I left when the pit bull had lost interest in the other dog, which it couldn't 
reach .  The pit bull, kind of playfully, went back to its master who was 
upright by then, as if nothing had happened.   To be honest, I felt sorry for 
that guy but I didn't want to engage with him because his options were obvious 
and all bad.   The pit bull hadn't violated the don't-hurt-the-pack taboo, but 
was unaware of other modern taboos.   I think we can look forward to more of 
this sort of thing from the tribalism of human animals.

On 5/1/19, 12:46 PM, "Nick Thompson" <nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote:

    What a great story, Marcus.  Do you know how it came out?  I know that's 
irrelevant, but still I want to know. 
    
    More to the point, I take it you have no trouble calling that behavior 
"single-mindedness."  Does anybody else?  
    
    Nick 
    
    Nicholas S. Thompson
    Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
    Clark University
    http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
    
    
    -----Original Message-----
    From: Friam [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
    Sent: Wednesday, May 01, 2019 12:25 PM
    To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam@redfish.com>
    Subject: Re: [FRIAM] A Question For Tomorrow
    
    On 5/1/19, 12:06 PM, "uǝlƃ ☣" <geprope...@gmail.com> wrote:
    
     <   All that text is merely to provide context that my guess is your 
depth-firsty commitment to a reasonably trustworthy reductionism isn't as 
depth-firsty as you think it is. It's more like those massive muscles in your 
back or leg that attract all the attention, but that are useless without the 
thousands of little control tissues providing the context that allows the big 
guys to do their work.  >
    
    That's probably so.  One would hope that one gets better over time at 
choosing when to sink one's teeth in to something.   
    
    Oh, this is kind of an unpleasant story but it speaks to the emotional side 
of this.   I may have mentioned it before in some other context.   I'm driving 
home after some errands on a Saturday and I see this woman kicking a dog in the 
middle of Canyon road.   It's a pit bull and it is mauling her smaller, 
defenseless dog.   Several people are trying to figure out how to stop this, 
and we drag the mess off to the side of the road and try to start to pry open 
the pit bull's jaws.   This wasn't some mix of pit bull, this was the real 
thing.   It didn't think it was strong, it was strong.  It was not an easy task 
to slow the pit bull down, even with several men with gloves.  An older man 
that had probably rescued the dog had been knocked over and was struggling to 
collect himself.  He could see his dog was going to be put down and was 
distraught.    The woman was also of course distraught seeing her pet being 
killed.   
    
    But the fascinating part of this was watching the pit bull work.   It would 
slow down for a moment just to see what the humans were doing and go from one 
target to the next when the time was right.   It was _totally_ committed.    We 
did eventually free the smaller dog and isolated it in a safe place until it 
could be taken to the vet.    The pit bull did not show any indication of 
hostility toward a human, it just wouldn't budge on what it was doing.   In 
spite of the awfulness of it all, I couldn't help admire that 
single-mindedness.   
    
    Marcus 
    
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