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Managing our Ancestral Brain in a Troubled World :

Managing our Ancestral Brain in a Troubled World :. Musings from an Unrepentant, but Reformed Sociobiologist . Managing the Results of Brain Action. Complexity of the brain 10 billion neurons Point of view Altruism - self destructive behaviour performed for the benefit of others.

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Managing our Ancestral Brain in a Troubled World :

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  1. Managing our Ancestral Brain in a Troubled World: Musings from an Unrepentant, but Reformed Sociobiologist

  2. Managing the Results of Brain Action • Complexity of the brain • 10 billion neurons • Point of view • Altruism - self destructive behaviour performed for the benefit of others. • How should we study the brain to help manage its actions? • History and • information processing tools

  3. At length, however, there came into existence a being in whom that subtle force we term mind, became of greater importance than his mere bodily structure…Though unable to compete with the deer in swiftness, or with the wild bull in strength, this gave him weapons with which to capture or overcome both. . . .From the moment when the first skin was used as covering, when the first rude spear was formed to assist in the chase, the first seed sown or shoot planted, a grand revolution was in effect in nature...for a being had arisen who was no longer necessarily subject to change with the changing universe.

  4. Alfred Russell Wallace: Co-inventor of the Theory of Evolution “Advantages” of this view: •Divorces us from our primate heritage •Distances us from behaviours we don’t like •Simplifies research •Makes us special •Religion, god, complexity theory, memes, . . .

  5. Darwin “You havemurdered our child” • Man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy that feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest of living creatures, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system—with all these exalted powers—still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. (Charles Darwin, Descent of Man, 1871)

  6. State of Nature 999 aspirins + one cyanide 999 cyanide + one aspirin Question: How much must I pay you to take a tablet from the bottle?

  7. Tools for humans • Identifying kinsmen • Trading favours • Fighting for dominance • Learning language • Displaying dominance and health • Deceiving ourselves as an aid in • deceiving others • Manipulating friends and enemies • in our own interest Tools for survival and reproduction

  8. Male Scorpionfly Mating • Dead insect + courtship • Proteinaceous mass + courtship • Attempted forcible mating

  9. Scorpionfly Mating Tactics and Environmental Conditions Environment Mating Tactic (male-male competition) Low Dead insect + courtship Genetically innate Proteinaceous mass + courtship 2 Medium "mental" h = 0 mechanism High Attempted forced copulation

  10. What is Going on Here?

  11. Ten Year Old Girl Blind/Deaf from Birth Neutral Smiling Crying

  12. Infinitesimal segment of evolutionary time

  13. Evolutionary Psychology • Problems humans encountered in the EEA • Finding high quality mates • Avoiding brother-sister incest • Forming reciprocal social relationship • Psychological adaptations that evolved to help solve those problems • Assessing Waist-to-hip ratio/body symmetry • Lack of sexual attraction to childhood intimates • Detecting cheaters on social contracts • The way those adaptations function now • Women in advertisements, TV, & movies • Lack of sexual attraction to kibbutz mates/Sexual attraction to siblings reared apart from infancy • Difficulties in making free trade & Medicare work

  14. Adaptation functioning: Then and now Now: Contribution to well being Yes No Yes Adaptive- culturally variable Pseudopathologies Then: Contribution to fitness True pathologies Quasinormal behaviours No

  15. Now No Yes Yes Then No

  16. Ancestralization • As economic and political conditions in a society liberalize there will be a tendency to return to ancestral ways of functioning. • Examples: • Polygyny is returning • Hunter gatherer-like wars break out when great empires disintegrate • Primitive religion (e.g. Whale worship) is making a come back • Reason: Tools have a motivational component

  17. Scorpionfly Mating Tactics and Environmental Conditions Environment Mating Tactic (male-male competition) Low Dead insect + courtship Genetically innate Proteinaceous mass + courtship 2 Medium "mental" h = 0 mechanism High Attempted forced copulation

  18. Unrepentant, but Reformed Sociobiologist • Unrepentant - evolutionary history and reproduction fundamental to understand human behaviour • Reformed - We must continue to develop better methods of doing sociobiology

  19. Toleraters, Encouragers, and Collaborators Judith Anderson, Sally Walters, Maria Janicki, Catherine Salmon, Windy Brown, Larry Dill, Laura Dane, Dennis Krebs, Bruce Alexander, Ron Ydenberg, Marilyn Bowman, ,Mark Johnston, Karina Jolin, Tracy Lindberg … Brenda Taylor; Harassment officer Unknown university officials

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