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

[Keith Henson]

On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 7:28 AM, Dan <dan_ust at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Maybe. Could it also be related to predation? Predators usually have to focus on
> prey. Granted, humans were not top level predators -- they were catfood much of
> the time, no? -- but like many primates, humans or their ancestors, seem to have
> engaged in some predation. But your view seems more correct here. How to test
> this?

Humans have been top level predators for a *long* time.  We displaced
lions (another social predator) from most of their former range, and
like lions self predation is the ultimate check that keeps human
numbers within the ecological limit of the environment to feed them.

This has been the case long enough for specific psychological
mechanisms to evolve.

I suppose hypnosis could be related to something involving humans
being predators.  If so, I would expect chimps to have it and bonobos
not since chimps are predators and bonobos are not.

Keith

> On an unrelated note, do you feel this should be the new national anthem for the
> US?
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnwTuDAQwN0
>
> Regards,
>
> Dan
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Damien Broderick <thespike at satx.rr.com>
> To: ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Sent: Sun, October 24, 2010 7:21:49 PM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] Physics versus psychology
>
> On 10/24/2010 6:02 PM, Keith Henson wrote:
>> But hypnosis has me baffled.  I can't come up with a reason the
>> psychological trait engaged in hypnosis has any survival or
>> reproductive advantage at all.
>
> It's a while since I look at the literature, but I gather that hypnosis is
> regarded as an instance of attention-capture; the "suggestible" who respond best
> probably exempflify strongly what happens to us all during collective episodes
> of focused attention on a leader or the mood of one's group. In a memetic animal
> like H. sapiens, I think the value of such a trait is pretty obvious.
>
> Damien Broderick
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