I want to know if the normal cells have some form of limited competition.
I am tempted to say "No", but again, I can't pretend to know everything there is to know on the subject. But I do know that "competing for resources" is the definition of a cancerous cell.
I don't know about the cells yet...but individuals are not programmed to be insanely selfish
Nobody is talking about "insanely" selfish. Just "selfish" - i.e. wishing/trying/working for his own benefit rather than that of the community/organism. I guess you are not going to say human beings are inherently selfish in nature...
This is not to say, of course, that people are consumed by an endless desire to gain more money & power ad infinitum. In economics, this is described as the "utility function", the sum of all you like/enjoy/need/want with the appropriate coefficients of importance, which each of us try to maximize.
So, let's say at this point in time, your function is:
5*[money]+4*[power]+1*[leisure]+2*[quality time].
In ten years or so, when you have more money & power and children you would like to spend time with, your utility function could become:
2*[money]+2*[power]+4*[leisure]+6*[quality time]
So, basically, you will do a trade-off between money/power and quality time, once you have all you need for your basic needs. That does not make you any less selfish. Neither does it mean that you are "insanely selfish". You are human and you are selfish, aiming to maximize your own utility function and those of your loved ones (rather than strangers').
Saw it on National Geography. You may want to search their web site.
National Geographic? I did. Nothing.
>>> How long does sperm live in the female body anyway? 24 hrs?<<<
I think it is 4 days.
You've got to be kidding me :-)
Haven't you ever done "period math"? Like, dangerous time of the month for a girl is 14th day (on a 28-day cycle) and the day before and after, if you want to be careful... It is not the middle WEEK of a woman's four-week cycle, which would have been the case if sperm lived for four days inside a woman.
Also, a man has been away from his wife (business trip) or suspects she may be cheating produces a lot more sperms than otherwise.
Coming back from a business trip, a guy would have high sperm count if he has not been chasing teenagers in the Far East. However, I need to see proof to believe your second claim. Got link?
What I am saying is that there are many parallels in the way the universe works at different scales (a crude example is the solar system versus the atomic model).
I see where you are coming from, but the "solar system" vs "atomic model" is VERY wrong, unless you are stuck in the Bohr model of the atom where electrons orbit around the nucleus. Our understanding of the atom is much better now, with electrons vibrating in different energy levels have nothing to do with orbits. This is the model I learned in high school.
And quantum physics have taken it further...
These days, you cannot even talk about the same set of RULES for the solar system and the atoms, where physics as we know it breaks down and quantum rules, uh, RULE :-)
Granted, the sperm are not sitting around solving differential equations, but neither are they wondering around aimlessly. So the question is do you consider the cells (or in my example the sperms) to be intelligent?
No, I don't. They are drawn to an egg. That's hardly intelligence. Iron dust is also drawn to magnets but we don't think they are "intelligent", are we?
Unless, you would like to research a bit this claim of yours that they "eat" other men's sperms, and give some links. I don't mean to make life harder for you, but I just couldn't find any articles of the sort.
So if you have cells that are showing competition and cooperation skills based on genetic similarities ...
Hold it, mister :-) You have no idea if cells show competition. You just asked me, and I said that would be "cancer"...
I feel your best argument is "cooperation". And since I am a nice girl, I will point you in the direction of the recent scientific study that proves bacteria communicate, cooperate, and "plot against us":
wired.com
you have people who do the same at much bigger scale, then could it be possible that we are all part of a greater being? (Think along the lines of Gaia, Buddha, Sufi doctrines.
No need to say, those three are completely different doctrines, and in none can one talk of living beings as functional parts of a whole, as in the case of cells making up our organs, or atoms making up the molecules making up our cells.
Actually, there is an argument (quite convincing) about the whole universe being a giant computation device (recently rehashed in Wolfram's "A New Kind of Science". (I haven't read it yet, but will soon)
There is another, again very consistent, logical case that out universe is a simulation, put forth by a philosopher:
simulation-argument.com
Aside from those, I have not really seen a convincing case for "We are part of a prearranged whole/order", but of course you are welcome to try...
and you have people who do the same at much bigger scale, then could it be possible that we are all part of a greater being? (Think along the lines of Gaia, Buddha, Sufi doctrines. |
