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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple style='word-wrap:break-word'><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'> extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces@lists.extropy.org> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Keith Henson via extropy-chat<br><b>…</b></span><o:p></o:p></p></div><p class=MsoNormal>>…I make the case that we need to understand our natures as evolved primates who have been subjected for a number of traits. It is a really hard meme to spread. Virtually no humans acknowledge that they have internal drives of which they are not aware. Even on this group, and me harping on it for decades, few have much insight to their internals state or what physical and social forces drive it.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Keith<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Keith you have posted that notion before, however it feels as if you flatly refuse to concede victory. When you first started posting about evolutionary psychology, it made perfect sense to me and perhaps to everyone here. They didn’t really post much about it because it isn’t controversial. You were right on. Still are.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>I was thinking about EP while I was touring family history sites in eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia last month. The theory worked, for reasons I did not understand before going there. I visited some of the poorest people in the country (as measured by the number of dollars they own) and yet they were not the least bit inclined to go to war fearing a shortage of resources. Reason: in spite of the poverty (as measured in dollars) the Appalachian people are not suffering from terrible circumstances. Their quality of life way out there is actually pretty good compared to their much more wealthy (as measured in dollars) city counterparts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>You don’t really even need to go there. Go on Google maps, street view, virtually “drive” around and look. There are homes out there, not great ones by our standards, but homes. They don’t have the things we think of as modern conveniences, but they do have the things THEY think of as modern conveniences: electricity, running water, indoor toilet. They don’t have AC generally, no cable internet, no cell phone reception in the places I went. But they had a fireplace, they could get a StarLink receiver if they wish, they had land lines. I spoke to a number of people. Never did I get a sense they recognized they were impoverished or that there was a threat of lack of resources. Once I realized that, it explains why they are peaceful people.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>I am eager to recognize and acknowledge that humans have instincts. I know I do: I love games, competitions of any kind, prediction games are the best. I don’t do those games because I need the money. I do them because my instincts enjoy it. Furthermore… I don’t need to take responsibility for my baser instincts. Evolutionary psychology bred me this way. Can’t help it, man! The whippet was born to run, I was born to play PredictIt.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Our instincts do not need to lead us to war.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>Consider the notion that diversity is our strength. In today’s democrat party, diversity is not only their weakness, it is brutally ripping them apart. Other than that, today’s democrat party is not like the libertarian party, which is even more diverse and even more fractured. On the other hand, in energy production, diversity REALLY IS OUR STRENGTH! Make it as diverse as we can, lots of backups, lots of alternatives, develop everything investors will fund. Yay diversity! Then we will have fewer fears regarding lack of resources, and the risk of war will be reduced. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>We are overly dependent on oil, because the Middle Eastern nations pumped it in such quantities, the price stayed low and it killed the alternatives. Investors would not come if that cheap oil is out there, ready to crush their alternative schemes. So… for the time being, we pay the price for the blockade, a small price to pay really, develop alternatives, resulting in diversity of energy conversion technology, resulting in turning down the war meme, resulting in AI having enough power to run, perhaps killing everybody, but it might not. Looks to me like a risk we must take, for it is our only ticket out of this life alive.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'>spike <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></blockquote></div></body></html>