Ivy wrote:
@davis I’ll be going la la la….my sister just suffered a horrible still birth and the hospital sent her home with a dead baby and said “good luck.” We may as well be living in a third world country. Burying the baby today

I know we don’t know each other, Ivy. But, I am so very sorry. I can’t imagine a pain deeper than the loss of…[Read more]

I am not ignoring you.  I am taking a Summer writing seminar for my job, and I have a paper due this week.  I’m on a deadline, so I need to give that my attention.

Glen:  In retrospect, I was kind of hard on you.  Sometimes I forget what it was like to have been new to discussion/debate forums, and I let my frustration get the…[Read more]

Glen D wrote:
“I love to hear variations on the “Hey, everybody was doing it” kind of excuse. Mom and Dad didn’t buy it.” Nor should they; the argument is based on a Tu qouque (you too) logical fallacy. If the USA was founded on theft, murder and genocide, the charges must be answered by themselves. What other countries did is irrelevan…

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Oh, I’m sorry, Professor.  I was under the impression that this was a discussion forum, not a venue for Unseen to make his little pronouncements and gift us all with his unassailable wisdom.  Nice straw man you built there, b…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
America started, it’s been said, as a criminal enterprise. Slavery. Genocide.

To be fair, the same could be said to be true of almost every civilization that ever achieved ascendancy on the world stage, whether it’s the French slaughtering the Huguenots, or the English starving the Irish. Genocide and slavery were not unique to A…[Read more]

I am increasingly concerned that the transfer of power following the current regime will not be achieved without bloodshed.

The American Civil War was the bloodiest and costliest war we have ever fought.   The next one will be worse.  And our enemies rejoice, because a second Civil War effectively removes t…[Read more]

Bartender says, “What is this?  Some kind of joke?”

Why did the punk rocker cross the road?

He had a chicken stapled to his face.

How many punk rockers does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

Two.  One to screw the bulb in, and one to kick the chair out from under him.

How many p…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Daughterofkarl, you just brought back a memory. 2001 was first serious book i read at age of six. And it was a tough read. After that reading was a ritual for me and i read every night. Also it is weird to read a book first as a child and then as an adult. I did that with some Bertrand Russell. Read him when i was around 12 and…

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Davis wrote:

daughterofkarl wrote:
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, a Search for Who We Are

Hey. THanks for the recommendation. I have a pretty enormous reading list but I will put the book on it. Sometimes older books can explain general concepts and I find older books also add a lot more humanity and an intersting narrative. For example Desmond…

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“Competition / cooperation” are standard terms and they express the essence of the situation in my opinion. If you think about it, if one is “an army of one”, then competition is inevitable.

I think you’re probably right, that competition likely rises inevitably where there is not cooperati…[Read more]

I’m from Texas.  The big, shiny brass buckle on the Bible Belt, USA!  LOL

DOK

If you haven’t read Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, a Search for Who We Are, by Carl Sagan and Anne Druyan, you should.   It is a fascinating take on the subject of human evolution and human and animal behavior.   Wikipedia describes it thus:  “The authors give a summary account of the evolutionary history of life on Earth, with pa…[Read more]

I’m glad you’re rethinking your use of “sheeple” in the bottom right of your chart.  Referring to people who fall into the category of being both cooperative and passive as “sheeple” is…well, sort of passive-aggressive, to be honest, and seems to betray a distinct bias.   Nowhere else is the terminology you use so o…[Read more]

I am glad you’re here, and that you have found a place where you can be yourself as you embark on this journey of self-discovery.  I was fortunate to have grown up in a family that was tolerant and supportive of any exploration I chose to undertake, but it sounds like that is not the case for you.  I’m sorry.  If we can provide a sa…[Read more]

PopeBeanie wrote:
I’m personally not ready to completely define “consciousness”, or for that matter not even “intelligence”. I’m more comfortable breaking them down into components, most of which we can agree on. Also, like @toms, I’ll avoid the word “purpose” just like Reg cautions against use of the word “forward” in the context of evolution;…

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_Robert_ wrote:
The question that intrigues me…is consciousness just a byproduct of intelligence or did (does?) it serve a purpose for the species that appear to possess it? A computer chock full of AI doesn’t need consciousness yet I see no purpose to it for biologics other than it may facilitate a higher level of cooperation.

I think it is pro…[Read more]

E. E. Cummings, 1894 – 1962 

Buffalo Bill ’s
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat
Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

And this one, too:

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the proc…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:

I’m unsure what YOUR point is.

My point is that you are putting out a lot of incendiary material without being clear about your purpose for doing so.  I am asking you to clarify your stand.

Where is the bar of how many women need to talk about men not wanting to marry or commit for it to be a worth a Small Talk topic? When most wo…

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I mean, “…a little googling a…[Read more]

Well, that’s good to know.  It still surprises me sometimes how much attitudes have changed over time.  I came out to myself as an atheist about 25 years ago, now.  But, in the part of the country where I lived and worked, one learned very quickly not to speak about one’s atheism openly in most social situations.  It’s only been in…[Read more]

I have had a number of “goosebump” moments in my life, but I will share with you the ones that I think perhaps speak most relevantly to your interest in mammalian neuroevolution.  These occurred around my pregnancy and the birth of my child, a time when hormonal and neurochemical factors are particularly strong in their impact…[Read more]