support accurate throwing, something we can do and chimps
can't...

I have long been interested in that notion since I was introduced to it.
The hand and shoulder structure is different between chimps and humans.  The
notion is that protochimps/protohumans diverged because one guy figured out
how to hunt by hurling stones at prey.

Actually, the pre human adaptation was probably throwing rocks at
lions.  Calvin thinks the "hand axes" that are found over at least two
million years of sediment were thrown like a discus into animals at a
water hole.

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> Hikers find a good example of prey (marmots)

If you have been following the news lately, this is a good way to get plague.

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>>...Some traits like status seeking we probably don't want to turn off...

> That depends on the circumstances.  It is easy enough to imagine status
seeking as a mixed bag or even a maladaptive trait, depending on the
situation.

I mentioned Federal Judges as an example of trading income for status,
but I can't think of other cases where seeking status is maladaptive.
Can you think up examples?

Keith