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It's easy to argue that this selection is happening in business and politics. But I don't see how it could be relevant to reproduction, on an evolutionary scale
by Expurple 1y ago
It's easy to argue that this selection is happening in business and politics. But I don't see how it could be relevant to reproduction, on an evolutionary scale.
I haven't read Blindsight, though.
- Yizahi 1y agoA hypothesis is approximately this, paraphrasing - human society rewards sociopathic humans, who filter to the top of politics, corporation control, figures of influence etc. Watts goes even further and throws in a hypothesis that even consciousness may be an artifact which humans will evolve out of. Next are my own thoughts - local short term selection is not enough to put evolutionary pressure, and in general evolution doesn't work like this. But I suspect that a lot of empathy traits and adjacent characteristics are not genetic but a product of education, with some exceptions. So if whole society (not only CEOs and presidents) starts rewarding sociopathic behavior, parents may educate kids accordingly and the loop will be self reinforcing. For example some tiny example we can see today - union busting where those exist; cheating culture where cheating is normal and encouraged; extreme competitiveness turning into deathmathes (a-la South Korea university insanity, when everyone studies much longer hours than needed, constantly escalating the situation).
- Expurple 1y ago> I suspect that a lot of empathy traits and adjacent characteristics are not genetic but a product of education Ah, I see. The argument makes total sense if that's the case. I'm just not used to talking about learned behaviors in terms of "evolution"