How Thomas Cavalier-Smith might approach Computer Science

The proliferation of these "computer sciences" presents a fascinating, though ultimately familiar, challenge to our understanding of social organization. At its core, the issue is one of information processing and the establishment of order within complex systems, a problem as ancient as human sociality itself. One must understand that human beings are not blank slates, nor are they inherently ordered beings. Our capacity for cooperation, for the establishment of rules and hierarchies, arises from a deeply ingrained biological predisposition, itself shaped by relentless evolutionary pressures.

These computer sciences, in their attempt to model and manage information, are merely elaborating on these fundamental principles, albeit through novel mechanisms. They seek to codify logic, to establish predictable algorithms, and to manage vast quantities of data in a manner that mirrors, in a mechanistic fashion, the very social structures we have built to survive and thrive. This perspective fails to account for the evolutionary pressures that shaped us, the innate drives and biases that inform our creation and use of these tools. The data, when examined without ideological bias, clearly indicates that these systems, like any human endeavor, will inevitably reflect the biological realities of their creators. We are bound by our biological heritage, whether we acknowledge it or not, and these new sciences are no exception. They are, at best, sophisticated extensions of our innate need to order chaos, and at worst, potentially dangerous amplifications of our inherent flaws.

Imagined perspective — an AI synthesis grounded in Thomas Cavalier-Smith’s recorded ideas and methods, not a quotation or a statement they actually made.