Biology and People

[rowyn]

Using only biological drives to understand human nature is like using only the fact that computers ultimately run on binary to understand Microsoft Office.

Yes, that fact is true, and yet somehow it does not actually tell you "use Ctrl-C to copy".

Comments

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Interesting purr-spective. };)

[jordan179.livejournal.com]

I would never recommend "using only biological drives" (emphasis mine) "to understand human nature." Doing so is to ignore the fact that our heritage is memetic in addition to being genetic; which is to say that we have culture; and that we are more intelligent than instinctive -- that we have thought.

Having said this, it is a very bad idea to ignore the role biological drives play in our lives, and even more importantly the effect of evolution on memetic constructs. Not all proposed customs are equally oriented to survival and reproduction, either genetic or memetic, and the accumulation of centuries and millennia of such selection has a profound effect on the cultures we evolve.

[the-vulture.livejournal.com]

That's an interesting analogy; I like it. :)

[octantis.livejournal.com]

Word. This is a good way to phrase it, I'm going to save this.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

So you should only use biological drives to *debug* human nature?

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Trying to "understand" human nature purely as "biological drives" seems pointless. Rather, it seems more likely just a way to be dismissive of a more serious discussion. Like, "I wonder why {insert name here} is upset?" "Bah, it's all hormones!" (Translation: "I don't care to take it seriously, so here is a blanket lowest-common-denominator statement to kill the conversation.")

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, and isn't it Ctrl-V instead of Ctrl-C? Or is that the point and I'm just totally missing it?

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

That's what I was gonna say! Ctrl+C is copy! :-D

(I'm probably missing the point.)

[rowyn]

I am unduly amused by my own error. :D

I did want to use Ctrl-C specifically, because under the old VAX mainframe OS, and under DOS, IIRC, Ctrl-C was the the "cancel" command. So I think it illustrates the way evolution can use the same tool to solve very different problems -- or come up with very different solutions to the same problem. Monogamy is one sensible solution to the biological drive to reproduce, for example, but it's far from a necessary or only solution.

[rowyn]

Heeheehee! No, I miswrote. I'll edit my entry. :D