Wednesday 1 April 2009

84 Humans/Struggle/Wealth

A good proportion of attention is spent on the accumulation of wealth. Darwin hinted at the reason why, Dawkins explained it best and Stanovich, being Canadian, made it complicated. Genes created a machine in order to carry them around safely and propagate, so they achieve a kind of immortality. They gave this machine some basic but delightful urges in order to make sure the machine obeyed. Unfortunately the gene didn’t bank on the machine becoming sentient and rebelling against its plan. Money is a powerful aphrodisiac and most people want a bit of pump action. We are now at a stage in our evolution of extreme conflict.
Gene: Go on, have a baby.
Body: No way! They hurt. I won’t get any sleep, sex stops, my hair goes grey, I’ll be tired all the time and I will die prematurely.
Gene: Ah go on, please. You will become more socially accepted, credit rating will improve, you’ll be invited to a lot of dinner parties and you get to drive a Volvo.
Body: Oh OK that sounds nice and safe and I can still have fun, right?
Gene: Good, good, very good.
Later.
Body: Gene you absolute utter sh1t! Look what has happened now!
Gene: Muuhahahaha! I win again.
Thanks to divorce, people will evolve to a stage of agreement. The genetic program will be modified so people can spend time finding the ideal partner, the type of person who doesn’t mind years of hardship and strife raising offspring in order to ensure their lovers immortality.

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