[BudDwyer]

In reply to the original topic.
-Way to many variables and averages.

[EnviroEngr]

Bud - on Peak IQ; you got it.
----- ----- ----- ----- -----

I was contemplating human body morphology today in my tantric meditations. (as an aside, a Dzogchen master was quoted yesterday to me over the phone as saying that if we do not embrace pleasure and work with it fully, we can never achieve enlightenment < > [freedom from Plato's Cave, if you will.])

As layers of self-cherishing melted away, it became blazingly clearer to me how unsuited we are for the dangers we face.

Regardless how attractive or repulsive a human being may be unclothed, one thing screams "misfit!" When you examine yourself as you are devoid of any accouterments, if your filtering doesn't edit it out, you will come to a very startling revelation: In our Class of the Phylum, our genotype renders a phenotype from birth to death that leaves us shockingly vulnerable to environmental conditions. We are hairless, soft and not able to tolerate extremes very well. We're almost always mobile food for something, somewhere, big or microscopic.

Witness:

Human (Homo sapiens)

$this->bbcode_list('1')Kingdom-------> Animalia
Phylum--------> Chordata
Subphylum----> Vertebrata
Class-----------> Mammalia
Subclass-------> Eutheria
Order----------> Primates
Suborder------> Catarrhini
Family---------> Hominidae
Genus----------> Homo
Species--------> sapiens
Subspecies----> sapiens

There is a psychology that must get built up around this to compensate for how utterly helpless and frightened we First World types must feel at our hyper-vulnerability. I see that other tribes of sapiens have been able to harden against the ravages of Nature by contriving various kinds of protective membranes to shield out the harm. But the rest of us have walked away from that sensibility. It must matter that the bulk of civilization has crept out on a precariously situated limb liable to instantaneous fracture at almost the slightest imbalance.

With the scientific method 'firmly' in hand, and stores of empirical data, I will set out to see if a tenable theory can be "fleshed" out that explains whether or not our apoplectic Peak Oil catalepsy traces its roots, at least in part, to our knowing, but systematically denying our insanely defenseless phenotype.

Anybody well versed in psychoneurobiology is invited to assist me in this effort.


Footnote: I find it darkly ironic that celebrated feminine defenselessness as a meme lays out a veritable pantheon of indulgent erotica that FAVORS rather than suppresses the predilection we maintain for natural unsuitedness to the environment. Think this through carefully; it's wicked. Or as someone once said, "Messieur, if there is a God, I can assure you, He is the Devil."

[EnviroEngr]

γνώθι σαυτόν

[EnviroEngr]

Your Extended Family History

How far back can you trace your ancestry? Most folks lose the trail after a few generations. But paleoanthropologists have taken the human family tree back hundreds of thousands of years with recent fossil discoveries in Africa that are more than six million years old. In breezy documentary style, the two-hour-long A Species Odyssey (airing in December 12—13 on The Science Channel; check your local listings) tells the fascinating tale of how these early hominids gave rise to modern humans.

Today, Homo sapiens is the only human species, but for much of human history multiple hominid types shared the Earth. First there were Orrorin and Toumaï, the two earliest hominids in the fossil record, which may have over-lapped in time. Both eventually yielded to Australopithicus afarensis—Lucy and her kin—from whom the Homo line arose. Toward the end of A. afarensis' reign and the beginning of Homo's, about two and a half million years ago, at least four hominid species coexisted. How did they interact, if at all? A Species Odyssey offers intriguing possibilities, realized to varying degrees of success with computer-generated figures and masked actors.

Some of these hominids belonged to dead-end branches on the evolutionary tree, sidelined by species that walked, talked, and cooperated better. The film argues that Neandertals were one such group, out-competed by a cleverer hominid—modern H. sapiens.

A Species Odyssey is a Homeric tale: distant lands are visited, loves are lost, battles are won, and a hero, H. sapiens, is born. Like Homer, the program takes poetic license with its material. The story of human origins is a very messy one, but the documentary is quite pat. There is little discussion of how scientists know what they do about human evolution or the limitations of the data. Still, the film correctly places human evolution in the context of environmental change and credits our ancient forebears with more humanity than they are typically ascribed. It also underscores, some-what hamhandedly, that whatever our origins or physical differences today, this six-million-year history unites us all.

-- KATE WONG, editorial director of scientificamerican.com

{Excerpted from the November/December 2004 issue of Archaeology.}


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[bobcousins]

Is there a translation of this thread to English?

[EnviroEngr]

Two AAAS resources that may come in handy.

Archaeology

&

Social/Behavior

[stayathomedad]

am i reading stuff on peak oil, or am i watching the commedy channel? maybe i do need to get out more so I can pick up on the humor here

[EnviroEngr]

Would I confuse the issue any more if I declared that I am the other Borges?

[EnviroEngr]

... in which case,

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')s there a translation of this thread to English?

[stayathomedad]

I wrote this:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'a')m i reading stuff on peak oil, or am i watching the commedy channel? Shocked maybe i do need to get out more so I can pick up on the humor here Surprised

[EnviroEngr]

AnnaLivia,

Try this one.

[TrueKaiser]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnviroEngr', '
')"The Truth Campaign was set up in 1996 by Ivan Fraser as a way to make available information which mainstream sources tend to suppress."

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnviroEngr', ' ')about two and a half million years ago, at least four hominid species coexisted. How did they interact, if at all?

[bart]

Yes! The Inheritors was a great book. Haunting, like Lord of the Flies.

The late great sf writer, Philip K. Dick, had an obsession about Neanderthals. (Didn't we talk about PKD, PenultimateManStanding?). They figured in several of his stories; PKD liked and felt sorry for them.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('bart', 'Y')es! The Inheritors was a great book. Haunting, like Lord of the Flies.

The late great sf writer, Philip K. Dick, had an obsession about Neanderthals. (Didn't we talk about PKD, PenultimateManStanding?). They figured in several of his stories; PKD liked and felt sorry for them.

[PenultimateManStanding]

I just remembered a cool detail about the stick with feathers: it had some black stuff on it that smelled of the-berries-that-you-don't-eat.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnviroEngr', '
')Footnote: I find it darkly ironic that celebrated feminine defenselessness as a meme lays out a veritable pantheon of indulgent erotica that FAVORS rather than suppresses the predilection we maintain for natural unsuitedness to the environment. Think this through carefully; it's wicked. Or as someone once said, "Messieur, if there is a God, I can assure you, He is the Devil."

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnviroEngr', '
') I will set out to see if a tenable theory can be "fleshed" out that explains whether or not our apoplectic Peak Oil catalepsy traces its roots, at least in part, to our knowing, but systematically denying our insanely defenseless phenotype.

Anybody well versed in psychoneurobiology is invited to assist me in this effort.

[PenultimateManStanding]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnviroEngr', '
') Left Brainedness. With multiple intelligences, all capacities have their day in the sun. With left brainedness, we have what many critics have called the most destructive imbalance in the history of sapiens-sapiens. White coat, Jekyl & Hyde megalomanic puerility.

[EnviroEngr]

I'll jump back in here in awhile.

No doubt about it, you're plugged in. I want to keep the momentum going 'cuz you're picking out exactly the subtleties that need to be expanded on.

Spot on with the "apoplectic Peak Oil catalepsy" analysis by the way.