Are You Troubled ENOUGH ?

[Singularity]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

It is the same like with any other animals. Rodents are a great example. They will multiply until they out-grow the food supply. And then the numbers will drop from thousands to hundreds, year-to-year.

It is sad that humans, with our big and otherwise practical brains, cannot see we are behaving like rodents and heading for rodents' fate.

Having more kids in situation when we do not have more work is quite a recipe for a bad brew. Imho.

b.

If not familiar, consider reading about ethologist John Calhoun's research. Quite famous and more commonly known 50-60 years ago, his study of rats in an environment of surplus food and water (i.e. no-worry lifestyle) found it normative that rat social behavior would degrade to 'lord of the flies' type behavior if rats could not escape their otherwise utopian environment (wherein rats otherwise organized themselves into sort of bell-curve distributions of clanships...sort of like humans and their politics).

People have debated the true cause of the witnessed behavioral degradation but importantly food/water competition (for basic subsistence) was not a determining variable as there always was a surplus of food/water.

So perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that we act like animals if we understand at a deep, deep level that, in the first place, we're all animals.

But when we go about assuming that we can change nature, control other animals (including people), then this puts us in the ~philosophical position of believing that we are gods. This puts a different spin on saying someone has a god-complex...

[barnakiel]

Originally Posted by Singularity

If not familiar, consider reading about ethologist John Calhoun's research. Quite famous and more commonly known 50-60 years ago, his study of rats in an environment of surplus food and water (i.e. no-worry lifestyle) found it normative that rat social behavior would degrade to 'lord of the flies' type behavior if rats could not escape their otherwise utopian environment (wherein rats otherwise organized themselves into sort of bell-curve distributions of clanships...sort of like humans and their politics).

People have debated the true cause of the witnessed behavioral degradation but importantly food/water competition (for basic subsistence) was not a determining variable as there always was a surplus of food/water.

So perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that we act like animals if we understand at a deep, deep level that, in the first place, we're all animals.

But when we go about assuming that we can change nature, control other animals (including people), then this puts us in the ~philosophical position of believing that we are gods. This puts a different spin on saying someone has a god-complex...

Yes. I have read that research. I have also read Lord of the Flies.


It is odd though that in the process of evolution 99% brains remained as they were and only 1% brains developed to see the danger of the situation.



I think this is because our survival does not depend on understanding, it depends on being brutal, strong and effective on the most basic level.


So Einsteins are 'nice to haves' - vain experiments of the gene machine. Meanwhile our ultimate survival will depend on the same brutes that are destroying it all today.


Fittest = strongest NOT smartest.


b.

[Singularity]

fit
adjective:
1. of a suitable quality, standard, or type to meet the required purpose.
-----
"Fit" like real estate is "location, location, location." Entirely dependent on context which was Darwin's point. Recall the old Chinese proverb about "good/lucky" and the horse.
https://www.thoughtco.com/chinese-pr...-horse-2278437

It occurs to me that it's a manifestation of Western philosophy to think linearly such that "survival of the fittest" assumes physical fitness while neglecting the utility of cunning or even cowardice depending on circumstance. For example, if you've got a raging case of bone spurs (a phenomenon not recognized by legitimate medical science) having this condition can get you out of combat....

Otherwise, on the topic of being troubled enough. A thread long ago here on Myers-Briggs tended to conclude that Myers-Briggs personality testing was bunk. It's worth mentioning that certain personality types are prone to worrying about the state of the world where others could care less; existential worrying itself being more associated with higher intelligence (where ignorance is bliss).
---
"Case BackgroundSusan had known that she was different since she was seven. Her thoughts and feelings had never fit into the box that was comfortable and reassuring for most children. Her appetite for learning was insatiable. Reading was more nourishing than food. Thinking, analyzing, and synthesizing were better than Barbie.

And she worried about everything: poverty, world peace, and the loss of the rain forests. It kept her awake at night"
https://www.sengifted.org/post/couns...s-a-case-study

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

I think this is because our survival does not depend on understanding, it depends on being brutal, strong and effective on the most basic level.


b.

Actually our survival only depends on producing the largest number of viable offspring which can grow to maturity and have the greatest number of offspring, etc within a particular habitat or ecosystem. Whatever adaptations we might have by sheer luck to provide that result in the future will be the "survivors."

[CaptWho]

Originally Posted by Tonali99

You think on it. We were speaking about movies. Hollywood movies.
Where nobody listens to scientists or children when disaster is about to strike.
Get it now?

Sheesh!
met·a·phor

/ˈmedəˌfôr,ˈmedəˌfər/
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noun
noun: metaphor; plural noun: metaphors

1. a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
   "her poetry depends on suggestion and metaphor"
   
   Similar:
   
   figure of speech, figurative expression, trope, allegory, parable, analogy, comparison, symbol, emblem, word painting, word picture

1. conceit
   • a thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something abstract.
     "the amounts of money being lost by the company were enough to make it a metaphor for an industry that was teetering"

Origin

late 15th century: from French métaphore, via Latin from Greek metaphora, from metapherein ‘to transfer’.

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Use over time for: metaphor


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