08 Apr 2014, 11:54 pm
linatet wrote:
yes, like you said, it is only a piece. We humans are animals but we have important particularities that CANNOT be discounted from the analysis. Biologists and evolutionary biologists are specially susceptible to making this mistake (some have very good insights of course). The function of hierarchies in human societies is a very complex issue and we have thousands of books of anthropology, sociology, political science etc related to it. We have to be very careful when comparing our power structures to that of lions or monkeys.
I do agree. For one the human line of development is unique and quite complicated being tied up with technology. And two, the philosophical side is pretty open ended as far as possibilities.
Nature is a good source of analogous behaviors to compare to, but it is mainly I believe useful in understanding specific mechanisms. We share some basic needs with most animals and more specific ones with a few, and so its logical that nature has used the some of the same procedures with even quite different species. I might compare it to computer sub-routines. Several very different programs may use the same bit of code for basic math computation for instance. So while we share a lot of routines with the great apes, you can also find similiarities occasionally with more simple creatures as ants.
A lot has to do with 'what is the problem?', for nature has the same basic methodology for selection and evolution whether it be a microbe or human being. The problem being the same, the solution can have similiarities if the organism at the point of comparison runs parallel courses. For example, the closest thing in nature to the human activity of war are ants and termites not the animals closest to us species-wise. The reason being likely that ants and people have similarities in forming large organized groups.
Whats interesting is that the model of possibilities/new solutions for 21st century humanity might come from mold colonies.
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