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One big problem in our society is that there is a Darwinian selection process occurring which selects for psychopathy. It's only going to get worse. Psycopaths
by cryptica 5y ago
One big problem in our society is that there is a Darwinian selection process occurring which selects for psychopathy. It's only going to get worse.
Psycopaths are attracted to power and are willing to do anything for it so they are more likely to get it. Power comes with money. Money allow psychopaths to have more children. The children are more likely to be psychopaths too so they will also end up in positions of power with more money. As automation increases, the system can afford to support an increasing number of psychopaths and they quickly take up all available positions of power via ruthless means. Psychopaths end up occupying all the important political and judicial positions. Altruistic people who follow the rules can't afford to compete in the market place, they have fewer children, they are discriminated against by psychopaths who recognize that they are different from themselves. Altruists become extinct as they are slowly replaced by machines which make altruism a redundant character trait; not necessary for a 'functioning' society. Now that we have machines to automate everything, the economy will no longer rely on 'exploitees' to do the hard value-adding work.
Then a whole new class of ultra-psychopaths (e.g. serial killers) will become more common and proceed to wipe out the regular psycopaths through violent means. Humans will get progressively worse and end up driving themselves to extinction. There's not going to be any robot uprising; humans will make themselves extinct before that happens.
- Igelau 5y agoAnecdata and not medical advice, but I used to think up a lot of things like this before I started taking SSRIs.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- s5300 5y agoWell, the unfortunate part is that he's at least somewhat correct, and it's been found that psychopaths are much less likely to seek/adhere to mental health treatment such as SSRIs.
- selimthegrim 5y agoYou need to lay off the Peter Watts.
- fighterpilot 5y agoYour thesis relies on the selective pressure for psychopathy being larger now than it was previously. Is that the case? It's harder nowadays to be an outright criminal or murderer and get away with it due to strength of the rule of law.
- cryptica 5y agoI do think that in a globalized environment, there is much stronger selective pressure for psychopathy due to higher competitive pressure and more ways to avoid consequences for misbehavior. Opportunities are fewer and bigger - Those people who are more ruthless and manipulative have a higher chance of qualifying for the few opportunities that are available because they're willing to step over ethical boundaries to get those positions. This makes them stand out as candidates. Another point is that our modern financial system is designed to limit the liability of individuals. Corporate executives repeatedly get away with financial misconduct and their companies merely end up paying relatively small fines. Also, the government keeps bailing out big corporations; ensuring that the same people who created the problems stay in power. There is also the problem of international money laundering; wealthy people fleeing one country which considers them to be criminals to move to another country which doesn't consider them to be criminals. Similar story with bankruptcies; people changing countries to escape consequences. There is an accountability crisis.
- fighterpilot 5y agoI see opportunities tending towards the most competent foremost, with psychopathy potentially helping but in many cases hurting. I've seen many people fired for being assholes, as an example of cases where these traits have hurt. All the psychopaths I've met have had pretty pathetic and lonely lives. People figure them out and they get sidelined. Politicians, quantum healers, fraudster psychics, snake oil salesmen, etc, are rare niches where psychopaths genuinely thrive over regular people. 5000 years ago you pretty much had to be willing to murder someone to get what you wanted and survive. Nowadays such ruthlessness is punished in many contexts more than rewarded. The corporate ruthlessness that we see today is such a tamed beast in comparison. So I'm not convinced that the selection for psychopathy has increased.