sabastious

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Posts by sabastious

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  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

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  sabastious

  I am actually encouraged by the study, if it's accurate. It helps explain some of what was previously to me, inexplicable. We can't help it. I get that. And I'm not being sarcastic. I am very glad to know that there may be valid reason... because that puts us on a path to find a solution.

  I don't like the conclusion because it messes with free will in my opinion. Under the terms of the OP we are essentially evolutionary robots doomed for destruction. There is a common sales pitch that is refered to as the "doomsday scenario" and it can be used to sell anything. "You should stop using pens of blue ink because they are linked to cancer" BOOM black pen sales skyrocket and even unconventional colors feel the shockwave! The same could be said for the various religious hells, armageddon themes and whatnot. It's disappointing that Science seems to have only doomsday scenarios and then offer themselves as the solution (with a margin of error built it of course!). It's like in Back to the Future at the end where Marty asks rhetorically, "What do we always have to cut these things so god-damn close?" It's a funny question because from the grand evolutionary perspective we really do always pull through in the end. That sholud be the human motto, we always pull through. We have bitter, tragic and unspeakable sacrifice, yes, but ultimately we pull through. It's been a human tenent preached and taught for all of antiquity. It's called the human spirit. Saying that we are essentially a botched brain program would really make one question the validity of free will. It seems to be furthering a preconcieved theme is what I am trying to say. Like when the Watchtower translated their NWT. They work with the original content but they strategically translate as to paint a preconcieved narrative that supports fabricated doctrine. I see it as a hopeless type of "fact" that should be highly examined and critically dismantled simply because it's just bad news. "We're broke" just doesn't cut it for me. That's depressive thinking in my opinion which is what I strive to flee from.

  -Sab
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  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  sabastious

  Shelby, just because a parent puts bleech under the sink doesn't mean they are dumb. It could mean a variety of things, one of which being that they are intellectually challenged. It also could be that they were abanonded as a child and as a result lack common sense. That's why I say that the problem is NOT mutations in the brain, but a lack of family cohesion in society in general. Messing with attachment theory means messing with the whole of society. Without stability in our childhood we have all kinds of dysfunctions that are based off survival adaptations created and maintained while enduring childhood trauma and neglect. This "machinery" pervades into and messes with the adult life.

  To illustrate take how people manage their vehicles. They are told time and time again to get an oil change every 3-5 thousand miles by the experts. They are shown the ill effects of being negligent with this practice, but yet so many people still refuse to change their oil on time. Is this evidence of a lack of intelligence? I would say more often than not, no. Most likely what is happening is a software malfunction rather than a hardware error, if you will. Most malfunctions are a result of a knotted up emotional brain that stems from something that happened during childhood. Really, what we are seeing are symptoms of the problem of a lack of emotional stability as a result of the breakdown of the family unit of society. People are only appearing to be dumb, when really they are just all knotted up inside.

  -Sab
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  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  sabastious

  NC you have a pm.

  -Sab
• 
  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  sabastious

  So no evidence at all. ok

  It's almost like you were searching for a specific answer and if you read anything else you would claim "no evidence" which is basically hyperbole. However, your criteria remains transparent to me as you simply want to assert instead of explain as if in a competition. Regardless, studying cultures by watching videos and reading about them is a pretty good plan to develop coherent ideas about them. You also paint my point about science and money perfectly. Because I lack the funds to actually go study these cultures I am forced to work with insufficient tools and methods. You simply ignore these factors and continue to impose an ideology of studying other people's conclusions even though that means having faith in a system of man which goes against my religious values.

  -Sab
• 
  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  sabastious

  What evidence are you basing that on?

  I watch as much as I can on youtube for the purposes of studying the anthropology of varying cultures especially in regards to how they view Science and Religion. I also read as much as I can. Based on what I have seen it's glaringly apparent that an anti-Science agenda exists and that it's not subject to a specific vien of society. It seems to permeate the whole planet. I explain this with the air of superiority that scientists often portray. I have noticed that laypeople don't like being talked down to really at all. How could one not sound condescending when trying to impart information onto another who is ignorant of fundamentals that are considered childs play in modern society? The subject is simply going to have to humble themselves to Science and it's representatives. This is not an easy task and the Scientific Community is not winning this battle. The anti-God agenda of many scientists do not help in this cause.

  It's true that Science offers a lot of improvement to third world countries and the world in gerneral, but people are not going to like being bought so to speak. Are we just going to give technology away or is it going to have strings of some sort? There is a lot of room for distrust of Science, Cofty, it's not as far fetched as you seem to think it is. You may have a bias that is nurtured by living within a pro-Science community.

  -Sab
• 
  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  sabastious

  Only on your side of the pond Sab. In Europe we think science is cool.

  Apparently you think the world consists of soley America and Europe. Ever travel to the Middle East? India? China? South America? Africa? Austrailia? These cultures are ripe with people who distrust science in general and that's because scientists don't generally approach people right (I also think people in your area distrust science more than you know). This is because we have a lower social intelligence than we did at the inception of our species which the article in the OP demonstates (and your point about Neanderthals having larger brains and mine about that indicating more social prowess). The invention of the internet and the smart phone are good examples of technologies that will effect our social prowess as a species. The same thing happened with the writing technology thousands of years ago and these technoligies work off of it. Before the advent of writing humanity was more socially intelligent because they had to be in order to survive because primates are group based more than we are tool-based. It's our social structures that create our success because you can be the smartest person on the planet, but to defend yourself you need friends who are willing to die for you and you them.Ancient famous logicians were actually against the writing technology and especially against providing it to the common people because it would dramatically change the whole of society. And even though they were very smart they couldn't completely sell themselves on the idea of the writing technology long term. We can argue that cell phones make life better, but what if we never invented them? Would that just mean that we would have to naturally adapt to our environment instead of developing a tool? What are the pros and cons to both approaches?

  -Sab
• 
  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  sabastious

  Scientific journals aren't free - so what?

  "Take life's water FREE." Science should have a google product model, capitalism is the worst thing that ever happened to science.

  -Sab
• 
  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  sabastious

  There is absolutely nothing preventing anybody from studying hard for many years and mastering any field of science that interests them.

  Oh really, what about a whole population getting dumber? Which is what your community purports. "Studying hard" is just a subjective term that people use to assert that what they did can also be done by others. It's very Watchtower-esque. My point, Cofty, is that I personally cannot replicate the experiments of high end science simply because I lack the time and monetary resources. Without funding I am just a bottom feeder and not really part of the scientific community. This has created a "science guru" model that is unsustainable even from a scientific perspective. The whole point of science is to put everybody on the same page as far as data goes. Unfortunately that data is just not available to everyone. The root of ALL evil is money. Within a monetary-based system Science will go progressively downhill. Science is already largely demonized by a majority of the population. This is mainly because the advocates of science arrogantly tell people to "study hard" and guarantee results when really no one should be able to guarantee anything, much less a perfect understanding of the universe as told by scientific theory.

  -Sab
• 
  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  sabastious

  The study the article is based on, though? I did try to get into it but can't without a subscription.

  Think about this for a minute. Why in the world would they make the evidence hard to get to? Why not just publish the evidence for all to see and make the article link to it. Why make people pay to verify a claim? I am not saying the evidence doesn't exist, but they most certaintly want you to focus on the conclusion rather than the data and that's a red flag, big time. The scientific community is about money because the world is about money. Funding is like gas for a car, it doesn't matter if you have a Lamborghini or a beat up 1988 Honda Civic with 400k mileage, without fuel they both don't go.

  This is my number one beef with Science in general. It has progressed to the point where the data collected can often only be done with highly sophisticated technology which means you have to have gobs of money in order to work on the cutting edge of science. So now they have to make getting to the data cumbersome because laypeople are simply not going to have the time and resources to replicate their expensive processes. Yet this process just creates an informational gap and contributes to the class problem of society in general. It sounds like faith to me and putting faith in man is a dangerous venture.

  -Sab
• 
  233

  Human Devolution? Interesting Article...

  by AGuest in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  are humans really getting dumber (may you all have peace)?

  there have many positions on this for both sides.

  saw an announcement on the news this morning and was intrigued: could it be true?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  sabastious

  So, with the Baboons, is there something in their environment that makes stronger social connections in the brain at a young age, and something in other primate environments that cause these connections to be trimmed earlier? And of course, this cultural pressure can also come into play with evolution if it affects their fitness.

  The reason why I think the Baboons do so well is that they are able to communicate with each other in a relatively peaceful manner. Their chatter is an actual language that has been studied. It's not just random jargon, it's an actual language with a repeatable pattern. It seems that a large brain is needed for a large social capacity and without that social capacity the primate species has a top end. On the other hand Homo Sapiens don't seem to have a top end at all, we actually change our environment and continue to transcend through time. Like when we set down on Mars for example, our brains will immediately look to develop the land so that it can be inhabitable. At first there will be many "impossibilities", but eventually we will find solutions. We don't just look, we look to improve. At this point in our evolution the size of brain isn't going to be like a dial that controls our top end intelligence, but I think their is enough data to support the claim that it's connected to a social intelligence and directly determines how large our groups can be before becoming unsustainable.

  -Sab