[ExI] Meta question

BillK pharos at gmail.com
Fri Aug 19 04:45:22 UTC 2016


On 19 August 2016 at 04:47, rex  wrote:
>> Keith wrote: (I hope the attribution is correct -- it's diffult to sort out.)
>>>      In the past, at times where humans had run into the ecological limit,
>>>      it was rational from _the viewpoint of human genes_ for humans to act
>>>      irrationally and from the evidence of history, stupidly. Even from
>>>      the gene's viewpoint, getting humans to act irrationally is not a good
>>>      strategy most of the time.  Acting irrationally or stupidly and
>>>      following irrational leaders is a *conditional* behavior, turned on by
>>>      anticipation of a bleak future.
>
> When the viewpoint is changed the utility function changes and a formerly
> irrational behavior (irrational because it did not maximize utility) may
> become rational (maximize utility).
>
>>>      Unfortunately, a substantial fraction of the people in the word
>>>      anticipate a bleak future.
>>>      Sadly, irrational, even stupid behavior, is what we can expect.
>
> Irrational from your POV, but perhaps rational from another POV. How do
> you know your POV is True?
>

Rational and irrational may be the wrong terms to use.
When a system is going bad and many people are struggling to survive,
is it more rational to continue struggling or to decide to wipe the
system and restart?

There are times when Ctrl, Alt, Del is the only rational choice left.

BillK



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