Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!iuvax!ndcheg!uceng!dmocsny
From: dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Thinking about the reduction of Entropy.
Summary: Emergent Properties.
Keywords: Heat Death and Light Life.
Message-ID: <838@uceng.UC.EDU>
Date: 6 Apr 89 16:55:28 GMT
References: <550002@hpfelg.HP.COM> <8300034@osiris.cso.uiuc.edu> <47325@linus.UUCP>
Organization: Univ. of Cincinnati, College of Engg.
Lines: 20

In article <47325@linus.UUCP>, bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort) writes:
> I just don't understand why an intelligent species would consciously
> take self-destruction as a goal.

Self-destruction is a _conscious_ goal of only the deranged. For most
individuals, self-destruction is an accident of taking the route of
momentary pleasure (e.g., nicotine and alcohol abuse). For societies,
self-destruction is not a goal at all. Instead, it is an emergent
property resulting from a collection of entities each trying to
maximize its claim on available resources while minimizing its
personal effort. Designing complex nonlinear systems to have arbitrary
pre-specified emergent properties is quite beyond the state of current
engineering (see the papers of Steven Wolfram).

> --Barry

Dan Mocsny				Snail:
Internet: dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU		Dept. of Chemical Engng. M.L. 171
513/751-6824 (home)			University of Cincinnati
513/556-2007 (lab)			Cincinnati, Ohio 45221-0171