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From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.society
Subject: Re: The Impact of Inventions
Message-ID: <2228@hplabsc.HP.COM>
Date: Wed, 15-Jul-87 15:14:00 EDT
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Posted: Wed Jul 15 15:14:00 1987
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>It occurs to me that there may be a parallel between evolution of life
>forms and the "short-term profit motive" Priddle mentions above.

Not strictly accurate. Evolutionary changes that survive need not
benefit their possessor.  They only enhance the probability that
the characteristic propagates, which can be done to the detriment
of the possessor of the characteristic.  That doesn't look like
short-term profit motive to me.  Indeed, short-term profit would
be likely to have the opposite effect, considering the expenditure
(energy, time ...) involved in producing progeny.  

We probably don't see the progeny of organisms that (by mutation?)
developed a strong short-term profit motive, because they invested
in themselves and not in the survival of their genetic structures.
The same probably holds for societies in which short-term profit
is a dominant motive, whether it be of the citizens or of the
government.

Martin Taylor