On 7 November 2013 16:30, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: > On 11/6/2013 6:18 PM, LizR wrote: > > On 7 November 2013 14:39, meekerdb <meeke...@verizon.net> wrote: > >> There's a continuum of behavior which at the extreme absence of empathy >> we call psychopathy or sociopathy. But that doesn't mean more empathy is >> better. Sometimes it's good to be hard hearted. Should we have been nicer >> to the Neanderthals? >> >> We'll never know. But we do know we evolved to cope with a world that > is very far removed from the one we have. Is there any reason to believe > evolution got everything right? We've already made changes to other aspects > of our being, both physically and psychologically. But certain aspects of > our behaviour still seem to be stuck in a distant past when life was almost > always nasty, brutish and short. > > > Indeed I think we have evolved significantly over the last 10,000yrs. > Just look at the difference between wolves and dogs. If we've adapted > wolves to civilization like that, it's pretty certain that we have been > adapted too, by the unnatural selection of culture. But I'd beware to > trying to create the Ubermensch by genetic engineering (c.f. Greg Egan's > short story "Eugene" in "Axiomatic"). > > I can assure you life was often nasty brutish and short far more recently than 10,000 years ago.
But I'm afraid you've contradicted yourself :) ... if we've adapted our genome culturally, we're *already* creating the ubermensch by genetic engineering. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to everything-list+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to everything-list@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
