[ExI] ep thought experiment

[Keith Henson]

Dave Sill <sparge at gmail.com> wrote:

 snip

> This has been bugging me: how do you know that? How do you experimentally verify any evolutionary psychology theories?

For the most part, you don't.  It's theory, models, and logic.  Not
all science is experimental, for example astronomy.

EP theory is dead simple.  It's just the recognition that biological
evolution applies to behavior as well as physical structure.  Do you
feel uneasy walking close to the edge of a clift and move back from
the edge?  Where else but genes could that behavior ultimately come
from?

Eventually we will be able to trace behavior, such as seen in
capture-bonding to the specific brain circuits and from there to the
genes involved in building those brain circuits.

For the cited,

>> War mode can be kept from developing by keeping the income per capita
>> stable or slowly rising.

There are lots of examples where people went to war or similar kinds
of social disruption when things were looking bleak.  Can you think of
a case where a group of people with a bright future outlook went to
war?

Keith