[ExI] far future

Mirco Romanato painlord2k at libero.it
Mon Dec 30 20:10:40 UTC 2013


Il 30/12/2013 17:57, William Flynn Wallace ha scritto:

> So, everyone is a genius of all sorts.  All medical and psychological
> problems related to genes have been eliminated.  Personalities are sunny
> in disposition, eager to work, devoid of any competitive impulses,
> unable to even think of hurting another person, and so on.

This is Heaven, so your protagonist is The Serpent or some other misfit.

A simple improvement for humans would be to fix the missing gene to
synthesize Vit.C and this would allow people to eat whatever they like
without need of fresh vegetables or fruits.

Another improvement is an increase in the ability to manage people and
relations. Currently humans are able to manage around 120-130 relations
(Dumbar's Number) at the same time (in a very shallow way).
This is something like 2.5 times the relations a chimpanzee is able to
manage. Other animals are able to manage a lot less relations (just
their near relatives and mates). The exception is, mainly, hyenas.

The ability to manage so many relations is related to the size of the
pre-frontal cortex (greater the number of relations a specie is able to
manage, larger is the cortex). Hyenas, for example, are able to share
their lair with another pack (this is impossible to other animals).

A larger or more efficient brain would allow the formation of larger and
more efficient groups where antisocial impulses would be kept under
control by the group. This already happen in the Mennonite and Hutterite
communities,  but they limit their size to around 180 individuals and
then divide the community in two independent groups.

Obviously, the community need to have shared norms and a common goal for
individuals to participate.

A side effect would be, for individuals, an increase ability to create
strong and deep emotional bonds with friends, mates and family members.

After a few generations, probably, there would be a selection for more
empathy and pro-social behaviors, because other individuals would be
much more able to spot psychopaths and generally anti-social individuals
and would avoid to associate with them if possible, reducing their
social and reproductive fitness.

Mirco



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