A CFI member recommended that I listen to this interview of Michael Muthukrishna. I’ve listened to it twice and enjoyed the interview, especially the first 50 minutes about how we got here. Some fine observations that sync with my understanding. I made plenty of notes and will save them incase someone shows an interest in discussing the talk. What I want to discuss happened 51 minutes into the discussion.
Sean Carroll's MIndscape Podcast #255
Michael Muthukrishna on Developing a Theory of Everyone
Can we even imagine a “Theory of Everyone,” providing basic organizing principles for society?
Michael Muthukrishna (Ph.D. in psychology) believes we can, and indeed that we can see the outlines of such a theory emerging, based on the relationships of people to each other and to the physical resources available.
Michael Muthukrishna received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of British Columbia. He is currently Associate Professor of Economic Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. … His new book is A Theory of Everyone: The New Science of Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going. podbean.com Video Link
“Phase transition in mental ability” - an interesting key concept, I like it. Are human’s capable of such a thing? I ask because reality challenged the entire human race in the 1960s to ‘70s. It came as a realization and warning that humanity and Earth had entered dangerous unchartered existential territory.
Thanks to science we were increasingly taking on Godly powers and our population had entered an exponential population explosion, while Earth's natural systems and landscapes had limits who's crossing would start increasingly damaging those complex systems that support human society, and if we were really careless, we could even trigger events leading to our extinction.
The choice was simple, slow down a little, use a little forethought and wisdom before rushing into the unknown. To recognize and learn from our mistakes. Learn more about Earth’s processes. Strive to work with those processes. Instead the powers-that-be decided citizens should hold nature and Earth's needs in contempt.