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Comment by hn_throawlles | Hacker News Reader

I don't think this analogy is sufficient to answer that.

we may need to delve deep into types and causes of cancer

Cancerous tumors represent corrupted cells or "hyperindividualists" that enrich themselves at the absolute expense of the host, and may end up killing it and themselves in the process.

This requires a view that "society" is some sort of organism. Not everyone holds this view. Some of us think that we're a collection of individuals agreeing only to resolve disputes nonviolently (read: coexist not cooperate). It's also immediately problematic. Who gets to steer this organism?

It is very weird that we think of ourselves as individuals, and not at minimum a part of some small collective. Those people ignore all evolutionary history that we didn't develop as individuals at all.

By that reasoning, you are a collection of cells individually agreeing to coexist.

If you are an organism/individual/ensouled being, then a society can be as well.

> Who gets to steer this organism?

It suggests the importance of a central nervous system (e.g. government).

Well, cancer is caused by a series of inopportune mutations, and prevented when the immune system clears out cells it recognizes are different. I don't like where this analogy is heading!

Hum... In principle, we can require that a police force must exhibit more intelligence than our immune system.

We are talking over a pile of evidence pointing that this doesn't always happen. But it's quite a jump to conclude that it can't ever happen.

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