[extropy-chat] War Is Easy To Explain - Peace is Not

[gts]

On Tue, 13 Mar 2007 16:18:17 -0400, Keith Henson <hkhenson at rogers.com>  
wrote:

>> Given that population growth rates and nation-state growth rates are two
>> enormously important factors in calculating rates of change in global
>> war-per-capita, it seems to me that the supposed steady decrease in  
>> global
>> war-per-capita is not attributable, necessarily, to peaceful changes in
>> human nature.
>
> It is *most* unlikely that human nature, which is to say gene  
> frequencies, would change much in such a tiny period of time as 50 years.

I agree of course, but I think the question was about possible changes in  
the human propensity for war over all of known human history. That's quite  
a bit longer than 50 years. :)

Some genetic changes do seem to have occurred over what is relatively  
recent human history, at least for some fraction of humans, for example in  
the apparent adaptation to lactose among descendants of early European  
farmers.

For such reasons I would not rule out a greater appreciation of peace due  
to recent evolutionary changes, but like you I would not consider it  
probable.

-gts