5 ms·

I think it's valuable to think about this problem from an evolutionary perspective. Almost every problem we have can be viewed this way. We should be asking o

by bvinc 10y ago

I think it's valuable to think about this problem from an evolutionary perspective. Almost every problem we have can be viewed this way. We should be asking ourselves how we were living 100,000 years ago. This is what our bodies and our brains are expecting. The whole concept of the nuclear family and a house and a fence is a completely foreign concept to our bodies because we haven't been doing it for very many generations. From what I know, we should be living in tribes, right? From that perspective, I would immediately look at communal housing solutions. Maybe we should often be living in very small apartments with communal living areas and communal eating and cooking areas. That's closer to what our bodies and minds expect, right?

duderific 10y ago
> I think it's valuable to think about this problem from an evolutionary perspective. Almost every problem we have can be viewed this way. Spot on. I was an Anthropology major in college, and this is the single most important takeaway from my education. Even a few decades ago, families often at least lived with or close to the elder generation (grandparents) which created a greater sense of community and history. At some point it was decided that elder persons should live by themselves, or they were not welcome in their adult children' homes (or there was no room for them there.) I think what you say about tribes is interesting -- I think people tend to create their own "tribes" either with friends, workmates, hobbies that are communal etc.
- jostylr 10y ago
  Not just old people, but having young people segregated into cohorts of kids the same age, being directed in activities, away from what adults are naturally doing at that time. There is a whole age spectrum from 0 to 100 where the 20-60 year olds are providing the main physical sustenance, but the others are giving the main social sustenance. Our society has organized all that away. So kids wait to grow up so that they can finally have freedom and old people wait around to die. That's a bit extreme, of course, but there is a kernel of truth in it.
allemagne 10y ago
Isn't that sort of what a nuclear family living in a house or a college dorm is?
- wott 10y ago
  I'd say the first one is a bit small in numbers and the second one too homogeneous.
ams6110 10y ago
If that's the way we "should" be living, why then as a society did we mostly chose to live separately in family units? It must have a survival advantage or we would have stopped doing it.
- stephancoral 10y ago
  >It must have a survival advantage or we would have stopped doing it. LOL yea because we have totally stopped polluting the earth or filling our food with sugar. Give me a break, this is pop evopsych at its worst
- chillacy 10y ago
  That's the wrong way to think of it. Rather, it must not be a crippling survival disadvantage or we would have stopped doing it. And happiness doesn't necessarily correlate with survival either. I don't remember the name, but in an anthro class we discussed a culture where children were married as infants and raised together. This ends up being suboptimal because the kids identify each other as siblings and biology basically interferes with them developing a romantic relationship. As a result they end up taking romantic partners outside the arranged marriage. But hey, it still produces kids so the culture continued on, even with this suboptimal practice. Likewise for tribes who practiced eating the brains of the deceased. It gives you a neurodegenerative disease, but the incubation period is sufficiently long so that you can still keep your population up.

by bvinc 10y ago

duderific 10y ago

> I think it's valuable to think about this problem from an evolutionary perspective. Almost every problem we have can be viewed this way. Spot on. I was an Anthropology major in college, and this is the single most important takeaway from my education. Even a few decades ago, families often at least lived with or close to the elder generation (grandparents) which created a greater sense of community and history. At some point it was decided that elder persons should live by themselves, or they were not welcome in their adult children' homes (or there was no room for them there.) I think what you say about tribes is interesting -- I think people tend to create their own "tribes" either with friends, workmates, hobbies that are communal etc.

jostylr 10y ago
Not just old people, but having young people segregated into cohorts of kids the same age, being directed in activities, away from what adults are naturally doing at that time. There is a whole age spectrum from 0 to 100 where the 20-60 year olds are providing the main physical sustenance, but the others are giving the main social sustenance. Our society has organized all that away. So kids wait to grow up so that they can finally have freedom and old people wait around to die. That's a bit extreme, of course, but there is a kernel of truth in it.

allemagne 10y ago

Isn't that sort of what a nuclear family living in a house or a college dorm is?

wott 10y ago
I'd say the first one is a bit small in numbers and the second one too homogeneous.

ams6110 10y ago

If that's the way we "should" be living, why then as a society did we mostly chose to live separately in family units? It must have a survival advantage or we would have stopped doing it.

stephancoral 10y ago
>It must have a survival advantage or we would have stopped doing it. LOL yea because we have totally stopped polluting the earth or filling our food with sugar. Give me a break, this is pop evopsych at its worst
chillacy 10y ago
That's the wrong way to think of it. Rather, it must not be a crippling survival disadvantage or we would have stopped doing it. And happiness doesn't necessarily correlate with survival either. I don't remember the name, but in an anthro class we discussed a culture where children were married as infants and raised together. This ends up being suboptimal because the kids identify each other as siblings and biology basically interferes with them developing a romantic relationship. As a result they end up taking romantic partners outside the arranged marriage. But hey, it still produces kids so the culture continued on, even with this suboptimal practice. Likewise for tribes who practiced eating the brains of the deceased. It gives you a neurodegenerative disease, but the incubation period is sufficiently long so that you can still keep your population up.