http://www.thepiratesociety.org/blog/?p=664 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:21:16 +0200 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 http://www.thepiratesociety.org/blog/?p=664&cpage=1#comment-276 jebusau Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:54:19 +0000 http://www.thepiratesociety.org/blog/?p=664#comment-276 i don't know much about altruism in biology, but how would one define the phenomena whereby male penguins looking after their eggs huddle together in huge packs and following some algorithm over the course of their time in the cold everyone gets an equal opportunity at being warm on the inside of the pack and cold on the outside while sheilding others from the weather. i do agree altruism may give way to a "help me and i'll help you" mentality - but isn't that in itself the goal? When we _need_ help we are usually not in a position to assess what kind of help, we're usually floundering and sinking slowly until the time someone who is in a position to help reaches out to us. i think we realise this and work hard to build a 'buffer' so that we can get help when things go wrong and we need it. I have more recently started to believe that true altruism is as much as giving in to others helping you as much as being 'altruistic' and helping others. if i'm exposed to the 'cold' of the copyright lobbyisits, then its only to give others their chance at being warm because only united together can we succeed. Evolution is not always competitive, i would argue it is never competitive, but co-operative, symbiotic and synergistic. i don’t know much about altruism in biology, but how would one define the phenomena whereby male penguins looking after their eggs huddle together in huge packs and following some algorithm over the course of their time in the cold everyone gets an equal opportunity at being warm on the inside of the pack and cold on the outside while sheilding others from the weather. i do agree altruism may give way to a “help me and i’ll help you” mentality – but isn’t that in itself the goal? When we _need_ help we are usually not in a position to assess what kind of help, we’re usually floundering and sinking slowly until the time someone who is in a position to help reaches out to us. i think we realise this and work hard to build a ‘buffer’ so that we can get help when things go wrong and we need it. I have more recently started to believe that true altruism is as much as giving in to others helping you as much as being ‘altruistic’ and helping others. if i’m exposed to the ‘cold’ of the copyright lobbyisits, then its only to give others their chance at being warm because only united together can we succeed. Evolution is not always competitive, i would argue it is never competitive, but co-operative, symbiotic and synergistic.

]]> http://www.thepiratesociety.org/blog/?p=664&cpage=1#comment-270 µbird Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:13:39 +0000 http://www.thepiratesociety.org/blog/?p=664#comment-270 Very interesting comment, I'm a biology student and are familiar with the terms altruism and reciprocity, and so far our society is based on the latter, not the former. Altruism in nature does not exist except in rare, isolated cases that area often the result of some genetic error. Very interesting comment, I’m a biology student and are familiar with the terms altruism and reciprocity, and so far our society is based on the latter, not the former. Altruism in nature does not exist except in rare, isolated cases that area often the result of some genetic error.

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