[extropy-chat] Fundamental research and evolutionary psychology

[Robert Bradbury]

Keith,

Not only are the "rational" vs. "irrational" (emotional?) thought
patterns/biases important but the willingness to act upon various
"conclusions" plays a role.  It doesn't matter much (at least to society) if
you never act upon what you are thinking (either verbally or physically).
[Its the old "What goes on in your head stays in you head." principle (just
like Las Vegas...)].

Recent work has uncovered at least two genes, GRP and Stathmin that appear
to play a role in fear and how one deals with it.  Since GRP is a
hormone/neurotransmitter there are probably several more genes (the
promoter, the receptor, the secondary messenger, etc.) involved in its
activity.  All of these could have subtle variations (polymorphisms) within
the population.  Stathmin on the other hand seems to involve the
construction of neurons, particularly those involved with learned fears.
Defects in this system would presumably give rise to the "Stupid is as
stupid has always done." phenomena (paraphrasing Forrest Gump).

So there now an abundance of possible genetic variations that lead to
various subtle behavioral strategy differences for personal survival,
accumulation of power, making gene/meme copies, etc.

Robert

1. http://www.hhmi.org/news/kandel3.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gastrin_Releasing_Peptide (though it needs
some work)
3.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/11/1129_051129_brave_mice.html
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stathmin
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20060202/bb721cdb/attachment.html>