The Cognitive Blind Spot of Social Primates
I mentioned recently that it's hard to hang tough with the Peak Oil narrative when the mainstream media narrative is that oil has never been more plentiful and that the real problem is low prices. Add to that the techno-utopian narratives of electric cars and power walls and super batteries, and the idea that industrial civilization is crucially ( Read more... )
In it he argues, if memory serves, that some archeologists believe that many of the elements of logical reasoning are social constructs that were created by early civilizations. To explain this idea, Heath talks about the rules of evidence that have arisen in the legal system. For example, after a few really horrendous miscarriages of justice, the legal system decided to force people to simply refuse to use "hear say" evidence. Another example are the rules that force police officers to read people their "Miranda rights". In both cases, the rule exists as an absolutely essential formality to "short-circuit" a hard-wired tendency by the human mind to jump to conclusions without considering the possibility that something important is being left out of the picture.
I am often appalled by the way proponents of specific---especially "doomer"---narratives, simply opine that the human brain is made this way, so we should just "give up". Well, it is true that the brain operates this way, but we are not isolated individuals, we are eusocial monkeys that live in huge, complex societies that are governed by constantly evolving cultures. There are ways our culture could work around the biological desire to stop thinking about the future once "our bellies are full". The "seven generations" credo ascribed to the Six Nations is one of them. The precautionary principle in developing new substances and life forms is another.
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