Who serves whom? Was: E.O Wilson in the NY-ker

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Who serves whom? Was: E.O Wilson in the NY-ker

Russ Abbott
I like the idea of banks being the means by which coins distribute themselves. Of course, being inanimate and not capable of evolution, it's a hard case to make. Although perhaps we can say that people and our sense of pecuniary aesthetics is the means coins have developed to evolve themselves.

Rabies makes more sense. I think that argument actually works.  

Here's a Google+ post that talks about something similar in fungi.  Here's a piece of it.

Tree eating fungi. The ambrosia fungi have evolved the ability to get beetles [to] carry them from one piece of dead wood to another. ... [The beetles] have evolved saddle-like pouches in which to carry the fungus and feed them during the ride. And once the beetles have reached their destination, they put the fungus in a safe place (with few other fungi and bacteria to compete with) and get to work reproducing, in order to make more beetles, in order to carry the demanding fungus to even more dead trees. 
 
-- Russ Abbott
_____________________________________________
  Professor, Computer Science
  California State University, Los Angeles

  Google voice: 747-999-5105
  vita:  http://sites.google.com/site/russabbott/
_____________________________________________ 




On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 9:53 AM, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:

The recent interview with E.O. Wilson in the New Yorker pissed me off so bad I had to write them a letter.  Since the letter won’t be published, I am tempted to inflict it on all of you. 

 

Thanks for your patience,

 

Nick

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org

 

 


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
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Re: Who serves whom? Was: E.O Wilson in the NY-ker

Nick Thompson

Russ,

 

Corporations are termite mounds, my friend. 

 

Nick

 

From: [hidden email] [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Russ Abbott
Sent: Saturday, March 10, 2012 11:59 AM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Cc: [hidden email]; Dix McComas; Jonathan Barker; Gillian Barker
Subject: [FRIAM] Who serves whom? Was: E.O Wilson in the NY-ker

 

I like the idea of banks being the means by which coins distribute themselves. Of course, being inanimate and not capable of evolution, it's a hard case to make. Although perhaps we can say that people and our sense of pecuniary aesthetics is the means coins have developed to evolve themselves.

 

Rabies makes more sense. I think that argument actually works.  

 

Here's a Google+ post that talks about something similar in fungi.  Here's a piece of it.

 

Tree eating fungi. The ambrosia fungi have evolved the ability to get beetles [to] carry them from one piece of dead wood to another. ... [The beetles] have evolved saddle-like pouches in which to carry the fungus and feed them during the ride. And once the beetles have reached their destination, they put the fungus in a safe place (with few other fungi and bacteria to compete with) and get to work reproducing, in order to make more beetles, in order to carry the demanding fungus to even more dead trees. 

 

-- Russ Abbott
_____________________________________________

  Professor, Computer Science
  California State University, Los Angeles

  Google voice: 747-999-5105

  vita:  http://sites.google.com/site/russabbott/
_____________________________________________ 



On Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 9:53 AM, Nicholas Thompson <[hidden email]> wrote:

The recent interview with E.O. Wilson in the New Yorker pissed me off so bad I had to write them a letter.  Since the letter won’t be published, I am tempted to inflict it on all of you. 

 

Thanks for your patience,

 

Nick

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

http://www.cusf.org

 

 


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org

 


============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org