Religion, evolution, and the ecstasy of self-transcendence

[bngenoh]

Is a Ted talk by Jonathan Haidt, watch it here: http://www.ted.com/talks/jonathan_haidt_humanity_s_stairway_to_self_transcendence.html

You've gotta weed through it, but stick it out. The most interesting part, is when he goes into the comparison between the group of cooperators, and what happens when there is a mutation of a member of the cooperators, into an exploiter. The exploiters basically drive the cooperators to the verge of extinction.

The cooperators, had no way of selecting against the exploiters. An analogy to the crucial knowledge of psychopathology, within and without, couldn't be more apt, osit.

A very interesting thing occurs though, when a super-organism is formed from the cooperators (conscious nucleus anyone, ;) ) The exploiters have no chance against the super-organism.

Anyways, it was an interesting talk especially in regards to it's potential reality, relative to humanity's situation at present, osit.

What do you guys think ?

 

[Biomiast]

The comparison between cooperators and exploiters were good, I think. But the guy misses the point, and analogy falls short because a psychopath as an exploiter can trick normal human beings into forming a "superorganism".

So, a superorganism can be just as bad, and again sense of self is lost in the same way. Imagine a mob of people killing another innocent group because they have lost the sense of self, they are a group now. They do not question their actions because it is group's actions, they reinforce each other's illusion.

If psychopaths couldn't form a superorganism, they would be beaten by now, osit. Time and time again, it was normal people who crashed their brothers which might rise up against psychopaths. The guy tries to simplify this issue a bit.

My two cents, fwiw.

 

[bngenoh]

The comparison between cooperators and exploiters were good, I think. But the guy misses the point, and analogy falls short because a psychopath as an exploiter can trick normal human beings into forming a "superorganism".

So, a superorganism can be just as bad, and again sense of self is lost in the same way. Imagine a mob of people killing another innocent group because they have lost the sense of self, they are a group now. They do not question their actions because it is group's actions, they reinforce each other's illusion.

Very true Biomiast,

Herd mentality is the superorganism with psychopaths as the brain. Another possible superorganism, is with normal humans with knowledge and deep understanding of psychopathology, as the brain, osit.

His analogy is alright, but we can make it better, because of the broad knowledge base and deep understanding contained here.