[ExI] Anti-transhumanist crap on Kuro5hin and related.

[Keith Henson]

On Nov 5, 2007 1:07 AM, Giu1i0 Pri5c0 <pgptag at gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2007/11/4/132937/255

snip

It is worth keeping in mind why people do anything.

Genes build brains with particular motivations. These genes were
selected during the millions of years our ancestors lived as
hunter-gatherers that built brains with inclinations to do things
that improved the genes chances of being present in the next generation.

High on the list was gaining higher social status.  In that
environment, high status led to improved reproductive success.  In
short form, successful hunters got more nooky.  Status was and is (to
a first approximation) the integral of the amount of attention the
person received.

So people have been shaped to be rewarded by activities they find
gains them attention. Cults take vicious advantage of this human
psychological feature.

It's what motivates people to post, here, on kuro5hin and to take
stands that gain them a lot of response.  A substantial fraction of
people can't distinguish between sense and nonsense or between
positive and negative attention especially in an all text media.

So when you see these kinds of things, it is sometimes worth taking a
step back and looking at the root cause for the behavior. And perhaps
considering if you want to reward them with attention or ignore them
and do something more productive.

Keith Henson.