Not exactly. For normal people to actually lose their empathy, something has to trigger it. We have to break down our psyche before we can commit heinous acts. OTOH there's people that can and will without a second thought.
I'm not saying it's exactly rare. But I for one can't just go from zero to killing someone without a few gears grinding first, if you know what I mean. In fact, that's what sociopathy is. Psychopaths are born that way; they're missing part of their personality so to speak. Socieopaths are made that way by traumatic events.
Darwin mentioned "150" people. But I honestly can't believe you can actually "know" 150 people. How many friends does the average person have?
How do you jump from "tribalism and relying on leaders" to "so these ugly traits are 'necessary' for us to survive"?
I get your point and agree about cognitive diversity.
That said i'm not convinced our societal structure facilitate the survival of our species. If i'm honest i think this is the inverse in fact.
There is some interesting facts about it: some of the most advanced technologicaly society see their population diminishing because peoples don't make enough child anymore: Japan, Germany are examples.
The reason behind this facts have probably been studyed but i don't know their conclusions.
So you're suggesting our leaders are committing heinous acts we're not aware of other than not keeping campaign promises? Or do you mean those are the heinous acts? Cuz if you do, I'm with ya 100%. That's why I'm proud to say I've never cast a ballot. And I'm old.
OK same concept. Whatever the number the concept is surely true.
If we're going to live in communities of more than say a couple hundred people, then we need mechanisms to have a functional society. We need leaders, police, educators, etc; people we can hopefully put our trust in. (It doesn't always work out I know.) A large population can't exist without some kind of order.
Do you think we could all just live without societal infrastructure? Millions of us? In my own situatuation, I will be one of the first to be eaten alive if society breaks down. I live in an upscale community that is fiercly guarded by police, but the heart of the cutthroats is a 15 minute bus ride from my house. Do you get the point?
There's that cart/horse thing.
We've been molded by evolution to be who we are today. It's not perfect, but it doesn't have to be.
If you lived nearby i would very likely don't let anyone threaten you Fast Eddie D. But i'm in a much less violent society than yours ( suposedly and despite the violence can take different forms/shape... and the violence in the society i live in can be vey sneaky in my view).
Could we live without social infrastructure? This is one of THE question i'm interested in.
It all depend of what you put under social infrastucture.
I'm sure with enough education and open mindness we could get rid of a lot of structure.
If empathy was given more value it could help too. But i'm a naive one.
One of the interesting point if we ever see an encounter would be to know how ET organised their own society ( if any!). What kind of system, the limits it bring,...
We have SciFi authors who gave view of what it could be but it is still based on what we observed in our own environnement. As lifeform, it could be way different than what we could ever imagine.
I really don't think we could live without it. We are so interdependent and if society goes back to small groups then it will never support the huge and growing population we have today. It would be very messy getting from where we live today to society of say 10,000 years ago.
You reference empathy. It's important to understand that some people just don't have it.
Bonsai is right!
It is far less entertaining to talk about us.
Let me just add another last thing to Fast Eddie D: i'm more than aware than empathy-less people exist. I have been a 'target of choice' for some of them (who snatched some part of my personality).
Lucky resillience is something i have a lot.
It is far less entertaining to talk about us.
Let me just add another last thing to Fast Eddie D: i'm more than aware than empathy-less people exist. I have been a 'target of choice' for some of them (who snatched some part of my personality).
Lucky resillience is something i have a lot.
NASA is making UFO (UAP) research a priority and hopes to bring it into the realm of rigorous, objective mainstream science.
https://www.gizchina.com/2022/08/18/nasa-goes-all-out-to-prepare-for-ufo-research/
https://www.gizchina.com/2022/08/18/nasa-goes-all-out-to-prepare-for-ufo-research/
Didn't you put that to bed?We were talking about aliens. Now we’re talking about humans. Let’s get back to aliens and the probability of intelligent life in our galaxy.
..remember, er.. 'we're' ipso facto the aliens.
Anyone using this app to log your UFO/UAP sightings?
https://enigmalabs.io/blog/announcing-enigma-labs
(edit: it looks like its still in development stage )
https://enigmalabs.io/blog/announcing-enigma-labs
(edit: it looks like its still in development stage )
I do not exclude humans from the environment. Prime example is religion, and dogs.
If you dared not believe in the local gods you'd be sacrificed or therebouts. No kids to carry on that trait.
There's a lot of heavy historical stuff packed in how/what we are today.
If we make Humans 2.0 in a radically different paradigm, some tech/AI combo, that might very well be literally evolved life. In which case our sole purpose as biological life on this planet would be to bootstrap this new form of life, that's more adapted to the universe's environment rather than just Earth. It may very well be the case that all intelligent biological life comes to the same conclusion in the end.
It would be a pretty moot point to stress about what to put into Humans 2.0. That soon becomes irrelevant once it has the ability to hop solar systems, it will adapt to its environment and leave behind whatever we put in that is not useful.
This and other reasons is what makes me pretty sure we won't meet any biological aliens soon, but we might very well come in contact with tech of alien origins. And it may be wildly different than what we tend to consider tech today.
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You guys know what progeria is?
One of the theories of about Roswell is that it was a hoax using people suffering from progeria to convince the Russians that we had recovered alien craft and the bodies of its alien occupants. According to this theory, the reason it’s still classified is because killing diseased people is pretty horrific…
One of the theories of about Roswell is that it was a hoax using people suffering from progeria to convince the Russians that we had recovered alien craft and the bodies of its alien occupants. According to this theory, the reason it’s still classified is because killing diseased people is pretty horrific…
