RE: virus: Altruism

Wright, James 7929 (Jwright@phelpsd.com)
Wed, 23 Apr 97 14:40:00 EDT

Since we've been debating this last several days over what acts qualify
as altruistic, may we have your suggestion? a working definition of
altruism, along with an example of what qualifies?
By the way, over the weekend I broke down and bought the VotM book; still
working on reading it (my brother kept it the entire weekend, while he
read it, so I missed that opportunity). I guess your participation in
this mailing list isn't entirely fruitless.
james

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From: Richard Brodie[SMTP:RBrodie@brodietech.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 23, 1997 1:39 PM
To: 'virus@lucifer.com'
Subject: virus: Altruism

James wrote:

>Whoever left it didn't want/need/have to use it, and left it there, so
>it would be used instead of going to waste. I saved another forty cents
>(the difference, doubled by store policy). I have no way of knowing who
>left it, and they had no way of knowing who would pick it up, or indeed
>whether it would be used before it expired at all.
>Does this (admittedly small) act qualify as altruism in your view?

Altruism is a DESCRIPTION of behavior, not a CAUSE of behavior in most
cases.

Richard Brodie RBrodie@brodietech.com +1.206.688.8600
CEO, Brodie Technology Group, Inc., Bellevue, WA, USA
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie
Do you know what a "meme" is?
http://www.brodietech.com/rbrodie/meme.htm
>