[ExI] Human species model

[William Flynn Wallace]

When our Constitution and Bill of Rights were created, our philosophers and
others of the elite believed two very fundamental things:  that people were
rational, and that learning was everything, according to the Blank Slate
idea put forth by John Locke.

We now know and have established by numerous experiments and other data,
that these two things are very, very wrong.

The question is what do we do about it?  Keith suggests that we need to
know evolution.  Why not, instead of framing human nature as being created
by evolution, avoid the pushback and just inform people of what we are like
without reference to how we got that way?

What all of this may lead to is beyond my imagination to consider, but
clearly some changes need to be made.  I think economics may be making
some, based on Kahneman's data showing how irrational people can be.  We
need to do something like this in every area of our lives.  Ideas?

bill w

On Mon, Dec 3, 2018 at 4:58 PM Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:

> Knowing what humans are and what to expect of them is critical for
> people to make good decisions in a world where humans dominate the
> ecosystem.
>
> Unfortunately, a full understanding of our species requires knowledge
> of evolution.  There is a fair sized segment of the US population that
> rejects evolution.  A path from common knowledge to an understanding
> that did not require evolution might be very useful.
>
> The concept of a top predator is either understood by most people or
> is obvious on inspection.  It is not too difficult for people to
> understand that the concept applies to humans.  From there it is not
> many steps from there to an understanding of the behavior expected for
> the human species.
>
> Keith
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