I don’t have proof that a system which cooperates internally like a single agent (i.e. Borg-like) is the most competitive. However it’s only one example of how a powerful selfish agent or system could grow and kill everyone else.
Even if it does turn out that the most competitive system lacks internal cooperation, and allows for cooperation between internal agents and external agents (and that’s a big if). There is still no guarantee that external agents will survive. Humans lack cooperation with one another, and can cooperate with other animals and plants when in conflict with other humans. But we still caused a lot of extinctions and abuses to other species. It is only thanks to our altruism (not our self interest) that many other creatures are still alive.
Even though symbiosis and cooperation exists in nature, the general rule still is that whenever more competitive species evolved, which lacked any altruism for other species, less competitive species died out.
Within our property rights, animals are seen more as properties rather than property owners. We may keep them alive out of self interest, but we only treat them well out of altruism. The rule of law is a mix of
laws protecting animals and plants as properties, which is a rather small set of economically valuable species which aren’t treated very well
and
laws protecting animals and plants out of altruism, whether it’s animal rights or deontological environmentalism
I agree you can have degrees of cooperation between 0% and 100%. I just want to say that even powerful species with 0% cooperation among themselves can make others go extinct.
I don’t have proof that a system which cooperates internally like a single agent (i.e. Borg-like) is the most competitive. However it’s only one example of how a powerful selfish agent or system could grow and kill everyone else.
Even if it does turn out that the most competitive system lacks internal cooperation, and allows for cooperation between internal agents and external agents (and that’s a big if). There is still no guarantee that external agents will survive. Humans lack cooperation with one another, and can cooperate with other animals and plants when in conflict with other humans. But we still caused a lot of extinctions and abuses to other species. It is only thanks to our altruism (not our self interest) that many other creatures are still alive.
Even though symbiosis and cooperation exists in nature, the general rule still is that whenever more competitive species evolved, which lacked any altruism for other species, less competitive species died out.
It’s mostly not because of altruism, it’s because we have a property rights system, rule of law, etc.
And you can have degrees of cooperation between heterogenous agents. Full atomization and Borg are not the only two options.
Within our property rights, animals are seen more as properties rather than property owners. We may keep them alive out of self interest, but we only treat them well out of altruism. The rule of law is a mix of
laws protecting animals and plants as properties, which is a rather small set of economically valuable species which aren’t treated very well
and
laws protecting animals and plants out of altruism, whether it’s animal rights or deontological environmentalism
I agree you can have degrees of cooperation between 0% and 100%. I just want to say that even powerful species with 0% cooperation among themselves can make others go extinct.