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Our Genetic Timebomb

Our Genetic Timebomb thumbnail

“The yaksha asked: “What is the greatest surprise?” Yudhisthira replied: “People die every day, making us aware that men are mortal. Yet we live, work, play, plan, etc., as if assuming we are immortal. What is more surprising than that?
— The Mahabharata“

Every few days or weeks, Rob Mielcarski posts to his Un-Denial blog some or another nuance to the Mind Over Reality Transition (MORT) theory of Varki and Brower (2013). If you are not aware of MORT, the idea in a nutshell is that somewhere in the evolution of human neurobiology there came a moment when we were so freaked out by recognition of our own mortality (after ritualistically consuming a paranoia-inducing mushroom like Amanita muscaria perhaps), that we hard-wired a capacity to deny our own mortality and take on blind faith that every-day-reality is too unreliable to put complete trust in.
In the original, unfinished paper, the late Danny Brower explained MORT this way:
“We are polluting the earth and changing the climate in ways that we can’t predict, and likely at some point, can’t easily reverse. If we’re so smart, why do we continue to sow the seeds for our eventual destruction? Because we are saddled with a brain that is designed by selection to cope with the ultimate disaster (death) by denying that it will occur, and so we treat other impending disasters by denying that they will ever happen ……Indeed, it is arguable that we are destined ultimately to destroy ourselves as a species.”
In a recent chapter for Shackelford and Zeigler-Hill (eds.), Evolutionary Perspectives on Death, Evolutionary Psychology (Springer 2019), Ajit Varki riffs on Brower’s idea:
Some aspects of human cognition and behavior appear unusual or exaggerated relative to those of other intelligent, warm-blooded, long-lived social species — including certain mammals (cetaceans, elephants, and great apes) and birds (corvids and passerines). One collection of such related features is our remarkable ability for ignoring or denying reality in the face of clear facts, a high capacity for self-deception and false beliefs, overarching optimism bias, and irrational risk-taking behavior (herein collectively called “reality denial”). Such traits should be maladaptive for reproductive success when they first appear as consistent features in individuals of any species. Meanwhile, available data suggest that self-awareness (knowledge of one’s own personhood) and basic theory of mind (ToM, also termed mind-reading, intentionality, etc.) have evolved independently several times, particularly in the same kinds of species mentioned above. Despite a long-standing opportunity spanning tens of millions of years, only humans appear to have gone on to evolve an extended ToM (multilevel intentionality), a trait required for optimal expression of many other unusual cognitive attributes of our species, such as advanced linguistic communication and cumulative cooperative culture.
***

Most human behaviors exist in other species on a continuum of development, as one would expect from evolution. But religion appears to be a well-established near universal only in human cultures and there are many obvious fitness advantages that have been discussed by others. But most of these advantages should not require a belief in life after death. Nevertheless, almost all religions have at their core some form of such afterlife beliefs, which would serve as another mechanism to blunt the impact of mortality salience. Of course, atheists do not live in constant fear of their mortality, so the underlying reality denial appears to be the primary mechanism.

***

Could the well-known human craving for mind-altering substances also be partly due to the need to escape reality? Could the same be true of the positive value of meditation methods that focus on mindfulness of the present, or the shutting out of irksome reality? Conversely, could episodic panic attacks represent a sudden failure of the neural mechanisms of reality denial?

 

Mielcarski, following in the footsteps of Brower and Varki, says that it is impossible for high intelligence to exist without reality denial. At the same time, reality denial is a ticking time bomb embedded into the entire human experiment. Reality denial is what stands between our existential climate emergency and the simple, relatively cost-free, natural climate solutions I have been describing here for the past 532 posts or in the prior two decades of publishing the quarterly Natural Rights in hard copy. Reality denial is what crashed the recent COP25 climate conference in Madrid, pushing off a hard deadline imposed by physical reality. Reality denial is what allowed the UK to re-empower Boris Johnson, US to elect Trump, Brazil to elect Bolsonaro, India to elevate Modi, and so forth. All of those nasty tendencies to act counter to our own best interest are programmed into the central processing unit in our genetic mainframe. It is not like we can go in and do a bug-patch. This is not software. The MORT trait passes whole and entire in our mitochondria every time one of our cells divides.
If that is not depressing enough, Homo sapiens have a second evolutionary trait that could guarantee our extinction should MORT prove inadequate to the task.
That trait is tribalism.
In most of its manifestations it seems harmless enough. The family gathered around the dinner table. Football rivalries. A neighborhood barbecue. A celebration of ethnic heritage. Kneeling in prayer under stained-glass windows.
ut tribalism is also the street protests over Modi’s Muslim quotas. Babies crying and children dying in cages in Texas. Blue Collar against White Collar. Communist and Capitalist. Catholic against Protestant. Right and Left. Red or Blue. Harvard vs. Yale. Tutsi against Hutu. Crips and Bloods. Crise anglophone in Cameroon. Small differences in skin pigmentation. Different dialects of the same language. Differences in social theory. Us. Them.
In evolutionary biology it is a common strategy: safety in numbers; pack hunting; clustered quarters for protection from night predators. Two-leggeds are no different in this respect from zebras crossing a river of crocodiles, a troop of monkeys filling a tree, a herd of buffalo enclosing their young, or a lion pride circling a lone gazelle.
We tribe.
When we sacrifice for our tribe we are rewarded. When we offend our tribe we are punished. The tribe is order. The tribe is security. The tribe is identity.
The tribe is also an extinction time-bomb. Its benefits are overshadowed by its destructive potential. “USA first” is President Cobblepot’s justification for pulling out of the Paris Agreement. When he appeared at the United Nations and told every nation they should be seeking only their own interests there, he rowed against the current of 70 years of a fragile but expanding multilateralism. Now there are many who feel empowered to pick up oars and row with him. Witness the coming Scottish vote to withdraw from the UK.
In his Christmas blog, Mielcarski draws upon a year-end essay in the Megacancer blog that propounds a notion that humans are just one of many living organisms driven by the need to gather energy, expand population, and gather more energy,
Humans should never think of themselves as smart or intelligent, they’re simply a thermodynamic event maintaining homeostasis through gradient reduction. Their entire mentality serves energy/wealth acquisition, consumption and reproduction. Being a social mammal (obtaining energy as a group) they are hierarchically organized and are constantly striving to improve their social standing by whatever means possible (if they haven’t yet seen the futility in such efforts). Those able to control the most money/energy are admired and envied by their sycophants while those with less success are regularly scorned and often deemed unworthy of reproduction or even living. Just as the human civilization will enslave, consume and/or deprive other species of their ability to live and reproduce, so too wealthy humans will enslave less avaricious humans and use them for self-enrichment.
I confess a jaundiced view towards this analysis because it seems boxed into a particular worldview derived from ancient desert religions engaged in ritual conquest and despoliation. We don’t need to adopt that model any more than we need to keep ready-standby militaries in times of peace. That is just inertia, Mr. Obama.
You can point to acquisitive, expansionist, competitive, wasteful patterns of the white Euroamerican tribe, or you can point to sharing, self-limiting, self-effacing patterns of some indigenous societies that enjoyed thousands of years without hunger or war. The distinction lies between a juvenile r-sere ecosystem and a mature k-sere ecosystem. By fixing on the juvenile stage, you assume there is no later stage of cultural evolution awaiting greater maturity.
If we have any hope to survive, or to save the myriad other species we are now in the process of destroying, we need to somehow overcome these two traits — reality-denial and tribal loyalty — with a stronger counter-program of k-sere culture, elegantly interconnected, complex, and diverse. Before we pack our sons off to Afghanistan or Syria we might first ask whom they are being sent to kill, and why? When we kneel in prayer, we should appeal to the Almighty for guidance in better loving our fellow creatures, of all colors, beliefs, and languages, as well as those with fins, and wings, and roots in the ground.
For our guiding credo, we could do worse than to adopt something approaching the eloquence of Sibelius’ national anthem of Finland:
Finlandia
This is my song, O God of all the nations
A song of peace, for lands afar and mine
This is my home, the country where my heart is
Here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine
But other hearts in other lands are beating
With hopes and dreams as true and high as mine
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean
And sunlight beams on clover leaf and pine
But other lands have sunlight too, and clover
And skies are everywhere as blue as mine
Oh hear my song, thou God of all the nations
A song of peace for their land and for mine
— Jean Sibelius, 1899

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The Great Changeby Albert Bates



151 Comments on "Our Genetic Timebomb"

  1. JuanO is stupid on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 5:40 am 

    JuanP, I was the one who outed your woke muzzie who was once Paultard the stupid one. I also outed Kenz300 bot as your offing who later turned into Gaia and Richard Guenette. Your scumbag deception was going on long before you lost your shit 2 1/2 years ago. I bet you were noobtube too. All the most disgusting crazies on the board where you JuanPee the lunatic…fucking disgusting shitbumb

  2. REAL Green on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 8:33 am 

    Calm down, DavySkum.

    All I did was show you to be a hypocritical liar, again. This isn’t new information.

  3. JuanP is stupid on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 9:18 am 

    Please leave stupid. People hate you.

    This is from stupid:
    Sissyfuss said ” I have studied them better than anybody.&#…

    REAL Green said Calm down, DavySkum. All I did was show you to be…

  4. REAL Green on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 9:20 am 

    My butt hurts.

  5. JuanP on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 9:22 am 

    I am so so depressed

  6. Help me on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 9:23 am 

    JuanP go down the street to Douglas and check yourself in. lunatic.

  7. Davy on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 9:24 am 

    shitbumb is another REAL Bad cussin wurd I just made up. It’s wurse then fuckwack but not as bad as cuntface. Cuntface is the wurst.

  8. We hate your muzzie shit on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 9:26 am 

    JuanP, we hate you

  9. Davy on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 10:56 am 

    My mommy said fuckwack was wurse then shitbumb. But my mommy is rong. I should no. I made the fuckwack cussin wurd up all by myself to.

  10. Robert Inget on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 11:15 am 

    Recent Tweet from Art Berman
    U.S. tight oil reserves depleted in 5-7 years
    depending on choice of production forecasts.
    68-89 billion barrels of thin-air reserves required for last 25 years of forecast.
    #OOTT #oilandgas #oil #WTI #CrudeOil #fintwit #OPEC https://pic.twitter.com/HSRsMCwxuH

    Trying to lift that last percentage of light, tight, oil
    will get more expensive as years pass. (DUH)

  11. JuanP on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 11:26 am 

    We are what we are, and evolutionarily speaking, we are not getting any better. We long passed our genetic evolutionary peak as a species, probably thousands of years ago as a consequence of agriculture. Numbers don’t make up for lost quality. Humans have been genetically devolving for millenia. And, yes, we are mere mortal animals.

  12. Davy to JuanP on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 11:28 am 

    Speak for yourself lunatic. You are so stupid when you try to be smart.

  13. Davy to JuanP on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 11:37 am 

    We are not a mere mortal JuanPeePee.
    We are the holey trilogy.

  14. full woke supremacist muzzies jerk low English on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 11:59 am 

    supertard fitzgerald is an awesome muzzie historian. he tore into muzzie mahatir mohamed like a big version of the giver of irish goatse
    happy (((supremetard))) bday to supertard fitzgerald.

    what an incredible black hole quality condensed version of violent muzzie history and a lot of nothingburger

    the people trial of global muzzies must convict and whole sale bombing, chemical warfare, nuclear and extermination of muzzies would lead to a new area of prosperity and peace and opening up new land for resources exploration and development of green energy using muzzie hamster machines

  15. full woke supremacist muzzie jerk low English i know some wrong when a pretty little white girl ran to a black man arms dead giveaway deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed giveaway on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 12:01 pm 

    Turkey: Veiled Muslima on plane says she has bomb, “I will blow up the aircraft”
    supertard big muzzie beard reports

  16. fwsmj on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 12:18 pm 

    TIL america’s first longest and forgotten war against muzzies.

    For a decade and a half, the U.S. Army waged war on fierce Muslims in a remote land. Sound familiar?

    it was against moro muzzies. i only knew about barbary war against muzzies before that

  17. fwsmj on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 12:22 pm 

    Why does no one ever question whether former CIA Director John Brennan’s alleged conversion to Islam while he was station chief in Saudi Arabia is the reason he ended the CIA’s espionage capabilities there?

    ht barenakedislam

  18. Juan is especially stupid today on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 12:58 pm 

    You can tell how mad stupid is by how much he posts after he gets a slap in the face. Lunatic. I love seeing you angry. You are such a whining sniveling fool

    This is all from stupid:
    fwsmj said muzzies in indonesia started another front in the…

    fwsmj said Why does no one ever question whether former CIA D…

    fwsmj said TIL america’s first longest and forgotten wa…
    The Board said Please. Do not feed the Davy troll.

    full woke supremacist muzzie jerk low English i know some wrong when a pretty little white girl ran to a black man arms dead giveaway deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed giveaway said Turkey: Veiled Muslima on plane says she has bomb,…

    full woke supremacist muzzies jerk low English said supertard fitzgerald is an awesome muzzie historia…

    Davy to JuanP said We are not a mere mortal JuanPeePee. We are the ho…

    REAL Green said JuanP is stupid is write Davy. We need to see the…

    JuanP is stupid said We need to see the docter JuanP is really stupid.

  19. The Board on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 2:18 pm 

    Please. Do not feed the Davy troll.

  20. The Board on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 2:20 pm 

    We hate you JuanP. You disgust us with your filth. Please leave

  21. The REAL Board. on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 2:29 pm 

    We hate you Davyskum. You disgust us with your filth. Just leave

  22. The Board on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 2:35 pm 

    We hate you REAL seriously JuanPee

  23. REAL Green on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 2:40 pm 

    We need to see the docter REAL seriously davy

  24. Sissyfuss on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 3:15 pm 

    The majority of people function with nary a thought of Death during their day. If someone they know dies it’s a curiosity. When an intimate dies it brings home the horrific truth that Death stalks you and yours every moment of your existence. And after a while your awareness focuses on the more common threads of life and you work laboriously to focus on the common and the mundane. But you never again feel the freedom of immortality.

  25. makati1 on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 4:02 pm 

    Merry “Buy what you don’t need with money you don’t have” Day!

    Capitalist commercial holiday$ are $o much fun aren’t they? I wonder what next Xmas will be like? I bet not this good. Enjoy!

  26. peakyeast on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 6:08 pm 

    Merry familyday fellow insane killer apes. May you all die of starvation before me and my family. 🙂

  27. Davy on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 7:44 pm 

    When the goats finished i’m gonna eat my REAL kids peaky. REAL Greens all about population reduction.

    yum yum 🙂

  28. The Board on Tue, 24th Dec 2019 8:52 pm 

    Please, do not feed the Davy troll.
    Let’s get the discussions back on track everyone.

  29. full woke supremacist muzzies jerk low English on Wed, 25th Dec 2019 1:55 am 

    Members of the Bloods street gang viciously beat a Muslim man outside the Masjid Taqwa mosque in Brooklyn, New York Saturday evening, according to a mosque member. The beating was seen as retaliation for a Muslim Community Patrol member roughing up a teenage boy who had allegedly “disrespected” a Muslim woman earlier.

    ht barenakedislam

    it has begun. beating muzzies is satisfatory but tons of hand guns in america can make it quick work after teh people’s court trial of muzzies for crime agaisnt humanity convict (1400 years inner struggle, 300 million victims, 600/day)

  30. full woke supremacist muzzies jerk low English special report on Wed, 25th Dec 2019 2:38 am 

    On This Day…
    Dec 25, 2013: Baghdad, Iraq
    Religion of Peace bombers target Christians on Christmas: 34 Killed

    ht supertard glenn roberts

    muzzie destroying (((supremetard)))bday

  31. JuanP is stupid on Wed, 25th Dec 2019 3:33 am 

    endless stupidity from the board clown

    This is from stupid:
    full woke supremacist muzzies jerk low English special report said On This Day… Dec 25, 2013: Baghdad, Iraq Rel…

    full woke supremacist muzzies jerk low English said Members of the Bloods street gang viciously beat a…

    The Board said Please, do not feed the Davy troll. Let’s get the…

    The Board said Please everyone. Do not feed the Davy troll.

    REAL Green said Hay Cloggmeister Sir! How’d you git those REAL Ne…

    Davy said When the goats finished i’m gonna eat my REAL kids…

  32. Mohammadtheoilman on Thu, 26th Dec 2019 10:52 am 

    Oh pass me another goat!
    oh how my goat shines in the moonlight
    my goat lover!

  33. Revi on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 10:54 am 

    I remember when we had discussions of what was going on. What has happened to this forum?

  34. JuanP on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 11:17 am 

    Revi, I am trolling the forum to run everyone off. I intend to have complete control of this forum since the conversation is not going my way. If I can’t have it my way then nobody gets to enjoy it.

  35. Davy on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 11:20 am 

    BTW Revi. In case you didn’t no already. JuanP is just another one of my sock puppets. I got lots.

  36. JuanP on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 11:41 am 

    BTW, Rivi, my feelings got hurt 2 1/2 years ago so I am obsessively trolling this forum until everyone is gone.

  37. Sissyfuss on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 2:33 pm 

    JuanP, you need a climate psychologist. There’s several good sites available. They help with acceptance.

  38. Davy on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 3:24 pm 

    What’s climate got to do with anything sis?

  39. Anonymouse on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 3:49 pm 

    JuanPee, what happened with your gay lover, boney joe? Did he dump you, limp prick.

  40. makati1 on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 3:54 pm 

    As goes PO, so goes the US. A typical collection of delusional Amerikans, with a few sane tax serfs being ignored. Intelligent Amerikans are leaving the sinking USS debt, or have already left. Over eight million are already living on foreign shores, not counting military. The gates are closing on the Amerikan Gulag, so get out now while you still can. 2020 is going to be an even more crazy year there.

  41. JuanP on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 4:07 pm 

    Cheer up mak, you are old and will be dead soon. Your suffering will not be as long as mine

  42. Davy on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 4:11 pm 

    So true JuanP. Me n you n REAL Green are gonna suffer the worstest. mak’ll be the lucky one if he gets out a few years before us.

  43. makati1 on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 4:27 pm 

    Juan, I thought you had chronic depression? You might be the first to go by your own hands

  44. makati1 on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 4:35 pm 

    Actually JuanP/Davy, I will likely out live you and enjoy all those years outside the US Police State. My family has a long life history with 90s not being exceptional for males. But it will not take another 20 years for the US to be 3rd world. Maybe five? Or less?

    All it will take is for the market casino to crash and the welfare to end. All in the near future. That kicked can is bouncing off the steel wall of reality and is getting very battered. can’t last much longer. The only alternative is a major war, but the world seems to not be interested. Either way, the US is finished as a 1st world country. The lifestyle of spoiled Amerikans is in for a deep drop. Be patient.

  45. JuanP on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 4:51 pm 

    I’m going back to Uraguay when the US collapses, makati1. My family owns 250,000 acres of farmland.

  46. makati1 on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 5:00 pm 

    JuanP/Davy, that is a good thing. Better not wait too long or the door will be closed to leave. Already, you will be required to pay a tax on what you take with you, and if you owe the US more than $50K, you cannot leave. The police state is locking down and the tax serfs will not be allowed to abandon the sinking ship.

    As for “chronic depression”? That may be the mental state for 90+% of the trapped Amerikans, but not me. I am more free and happy than I had been in decades. I enjoy TOTAL freedom. You can not do that in Amerika. Not even close. “Papers please!”

  47. Anonymouse on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 5:03 pm 

    You don’t have a family juanPee. You are an orphan, dumbshit. That is what you have told people in the past.

  48. JuanP on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 5:10 pm 

    Davy made that up Anonymouse. Just like he made up the story about you being a struggling engineer.

  49. Anonymouse on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 5:14 pm 

    Juan, you are Davy deranged. Do everyone a favor here and stop the bullshit, lunatic

  50. JuanP on Fri, 27th Dec 2019 5:18 pm 

    Davy is the deranged one, Anonymouse.

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