[MUD-Dev] Decision making...

Rayzam rayzam at travellingbard.com
Thu Sep 16 07:29:26 CEST 2004


"Byron Ellacott" <bje at apnic.net> wrote:

> Perhaps not about mother nature, but fairness is an important
> aspect of primate life.  Primates, along with a large number of
> other species, owe their survival to their communities, and
> individuals who cannot participate in that community will soon be
> pushed out of it -- where they will be weak, and easy prey.  An
> individual who does not 'play fair' with other members of its
> community is a prime candidate for being pushed out.

Hierarchies in primate social groups have nothing to do with
fairness.  Larger, more powerful, scarier, better fighters, etc, are
the alpha males.  They run their social group. They get the food
they want, they get the females they want, they get what they want,
when they want it. They smack around others who get in the way, and
put the rest of the hierarchy in its place. There's nothing fair
about this. Beta males also get food and females, but only when the
alpha's needs are met. Often in fact, their sexual needs are met by
the submissive males. There is often a secondary hierarchy of the
females. In these hierarchies and social groups, there is not much
fairness.

    rayzam
_______________________________________________
MUD-Dev mailing list
MUD-Dev at kanga.nu
https://www.kanga.nu/lists/listinfo/mud-dev



More information about the mud-dev-archive mailing list