Comic Discussion > ALICE GROVE
Alice Grove MCDT August 2015
Kugai:
There comes a point where even the greatest Warrior says "No more!!"
BenRG:
--- Quote from: Roborat on 21 Aug 2015, 12:51 ---Starting to get a strong Jones vibe (Gunnerkrigg Court) with her now.
--- End quote ---
Jones is a curious creation but, IMHO at least, she and Alice are very different... except in appearance, which I found very spooky.
Is it cold in here?:
Jones claims to be emotionless if memory serves. Her memories also don't seem as psychologically damaging, even she must have seen over four thousand once-in-a-million-years horrors.
ReindeerFlotilla:
--- Quote from: BenRG on 21 Aug 2015, 08:34 ---It is... disturbing at times just how terrifyingly efficient and enthusiastic the human race is when it turns its collective mind to the mass eradication of life.
--- End quote ---
Botulism toxin is basically weaponized poop.
There are animals in the family mMustelidae who kill because why not. domestic cats are known to be roving murder bots who kill for no other reason than there is a thing that can be killed.
These are just three examples off the top of my head. Why is it at all surprising that humans have weaponized intelligence? There are counless examples that natural selection rewards animals that efficiently or enthusiastically kill whatever they can, including each other. Despite Agent Smith's assertion, every other mammal does not come to a natural equilibrium with its envrionment. It not just humans and viruses that consume all the resources and move on. that's why invasive species are a problem.
Nature's balances rest on a fulcrum that is equal parts consumption and replication, and death and destruction.
Deep down, this has always struck me as one of humanity's delusions. Except that sounds judgmental and It's not meant to be. Intelligence is evolved. As awesome as it is that we can use it to formulate pi (or preferably, tau) we also use it to formulate big foot, gods, and the Bermuda triangle. Ultimately, natural selection is unconcerned with whether the tools it crafts are "right," but only that they work. What intelligence constructs need not be representative of the real world, if it conveys advantage in passing on genes.
This better functional than realistic method makes selection a form of mathematics or vice versa.
What is interesting to me is that along with weaponizing intelligence, we've used it build a number of evolutionary tools that are generally aimed at preserving life. They were obviously intended to pass on genes, just like all the rest, but they've also gone to the extreme. A level of altruism that no longer makes sense at the genetic replication level. We are efficient and effective killers, but we are also the most efficient and effective healers and caregivers this planet has produced. We're so good at it, we've abstracted it and specialized it such that we have artisans who focus entirely on providing care for other species for not reason other than "it's there." Not just caring for animals that produce goods we consume, but caring for animals just because.
We often stand in judgment of our species as horrible compared to others, and I generally agree, because I am cynical pessimist. But the fact is that we are the undisputed champs when comes to pretty much all the "good" behaviors, too. I think the whole factors of surprise and shock at our heights and depths tends to vanish when you realize that good and bad are also constructs of our evolved intelligence ad actually have little to do with reality. Morality is another of those things like math. It doesn't matter if it is real, just that it works.
Is it cold in here?:
From another angle, along with all the other species we've sent to extinction, we also eradicated smallpox and have polio on its deathbed.
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