Merle,
Well, it is odd from an evolutionary standpoint. I taught a course for 20 years entitled “The Paradox of Animal Sociality”, so it must be odd. One could, I suppose, argue that it’s not odd at all, since the organization of any individual body, indeed of any complex cell, implies the suppression of the reproductive tendencies of the components that make it up. Perhaps “odd” is wrong? Theoretically problematic? In deciding whether or not to feel sorry for me, please take into account the whole picture. I think that people are constantly teetering on two knife edges, one between good and evil, and the other between selfish and altruistic. So you have your evil altruism and your good selfishness, as well as your others. By the way, I hate that word problematic. It suggest to anybody as old as I am that there is somewhere in NYC a cafeteria, called a Problemat, where one can purchase a juicy problem by putting a few coins in the door of the problem you like, and pulling it out, piping hot and ready to chew on. I have gone looking for that store in NYC, and never found it. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Merle Lefkoff Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 4:04 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com> Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link So you think altruism is "odd"? I feel so sorry for you, Nick!! On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 2:00 PM, Nick Thompson <nickthomp...@earthlink.net <mailto:nickthomp...@earthlink.net> > wrote: Ahhhh. Now I see what this is all about. Thank you Gary. It seems to me, oddly enough, that bitcoin has to do with our odd, species-specific tendency toward [what evolutionary biologists call] altruism. There are, of course tremendous non-zero sum gains that flow for trust but he who trusts, always runs the risk of being cheated. And people HATE to be cheated. I like the way your note threads its way between these two tendencies. N Nicholas S. Thompson Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology Clark University <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com <mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com> ] On Behalf Of Merle Lefkoff Sent: Wednesday, July 22, 2015 3:29 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com <mailto:friam@redfish.com> > Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Interesting Link Gary, attached is link to another good article about alternative currencies. I personally wish that Greece were out of the EU--they won't have a chance to recover otherwise. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff <merlelefk...@gmail.com <mailto:merlelefk...@gmail.com> > wrote: Nice candid response, Gary. And I read with great interest your earlier posts about Ecuador. The thing to pay attention to, I think, is that because of the global failure of the structures in the present Bretton Woods system, some outliers around the world are serious about delving into the idea of alternative currencies for a new, more transparent, participatory economy completely outside capitalism. There is a serious grass-roots movement in Santa Fe around public banking, which may be even more interesting. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:15 PM, Gary Schiltz <g...@naturesvisualarts.com <mailto:g...@naturesvisualarts.com> > wrote: Digital currency fascinates a lot of folks, including me. A lot of folks also don’t trust it, including me. I have no reason that I can easily articulate why I don’t trust it. Mostly, I think it’s because I don’t understand it very well, and that, in turn, is because I haven’t put in the effort. Or, perhaps it’s more that I don’t really understand the implications of money, in general. It really is a most un-natural idea, when you come right down to it. It’s just a token that represents agreements among people within this other crazy thing that we have invented, called government, that legislates a monopoly on the creation of this un-natural substance (money). I’ve heard lots of horror stories about hyperinflation in countries that start generating lots of money (I do know that this is impossible with digital currency), and this in turn leads to people not wanting to accept the currency, which feeds into some kind of feedback loop until the whole thing (government, currency) comes crashing down. So, unless people really understand this new thing (digital currency), will they accept it? Will they trust it? I don’t know. Somewhat pertinent to the thread about Ecuador that I started a couple of weeks ago, Ecuador is strongly pushing its own digital currency. It claims that all of it will be backed in the central bank by American dollars (which it adopted in 2000). As part of the legislation to introduce its own digital currency, it also made it illegal to use any other digital currency, e.g. Bitcoin. Some see it as a way of a backdoor exit from the dollar. I have many unanswered questions myself, including whether the software to generate manage the currency is open source, and if not, has the government somehow added a back door for creating more. Here <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/ecuador-digital-currency-dollar-rafael-correa> is one of many articles in English about this. On Wed, Jul 22, 2015 at 12:30 PM, Merle Lefkoff <merlelefk...@gmail.com <mailto:merlelefk...@gmail.com> > wrote: http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/# <http://www.coindesk.com/coin-center-bitcoin-advocacy-launch/> -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA merlelefk...@gmail.com <mailto:merlelefk...@gmail.com> ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org <mailto:me...@emergentdiplomacy.org> mobile: (303) 859-5609 <tel:%28303%29%20859-5609> skype: merlelefkoff -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org <mailto:me...@emergentdiplomacy.org> mobile: (303) 859-5609 <tel:%28303%29%20859-5609> skype: merlelefkoff ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com -- Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA me...@emergentdiplomacy.org <mailto:me...@emergentdiplomacy.org> mobile: (303) 859-5609 skype: merlelefkoff
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