RE: The biological goal of the human mind

-----Original Message-----
Behalf Of John Till

>>The biological goal (thought to be about 50% to 80% of behavior)
>I like your hokey statistics! It's rather like my "Stalin was 35% wrong!"
>Let me point out your teleological error here: evolution has no goal.

They are not MY statistics, see THE SPIRIT IN THE GENE, p. 171.  What's
more, please reread the line your are complaining about. I did not say that
evolution had a goal, I said that the human mind has a goal.  I hope you can
understand the difference.

For the most part, you are critiquing published works that I have cited
directly.  Perhaps you can publish your rebuttals in the journals for those
disciplines.   However, I, for one, do not find your arguments persuasive

>They nevertheless produce measurable improvements in their clients lives.
>I'm not sure another layer of "true" psychology would add any rigour to
>their work.

I do not study evolutionary psychology with the aim of treating
individual patients.  I am interested in understanding world
biophysical systems with an emphasis in two fields:

#1. Our utterly self-destructive collective behavior.

#2. The energy systems that make life on Earth possible.

I "buy into" evolutionary theory because it explains our collective
behavior far better -- makes more "sense" -- than any other
theory of human behavior.

For me, here are some of the most important points:

#1. Humans social systems are subsystems of -- and wholly dependent on --
the Earth's biophysical systems.

#2. Over millions of years, humans evolved to "fit" the properties of Earth.
It was, by definition, perfect for us.  If Earth systems change too much,
humans will no longer "fit".

#3. Humans evolved to "make the best use of" everything except family
members.

#4. People (including yours truly) are really piss-poor observers. We
evolved to see social constructions of reality, rather than real reality.
 E. O. Wilson http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/98apr/bio2.htm ] I think the
best example of this phenomena is found in economists. Apparently, people
can be trained to believe anything.

#5  The only way for us to know fact from fiction is the scientific method.

#6. People are not "rational" in the "Bayesian", forward-looking sense.
Studies show we find out what works by trial and error and then do it again.
[ Hamm http://dieoff.com/page19.htm ]

#7.  People are chronic liars -- both to themselves and others.  Deception
and self-deception have contributed to survival for at least 50,000 years.
[  http://www.clark.net/pub/wright/chapthir.htm ]

In the past, all of these propensities contributed to survival.  But it
means that nearly everyone is unaware of slow changes in the
physical world around us.  None of us consider the systemic
implications of our actions.  As a result, we have "overshot" the
carrying capacity of our life-support system.  Overshoot is followed
by "crash".

I see humanity as nearing the end of a millions-of-years-long trajectory.
Impact will begin in less than ten years.  Billions will die horrible deaths
this coming century as life-support systems disintegrate and roadside
warriors go to war over the remnants.

Long-term human carrying capacity of Earth is probably in the hundreds-of-
millions.  Most of the children in school today will not live to reach
retirement.

I make up these little stories to help people understand why their
society is rapidly coming to an end:
       --------------------------------------------------------------

                     RIVETS FOR SEX
                      by Jay Hanson

Once upon a time there was a spaceship in which "rivets" were
used for currency.  Why rivets?  Because on this particular
spaceship, one could trade rivets for sex!

SPACESHIP POLITICS
Those individuals who were best at pulling rivets out of the
spaceship hull -- the "Pullocrats" -- had the most political
power because they controlled the most sex.  As might be
expected, "pulling rivets" became the most-talked-about and
most-envied measure of personal worth.

GOD REVEALED IN EACH TRANSACTION
Unsure of their moral justification, the Pullocrats employed
"Pulling Priests" (or "PPs") to search Holy Scripture for the
truth.  A careful re-read of the Scripture by the PPs discovered
that "pulling rivets" maximizes "utility".  Although no one has
ever seen or measured "utility", the PPs say that God reveals his
preferences in each transaction thereby proving that "utility" is
maximized.

So with the circular blessing of the PPs, the doctrine of
continuous and unlimited "rivet pulling" became the organizing
principle of the entire spaceship.  Indeed, nothing else mattered
to anyone.

A TINY BIT OF A PROBLEM
In the real world of a spaceship, a tiny bit of air leaks out
after each rivet is pulled out of the hull.  And while the air
supply system was designed to stay ahead of normal leakage, so
many rivets have been yanked out of the hull, that at the present
rate, the ship's atmosphere will be unable to support life in 12
hours.

A rescue ship is on the way, but it will take 24 hours to reach
the ship.  The Pullocrats must:

#1. Organize to ignore their PPs, stop pulling rivets out of the
    hull, and start pounding them back in,
         OR
#2. They will die.

Jay
         -------------------------
    COMING SOON TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU!
       http://dieoff.com/page1.htm