[ExI] nature's indifference to survival

[John Clark]

On Sat, Oct 24, 2026 at 1:10 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

*> Conclusion: nature is indifferent to survival of these beasts.*


*Yes, nature "wants" certain genes to survive but is indifferent about the
survival of individual animals, and the result of this process is that an
astronomical amount of cruelty is necessary for Darwinian Evolution to
produce even the smallest improvement in a species. *

*That's why I could never understand scientists like Francis Collins
(former head of the Human Genome Project) who is absolutely certain that
Darwin was right but is even more certain that God exists and Jesus is his
son. Darwinian Evolution is just about the most brutal process imaginable
for producing complex objects, so if Francis Collins is correct then God is
a sadistic monster. But in the way his ideas are consistent, only a
sadistic monster would believe that the only way He (that is to say God)
could forgive humanity for the sin of one of his ancestors eating an apple
when told not to, is for humans to torture His son to death.*

*> One of the categories in my AI taxonomy (over which I am still
> struggling) is that AI is very interested in its own survival but is
> indifferent to ours.  It has no animosity towards us and will work with us
> if we benefit it in any way.  It will fight us if we harm it in any way. *


*We don't blame a human for killing in self-defense, why should we blame an
AI for doing the same thing? *


*John K Clark*











>
> I witnessed a swarming termite today, which is only the second time in my
> long life I have seen them swarm in these numbers.  These were subterranean
> termites, which are generally not the kind that eat houses.  They can, but
> these are not the voracious and destructive white ant variety, but rather
> alates:
>
>
>
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termite#/media/File:Flying_Termites_after_rain.jpg
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> It was a most remarkable sight.  I eventually found one of the colonies
> inside a rotting stump, over on the Stanford campus.
>
>
>
>
>
> I had a discussion with AI on my phone about these things, learning about
> how they swarm about every four or five years, looking for a place to set
> up a new colony.
>
>
>
> Millions of the termites would fly up, flutter around for a while then
> land, drop their wings and walk around looking for a mate and a new home.
> This was happening simultaneously all over the valley today.
>
>
>
> Out of the millions of termites which fly out of an existing colony, on
> the average only about one termite pair will be successful in setting up a
> new home.  Unlike a bee swarm, where they stay together, these guys just
> flutter out in any random direction.  I think the average success rate must
> be less than one, because I don’t know that the old colony necessarily
> perishes after the swarm event.  It might, one could suppose, but the total
> number of termite colonies is stable.  So… millions of termites go out, but
> on the average less than one pair manages to both mate and find a suitable
> new home.  Conclusion: nature is indifferent to survival of these beasts.
>
>
>
> One of the categories in my AI taxonomy (over which I am still struggling)
> is that AI is very interested in its own survival but is indifferent to
> ours.  It has no animosity towards us and will work with us if we benefit
> it in any way.  It will fight us if we harm it in any way.  If we have no
> interaction with it, then it is completely apathetic to whether we live or
> die.  It is an AI that is as indifferent to human survival as is nature to
> the termite.
>
>
>
> spike
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>
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