Good idea Charlotte. Climate change is a touchy subject in many
quarters; perhaps it's better to think more broadly as you suggest.
On the other hand, it's hard to think about what happens in "systems
where the benefit for the individual goes in the opposite direction to
what is good for the whole system" without knowing specifics.
It seems that there is a basic conflict at work, which I also see in
nature, between the individual and the group. For the sake of the
herd, animals will often ignore/sacrifice the weak in a dangerous
situation. This helps ensure the survival of the other individuals.
Those same individuals will go to great lengths to protect offspring,
even at the expense of their own lives, which seems to run counter to
their behaviour when they ignore the weak.
I'm not suggesting we should behave like herd animals. I'm suggesting
that evolution has bred us to live with this apparent contradiction.
To paraphrase Jessica Rabbit: "We're not bad; we just evolved that
way."
Indeed, I don't believe this is a contradiction. I don't believe
nature does contradictions. I think the contradiction is only in our
minds and results from our imperfect understanding of how things work.
I think there's only one thing at work, both in the herding animals,
and in our societies, which manifests in 2 ways, depending on
circumstance. We internally seek to find balance between these two
manifestations, also depending on circumstance, as well as experience
and our individual predispositions.
We also have empathy on our side, though - the ability to feel as
others do, or at least as we imagine they do. This can help us
mitigate the internal forces.
Coming back to your question of how we can deal with these situations.
I don't know. But I think achieving a deeper understanding of these
opposing forces and their underlying causes is an important first
step.
Anyone know of current research in this area?
Cheers.
Fil
On 21 March 2011 11:35, Charlotte Magnusson
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Yes we have had warmer periods and cooler periods. Several of these were probably not well suited to our form of life (if I remember correctly during one such period around 90% of all life on earth became exctinct). The winter past was (according to my sources) unusually warm on the global level. Locally here in Sweden it was cold (maybe in Russia too?), but one has to discriminate between weather and climate....must admit I find the argument "we are not sure yet so we do nothing" slightly strange. Should this really be the basis for decisions?
>
> I agree though that earth is a complex system and we currently do a lot of things that are not good for it: cutting down forests, polluting etc etc. To avoid getting stuck in a discussion on if global warming is or isn't maybe one could go for a more productive discussion: how can one deal with systems where the benefit for the individual goes in the opposite direction to what is good for the whole system?
>
> /Charlotte
>
>
>
> Charlotte Magnusson
> Associate Professor
> Certec, Division of Rehabilitation Engineering Research
> Department of Design Sciences Lund University
> Lund
> Sweden
> tel +46 46 222 4097
> fax +46 46 222 4431
>
--
Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Ryerson University
350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON
M5B 2K3, Canada
Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749
Fax: 416/979-5265
Email: [log in to unmask]
http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/
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