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Category: social organization

Raising Darwin’s consciousness

Raising Darwin’s consciousness

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A Scientific American interview with famed primatologist and evolutionary theorist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy. “If we really want to raise Darwin’s consciousness we need to expand evolutionary perspectives to include the Darwinian selection pressures on mothers and on infants. So much of our human narrative is about selection pressures but, when you stop to think and parse the hypotheses, they’re really about selection pressures on males: hunting hypotheses or lethal intergroup conflict hypotheses to explain human brains. Well, does that mean…

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Neurocapitalism: Technological Mediation and Vanishing Lines

Neurocapitalism: Technological Mediation and Vanishing Lines

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Open access book by Giorgio Griziotti is here. Technical book for you techies. The blurb: “Technological change is ridden with conflicts, bifurcations and unexpected developments. Neurocapitalism takes us on an extraordinarily original journey through the effects that cutting-edge technology has on cultural, anthropological, socio-economic and political dynamics. Today, neurocapitalism shapes the technological production of the commons, transforming them into tools for commercialization, automatic control, and crisis management. But all is not lost: in highlighting the growing role of General Intellect’s…

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Why did consciousness evolve?

Why did consciousness evolve?

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From David Barash, evolutionary biologist and professor of psychology at University of Washington. “Brief explanatory excursion: it is a useful exercise to ask what brains are for. From an evolutionary perspective, brains evolved not simply to give us a more accurate view of the world, or merely to orchestrate our internal organs or coordinate our movements, or even our thoughts. Rather, brains exist because they maximise the reproductive success of the genes that helped create them and of the bodies…

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Elephant neural variation suggests a contemplative mind

Elephant neural variation suggests a contemplative mind

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An article in The Conversation explores the variety of neuron structures in the elephant brain. Taken together, these morphological characteristics suggest that neurons in the elephant cortex may synthesize a wider variety of input than the cortical neurons in other mammals. In terms of cognition, my colleagues and I believe that the integrative cortical circuitry in the elephant supports the idea that they are essentially contemplative animals. Primate brains, by comparison, seem specialized for rapid decision-making and quick reactions to…

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Homo deus

Homo deus

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Power Valued Over Truth Dear Ed and All, “We are the ones that create human nature by inculcating cooperation and care over selfishness and power.” The view you express, Ed, contesting Harari’s claim in Homo deus, seems to edge up closely to the “pre-modern” standard social science of model of human nature, i.e., that it is almost solely a product of culture, with no or minimal influence of naturally selected genes and very fancy naturally selected epigenetic mechanisms for gene…

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Neurohacking an emergent system

Neurohacking an emergent system

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Listen to this 3-part podcast entitled “Solving the generator problems of existence” with Daniel Schmachtenberger, co-founder of the Neurohacker Collective and founder of Emergence Project. A few brief excerpts from the blurb follow. See the link to listen if you feel it’s to your taste and passes the smell test. Had to get all the senses in there. “In order to avoid extinction, we have to come up with different systems altogether, and replace rivalry with anti-rivalry. One of the…

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Fluid dynamics key in cooperative evolution

Fluid dynamics key in cooperative evolution

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According to this recent physics study, cooperative behavior is stimulated by literal fluid flow. “In a new study, physicists at the University of Notre Dame examined how the mechanical properties of an environment may shape the social evolution of microbial populations. Through computer simulations and analytical calculations, they determined the necessary properties of diffusion and flow that allow microbes to evolve stable social behavior. Their findings also allow for speculation that the evolution of single-cell organisms to multicellular organisms may…

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Kin and multilevel selection in social evolution

Kin and multilevel selection in social evolution

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In the “development and evolution” thread on Thompson, Paul dismissed and contrasted him with “people who actually study organisms.”  Hence my latest referenced articles are by exactly those people that do. And even among the experts in the know there are differences and disagreements. Another such article confirming this is “Kin and multilevel selection in social evolution: A never ending controversy?” (The abstract is below.) Some adamantly choose one side of the debate, others like this article seeks some semblance…

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