----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
There's also considerable violence in small societies, in small towns; and
of course there are altruistic decisions people make at any scale -
otherwise there wouldn't be global charities, giving to flood victims in
other countries, and so forth. For me, it has to do with picturing the
other in relation to the local, a kind of negotiated logic...
Thanks!, Alan
On Fri, 14 Nov 2014, John Hopkins wrote:
The balance between the violence and empathy probably have a break point
at the number 150 -- the 'average' maximum number of relations that the
human brain is evolved to be mindful of -- the clan-based society...
Empathy can extend no further than that (perhaps), except in
extraordinary circumstances (Jesus, Buddha, etc)...
The rest of those outside the 150 are simply challengers of my use of
resources that I employ to optimize the reproducibility of my clan
(unless there is an attractive gene-pool-mixing opportunity 'out
there'). Those may have to be taken by force.
What genetic evidence is there of altruism that extends beyond clan? I
know there has been some research in that regard, but my
phenomenological observations suggest that humans are, on average and in
aggregate, unable to make altruistic decisions on a wide scale (global
warming seems to be one example)... Decisions can be made on a smaller
scale when conditions pressure such, but otherwise, resource consumption
and nest-soiling tendencies are not immediately impinging on quality of
life, so, who cares?
and so on...
jh
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
grounded on a granite batholith
twitter: @neoscenes
http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
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