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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 2:01 am
(This post was last modified: June 22, 2019 at 2:06 am by Anomalocaris.)
(June 21, 2019 at 7:24 pm)wyzas Wrote: Cannibalism.
Prion disease ring a bell?
(June 21, 2019 at 3:38 pm)no one Wrote: NOTHING! Humans are the kindest, caringest, awesomest, mostest wonderfulest, special creature in the whole entire everything!
I am disgustingly bereft of any unredeeming qualities. I am sadly devoid of any foibles that would have made me a human like you all. I truly deserve no better than the golden halo that stigmatizes me.
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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 2:50 am
(June 21, 2019 at 4:09 pm)Jörmungandr Wrote: Mine is that I'm simply too humble. I'm probable more humble than it is humanly possible to be.
That is the biggest overstatement ever made in the history of humankind. :-)
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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 3:28 am
(June 21, 2019 at 3:06 pm)Athena Wrote: Talking specifically about humans, what traits have survived despite being frowned upon? I'm convinced my ancestors found every excuse to get out of battle. They had the sniffles and were convinced it was plague or something. They survived. They just didn't fight for it.
Promiscuity seems like an obvious one. That seems like an enduring trait for any species.
I think it's a good question.
To go for the most basic ones I'll say murderous traits. You kill your rivals, they don't get to breed and you do. I'm guessing even in early human history being murderous would have to be combined with some social, political skill to get people on your side enough so that you don't get killed yourself in retaliation. Or just being deceptive so that people don't know you did it.
Greed. So the greedy person has the resources, money, food, they get to eat and breed, others starve so they don't.
I'll go with promiscuity aswell. We do have contraception now and I'd argue that's not the answer to everything. Through most of human history, extreme promiscuity I imagine would result in a lot of children, not enough resources, crude abortions, orphans.
With all of them like I say you'd probably need some social/political skill, skills in deception or whatever so other people don't kill you in retaliation for being a murderous, food hogging bastard who has had sex with people's partners.
Killing, eating and fucking. Those have to be the most primitive basic things.
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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 7:45 am
(June 22, 2019 at 2:01 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: (June 21, 2019 at 7:24 pm)wyzas Wrote: Cannibalism.
Prion disease ring a bell?
Yeah, that's why you don't eat the brain. I forgot the name of the disease.
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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 9:28 am
Vengefulness. The natural desire for retribution is a deterrent for behavior that we consider wrong. Sure, you can steal, but if you get caught you'll pay. You can murder, but someone will be looking for you afterward. If your tribe murders members of another tribe, it's reasonable to expect retaliation.
I think it's our desire for revenge that created the justice system we have today in the US. It's far more about punishment than it is about rehabilitation.
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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 10:02 am
(June 22, 2019 at 2:01 am)Anomalocaris Wrote: (June 21, 2019 at 7:24 pm)wyzas Wrote: Cannibalism.
Prion disease ring a bell?
Nope, what's that Dr. Gajdusek?
I don't have an anger problem, I have an idiot problem.
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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 12:41 pm
From an evolutionary standpoint, there can't be any traits which promote survival that can be considered 'less than desirable'. Since the only point of a species is to survive, all traits which work to that end are traits to be desired.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 12:54 pm
Yes, but for a social species, you need to weed out individuals doing things that hamper the survival of the group. Meaning if a man decides to kill every child that isn't his, it increases the survival of his bloodline only so much as he'd able to survive being mauled by all the other men in the group.
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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 1:03 pm
(June 22, 2019 at 12:54 pm)Chad32 Wrote: Yes, but for a social species, you need to weed out individuals doing things that hamper the survival of the group. Meaning if a man decides to kill every child that isn't his, it increases the survival of his bloodline only so much as he'd able to survive being mauled by all the other men in the group.
But that's personal survival, not species survival. The behaviour of the man killing offspring that aren't his IS an undesirable trait, as it threatens the survival of the species.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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RE: What less than desirable traits promote survival?
June 22, 2019 at 6:40 pm
(June 22, 2019 at 12:41 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote: From an evolutionary standpoint, there can't be any traits which promote survival that can be considered 'less than desirable'. Since the only point of a species is to survive, all traits which work to that end are traits to be desired.
Boru
That's true, but I was talking in terms of cultural norms.
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