<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Fri, Aug 19, 2016 at 11:22 AM, Keith Henson </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:hkeithhenson@gmail.com" target="_blank">hkeithhenson@gmail.com</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div><span style="font-size:12.8px"> </span><span style="font-size:12.8px">the genes<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div></span>doesn't think at all. </blockquote><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><font size="4">Yes, and that is their greatest weakness.</font></div></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>They still tend to<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>maximize utility over evolutionary time (or go extinct). </blockquote><div><br></div><div><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">Genes don't have to fund the best solution to a problem and because the right mutation cannot be guaranteed to come when needed and because it's too hard to change a standard once it's well established genes almost never find the perfect answer, they just have to be better than competing genes. </div> </font></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
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<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>It's a bleak realization that evolution has wired us up this way.</blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4">But genes aren't the end of the story, the fact that the second half of the 20th century was dramatically less bloody than the first half is reason for hope. </font></div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"></blockquote><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div>it does explain the popularity of one of the candidates this year,</blockquote><div><br></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4">But we've never had a candidate like Donald Trump, why did we get a trumpian candidate this year? I don't think it was genes I think it was just a unusual confluence of circumstances. Somebody decided to run for president who had money (although probably not nearly as much as he claims) and virtually 100% name recognition and showmanship skills to peddle ideas that were decisive, dramatic and simple (but not simple in a good way). The fact that Trump's ideas were bad ideas and would only make the problems they were supposed to solve worse explains why his strongest demographic is uneducated white men. </font></div></div><div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><font size="4"><br></font></div></div><div><font size="4"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> John K Clark </div> </font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div></div>