[ExI] ep thought experiment

[Keith Henson]

Playing fetch is something most but not all dogs do.  In particular,
Chows just will not play fetch.

It *might* be possible to locate the genes in dogs that give them this
behavior by comparing the ones who will play fetch with the ones who
will not.

Keith

On Thu, Jul 9, 2020 at 9:47 AM Keith Henson <hkeithhenson at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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