[ExI] Evolution of hypnosis susceptibility/was Re: Physicsversus psychology

[spike]

> ...On Behalf Of Keith Henson
... 
> I suppose hypnosis could be related to something involving 
> humans being predators...

Large predator brains may have imperfect pattern recognition, but everything
can recognize the motion of a fleeing beast.  Consequently many beasts which
rely solely on their ability to flee a predator would be best served to
freeze when confronted with danger, as deer are well known to do, damn em.
I don't know how that would translate to hypnosis, if at all.

>...  If so, I would expect chimps to have 
> it and bonobos not since chimps are predators and bonobos are not.
> 
> Keith

Cool thanks Keith, I did not know this.  Donald Johanson's later work (after
the Lucy discovery) was all the rage in the early 1980s.  He used SEMs to
show that fossil antelope bones from a couple million years ago had lion
tooth marks below stone butcher marks, suggesting that the lions took the
beast down to start with, then the protohumans somehow took the prey away
from them.

I mentioned this to a classmate who grew up in Africa.  He made a comment
which blew me away.  He said it wouldn't surprise him a bit, for in some
parts of Africa, they still get meat that way to this day.  They wait until
the cats take down a beast, then ignite a branch and walk towards the scene
of the kill.  Lions are tough bastards, but they will not mess with a
primate carrying a burning bush.  Unless of course the bush burns out
(doh!).

I have long pondered if speciation between humans and chimps was accelerated
by the fact that for some reason the protohumans figured out that little
burning bush trick, and the chimps didn't, or just couldn't master it.  This
would represent the technology segregation we talk about today, that
separates those humans who use electronics from those who do not.  Today it
is called the digital divide.  Back then it was what we might call the
conflagration chasm.

spike