News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on The curse of the potato. Parent comment

Re:The curse of the potato by wz1000 on Saturday April 30, 2016 @10:26PM (#11604586)
> What we have never been able to construct is a society where everyone is equal and wealthy and getting more-so. This may or may not be possible with human beings. One thing is certain -- we're not bees.

This is false, or at least unjustified. Sure, an equal society may not grow as fast as an unequal one, and so the latter may take the former out of the competition. But how can you conclude that such a society won't progress in isolation?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:The curse of the potato by ci5er on Sunday May 01, 2016 @11:28AM (#11606532)
> But how can you conclude that such a society won't progress in isolation?

Don't know. We aren't bees or ants - we're tribal hierarchical apes - so we don't have a lot of isolated (or even positive) "everyone is equal here" examples to study.

The socio-biologist E.O. Wilson, when asked about such altruistic-sounding theories, responded: "Right theory - wrong species".

[ Parent | on HN ]