RE: evolution and human nature (was: evolution and diet)

From: gts (gts_2000@yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Apr 17 2003 - 21:32:22 MDT

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    Ramez Naam wrote:

    > Well, here I think the amazon review you mentioned did a
    > disservice to Diamond. Diamond doesn't seem to think that
    > humans are destructive /on the whole/. But in the course of
    > documenting primitive human species, and human history since
    > then, he notes that every human culture ever documented has
    > had warfare and other violence.

    Yes of course, the tendency to warfare and violence is part of human nature
    then and now. Again I was objecting only to the idea that the naive hunting
    of a species to extinction is evidence of that destructive nature. Are you
    really suggesting Diamond thinks it is? Or are you stating that the amazon
    reviewer was flatly mistaken to call it Diamond's view? I'm sorry your
    message is not very clear to me in this respect.
     
    > Really if you think about it, this is a very extropian idea. It's
    > saying that human nature is adapted to the paleolithic environment,
    > rather than the modern environment. Once you grant that, you're a
    > step closer to accepting...

    Yes, I can agree with this. (On the other hand memes should evolve faster
    then genes, so I'd like to believe we've made at least some progress on this
    score since the paleolithic. Unfortunately recent international news does
    not seem to support my optimism.)

    -gts



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