Sunday, March 18, 2012

The Darwinian "Units of Selection" are not aware of what they do

One of the most important lessons from evolution is that the Units of Selection (which are genes, by the way, not individual living beings) are not aware of what they do. There is no watchmaker (not even a blind watchmaker), no grand master plan. The units of selection don't "do it" for their benefit – it is the other way round, the units of selection that do something that is beneficial for them (in a given environment) are "rewarded".

So, does anybody need to know whether what he is doing is beneficial for him – or for someone else? Does a president need to know for whom (and how) it will be beneficial, if he invades another country in the name of his king, in the name of his religion or in the name of his nation? Does a professor for economy, a journalist or a politician need to know who benefits (beside himself) when he advocates the benefits of the invisible hand of the free market? And do patients who advocate for quack cures need to know to whom (and how) it is beneficial, if they advocate quack treatments? And does the quack need to know that only he will benefit of this quack cures?

No.

If anything, evolution teaches us that there can be a conspiracy without a conspirer. That a few are benefiting and many are harmed "can happen", without someone planing it knowingly. It would be interesting to dissect the mechanisms in each individual case – alas, I'm afraid that is beyond the scope of my feeble blog and left therefore as an exercise for the inclined reader. :-)


(That is not to say that all conspiracies have no conspirers who halfway know what they do – plenty of examples of that in history.)
Posted by Tony Mach Posted on Sunday, March 18, 2012
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