Thoughts on competition

[drfuzzy]

A bunch of musings, flights of fancy, that invite your input!

I just finished watching a game where my team won.  YAY!  But ah . . . males will walk away to their celebrations, talking about how useless this player was, and how stupid those plays were, etc.  Females are a bit more likely to say "aw, I feel for that guy".  Do the guys ever stop to think that the other guys gave up their whole lives in training too?  In order for someone to win, someone has to lose.  It's all based in warfare, really.  You either win or you die.  The idea of spending time thinking of the dead, or of his family, is not relevant.  And yes, competition, on this planet, has fueled nearly all of humanity's achievements. The pattern of "eat or be eaten" seems to be the basis of evolution on this planet. So guys will say that without competition, positive change wouldn't happen.

Hmm.  Really?  Do you think that competition is the norm for life on ALL planets?

If a lifeform from outside our solar system should arrive, will they congratulate us for vanquishing our enemies and getting to the point of travelling to Mars,
or will they condemn us for a history of killing each other?  Would an advanced species, capable of travelling between solar systems, have evolved from extreme competition, or could they have evolved from something else:  complete equality, a hive mind, etc., that abhorred the very concept of "winners and losers".

??  This is just a sample of what happens when I start wondering about things.  But still . . . I would love to hear what folks think.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

It depends or what you mean by 'competition'. I can't imagine a biosphere in which individual organisms don't compete for resources, so competition in the form of sport or war might very well be an ingrained trait in complex societies.

And if those aliens ever do show up, my All Blacks will crush whatever rugby team they bring with them. Uppity fucking aliens.

Boru

[brewer]

Personally, I like competition. Is that because I've come out more on the winning side of competition, maybe. Or not dwell on the loses and continue competing because I derive pleasure from it, win or lose. I'm not sure I have impartial perspective. I know quite a few people who consider me a winner and quite a few who consider me a loser. For me, the wins and loses can be categorized. Based on my posts you should be able to tell that I'll never win at spelling.

Some win, some lose, some tie, some choose to never play. The losers today may be the winners tomorrow and vice versa. I believe it's in our evolution and part of what makes us human. Makes us each individual. I think the individual talents in a group elevate the group as a whole. I don't think we'd have that in a hive society. I don't think I'd like hive society.

If everyone were completely equal what does that do to individual talents? Are those individuals told not to develop those talents because there will be others that are less equal? Feels like, in total, it might have a dumbing down effect.

[drfuzzy]

I love the responses.  The topic makes me think . . . that's all.  It's possible that all life competes for resources.  Or it's possible that very different societies exist.  -- And we'll never know until we meet them, right?   It's still fun to think about.

[vorlon13]

There was a Twilight Zone (series remake) ep where aliens came to earth and humans mistakenly thought they were to be exterminated for their warlike past. In response, the UN rapidly banged out a global peace treaty which the alien representative found hysterical. They almost gave us a pass for 'humor' but decided in the end to kill everyone for not be sufficiently war like.

[vorlon13]

I love the responses.  The topic makes me think . . . that's all.  It's possible that all life competes for resources.  Or it's possible that very different societies exist.  -- And we'll never know until we meet them, right?   It's still fun to think about.

An alien environment that copiously supplies all the needs of it's inhabitants (from microbes to whatever) will not experience evolution.

They'll be VERY easy for us to conquer/enslave/eat/boink, whatever we want.

[drfuzzy]

I love the responses.  The topic makes me think . . . that's all.  It's possible that all life competes for resources.  Or it's possible that very different societies exist.  -- And we'll never know until we meet them, right?   It's still fun to think about.

An alien environment that copiously supplies all the needs of it's inhabitants (from microbes to whatever) will not experience evolution.

They'll be VERY easy for us to conquer/enslave/eat/boink, whatever we want.

Now, that's most certainly true here on Earth, and MAY be a universal constant.  There are creatures on land and sea who are perfectly adapted to their environments (scorpions, cockroaches, sharks, etc.) who, as far as we can tell, have not changed in eons.  What drove human evolution?  The need for shelter, heat, the need to find food - - the need to combat the environment in order to stay alive.

[MTL]

An alien environment that copiously supplies all the needs of it's inhabitants (from microbes to whatever) will not experience evolution.

They'll be VERY easy for us to conquer/enslave/eat/boink, whatever we want.

Now, that's most certainly true here on Earth, and MAY be a universal constant.  There are creatures on land and sea who are perfectly adapted to their environments (scorpions, cockroaches, sharks, etc.) who, as far as we can tell, have not changed in eons.  What drove human evolution?  The need for shelter, heat, the need to find food - - the need to combat the environment in order to stay alive.

An Evolutionary Biologist, like Richard Dawkins, would be better suited to answer that question,

but my haphazard guess is that each creature reacted to its immediate surroundings, circumstances, and needs;

meaning, you continue doing whatever was currently working...until it stopped working,
and a new solution was needed.

for some bottom-feeding fish, this meant to keep using the system of camouflage and ambush to catch food,

For some primates, this meant more social cooperation and developing tool-using and problem-solving skills.

And competition has always gone hand-in-hand with survival,
even amongst your own species.

As we evolved, I suspect there was a turning-point,
where we had developed such a sophisticated brain
that "curiosity" became a by-product of our evolution;

also, we probably mastered our surroundings to a degree that it freed up some of our hunting/gathering time for more recreational uses, like leaving paintings on a cave wall in what is now Lascaux, France...

...the primitive forerunner of art and philosophy.

Anyway, like you, I have never really understood what drives sporting competition;
I ALWAYS felt bad for the other team, so I never enjoyed winning so much.

I only just became a fan of the Montréal Canadiens in recent years,
and it had more to do with embracing the culture of Montréal,
(where hockey is the only real religion)
than it had to do with hating other teams.

[*Deidre*]

On some levels, maybe competition is rather an automatic response to survival, but in everyday living in a first world...I'm not really much of a competitive person. At work, when people 'compete' with me, I just sit in wonderment...why? Why doesn't this person just perform their job duties for themselves, and not keep looking at what I'm doing.

Competition can be a good thing to a degree, but for some reason, I view it as putting my focus on measuring myself using someone else's yardstick. My fiance however, is VERY competitive, like he thrives on it.