Ayn Rand was wrong there [assuming that was an actual quote]: < For a human being, the desire to live and the knowledge of what life requires are an achievement, not a biological gift.” > The biological gift is the dna which drives a very powerful sense of self-preservation and self-interest. From foetus through infancy, children are very self-interested. That's about all they are interested in. As they grow, they are subsumed by social suppression and Stockholm Syndrome. Infants have inbuilt survival detection and promotion systems. They put everything in their mouths, looking for food that matches their inbuilt "food" taste detection systems - a biological gift.
But she is right that acquiring the knowledge necessary for human life is an achievement, not a gift and it's impossible to gain sufficient knowledge to do it right. "Food" is now in supermarkets and getting good food is difficult. Knowing whether one has enough of each nutrient, and not too much, is a matter of luck. Not many people have continual blood monitoring for nutrient status other than "Gosh I could go a banana" which is no doubt in part a nutrient seeking drive arising from an inbuilt, automatic, nutrient monitoring mechanism [a biological gift].
But I'm being picky. Generally, her statement is true.
In the modern world, life is so complex that it's a continuous battle to achieve the knowledge of what life requires, as she wrote or said. The complexity and degrees of freedom have gone exponentially parabolic to hyperbole levels with no asymptote in sight. The evolutionary pressure is intense. With women also conducting their eugenics genocide projects, selecting only the best males for breeding, the rate of evolution in human intellect is now stupendously fast and about to accelerate with genetic engineering and selection using scientific racism eliminating undesirable genes and selecting the right stuff. Women are doing that as we speak. I know a doctor and his wife who have been doing exactly that. But they gave up because the scientific racism needs a bit more success and have gone with a "luck of the draw" baby with 50% chance of getting his stomach cancer gene.
The Flynn Effect is getting a big turbo-charging.
Mqurice |
