If you are dealing with an intelligence vastly more or less intelligent than yourself, there is no contest. One of you can play the other like tic-tac-toe. The stupid party’s values are simply irrelevant to the final outcome.
Possible counterexamples: the rabies virus is pretty good at getting mammals to do its bidding. Similarly, the protozoa Toxoplasma gondii, when it infects mice and rats, actually causes the infected rodents to become attracted to, instead of averse to, the scent of cat urine, which assists the parasite in transferring itself to its preferred host.
Possible counterexamples: the rabies virus is pretty good at getting mammals to do its bidding. Similarly, the protozoa Toxoplasma gondii, when it infects mice and rats, actually causes the infected rodents to become attracted to, instead of averse to, the scent of cat urine, which assists the parasite in transferring itself to its preferred host.
Both of those seem to fit the pattern perfectly when you consider evolution as an actor.
Maybe we should be discussing optimization power instead of intelligence; evolution seems a pretty decent manipulator considering how stupid it is.
Yes, that’s what I had in mind. Optimization power; strength of causation from desire to effect.