ThirstyFish

Isn't it annoying when you meet people or friends you haven't seen for a long time and their only memories are either compliments you've made, or the supposedly offensive things you might have said. Every other memory seems erased. They start: "Remember the time you said..." Not really! Even if I did, we did a thousand other more memorable things together?

Why is that? Why is memory so selective in that way? I have a few theories. What do you think?

In nature, Biological Interactions by Effect are summarized as:

Type of Interaction	Effect on X	Effect on Y
Competition	Detrimental	Detrimental
Amensalism	Detrimental	No Effect
Antagonism	Detrimental	Beneficial
Neutralism	No Effect	No Effect
Commensalism	No Effect	Beneficial
Mutualism	Beneficial	Beneficial

Being careful to avoid the naturalistic fallacy, we can summarize human-to-human interactions in a very similar way. It is often erroneously repeated that Darwin's Theory Of Evolution postulates evolution as being primarily driven by "competition". That is at best partially true. In nature, we observe all sorts of interactions between individuals and complex networks of lifeforms. And that is true for human-to-human interactions. However, constantly evolving "cultural assumptions" influence the way we interact with each other. We enter relationships in a predefined manner.

As Social Darwinism teaches, if we "assume" life to be a non-stop competition, in which only the fittest survive, then in all likelihood, our relationships and friendships are going to be parasitic rather than mutualistic. It's mind-boggling just how many people do so. But the real question is, are we even aware of what we "assume" about our own nature and the world around us?

And finally, a good indicator of wisdom is the ability to choose the right interaction that best suits the situation or the being we are interacting with.