Re: Why Space Empires?

In article <47a19085$0$99023$157c6196@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
peter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
Zeborah wrote:
I love the idea that bonobos have no conflict. And the idea that

Seriously, they very rarely, if ever, kill each other. They also, AFAIK,
don't hunt for meat, but live as complete vetegerians.

I'd assume that any conflict in bonobo society is of a non-violent type.

there's a genetically-determined percentage of the population who won't
buy books unless they include romance.

Then you're going to love my hypothesis about how one can mathematically
calculate how interesting a story is.

Inspired by the scene in "Dead Poet's Society", you simply measure the
amount of sex in the story, and the amount of violence, and then you
draw up a rectangle, with the length of one edge being the amount of
sex, and the length of the other edge being the amount of sex, and the
area of the resulting rectangle is then a good estimate of how
interesting the story is.

It is intended to provoke, of course, but in all seriousness I actually
do think that it is more correct than it is incorrect.

If so, and if bonobos are as you describe, it seems like an indication
that mankind is unlikely to evolve a boboboid society, short of genetic
or medical behaviour modification. Reading bonobos would presumably
have different literary criteria.

- Gerry Quinn







.

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