Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!bloom-beacon!think!ames!ucbcad!ucbvax!hplabs!hplabsc!taylor 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 Article-I.D.: hplabsc.2228 Posted: Wed Jul 15 15:14:00 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 17-Jul-87 07:38:20 EDT References: <2041@hplabsc.HP.COM> Sender: taylor@hplabsc.HP.COM Distribution: world Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 19 Approved: taylor@hplabs >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