Simon Paynton

jakelafort wrote:

2 states just makes Israel more vulnerable to attack.

So it’s currently a zero-sum game, that is being wound up rather than wound down with tit-for-tat-plus-raging anger.

Things need to be wound down rather than wound up.  That’s the only way to bring peace, which is presumably what the Palestinians and the Israelis want.  M…[Read more]

Simon Paynton wrote:

Neither side wants to live and let live.

Having said that, it’s not a two-player game.  It’s three or four players at least (Israel, Palestinians, Hamas, Iran).

jakelafort wrote:

But i am more wondering whether the stifling of learning can ultimately cause a reduction of intelligence in the overall population.

I don’t see how it can cause a general reduction in intelligence.  But what it must do is to hold back the culture and the economic prosperity of the country (e.g., Iran).  Also: you don’t see a l…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

If only I was an Ivy League student, I would be better able to figure it out and not have to wonder why Netanyahu said that the price Hamas will pay is its very existence.

I think it’s understandable (never mind right or wrong) given the zero-sum situation they are both in.  Hamas wants to wipe out Israel; Netanyahu…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:

WISH I KNEW HOW TO DO THAT DEVILTRY IN ITALICS.

Use the quote function, or the ” blue button (block quote on/off).

jakelafort wrote:

Generations upon generations of mindless devotion, fear, and authoritarian control resulting in retardation of normal curiosity and intellectual exploration might be inheritable in terms of intelligence? It would certainly aid the mind virus of Islam to dumb down its hosts. IDK

Muslim people don’t lose their wits, or common…[Read more]

Why does Islam seem so authoritarian compared with other religions?  Is it really more authoritarian than some of the Christians?

I have been reading a bit and finding out about Hinduism.  They encourage free-thinking and free enquiry – within a rigid framework of rituals connected with ideas of sacredness and purity, and “feudal ethics” (the c…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:

Adults, one hopes, cooperate for the good of a collective (family, community, employer, club, whatever). That comes over time with life experience and maturity.

We also coooperate just to get things done that we need to achieve and benefits we need to gain.  We also cooperate because socially we enjoy it – a benefit gained through…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:

Kids are narcissists.

I wasn’t saying they’re fantastic.  They are monsters compared with adults.  But they seem to be born with innate cooperation skills that aren’t taught.

Compared with a chimpanzee, a 3-year old child is a great team player.

_Robert_ wrote:

Yes, but can you think of any biological characteristic including the behavior of living things that does not ultimately stem from our genetic composition?

Well, you could say that all behaviour is biological, because it’s carried out by human beings with biological bodies.  I think it’s more relevant to look at the reasons for…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:

Unfortunately, even though many antivaxers might erase themselves during a pandemic, the ties to a representative genotype are so complicated that the behavior will not become a phenotype in the normal sense.

I think it’s a case of culturally-induced suicide, rather than maladaptive genes.

Unseen wrote:

Cooperation has to be taught through positive and negative reinforcement.

Are you actually a parent, Simon?

I’m not a parent.  According to laboratory experiments, they develop the skills by around the age of 3.  I should have been more precise.  The point is they don’t need to be taught, they do things like respect commitments an…[Read more]

There are all kinds of people who shouldn’t be here if Mother Nature had anything to do with it.  For humans, it’s not so much survival of the fittest, it’s the survival of the most cooperative.  That’s why young children are born knowing how to cooperate.

_Robert_ wrote:

In many cases the least-fittest humans can propagate as much as anyone.

Yes, millions of years of evolution have resulted in … me.  How did that happen?

I think we’re extremely strongly shaped by evolution, biologically and psychologically.  That’s both a curse and a benefit.  How long before we wipe ourselves out?

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:

Ancient human evolution is “unparalleled” in nature.

I too have read it was climate change that drove the evolution of new human species, because it opened up new niches.  Every new niche means a new species.  But

the pattern in Homo species suggests that technology played a far greater role in speci…

[Read more]

But if there are, say, 3 green triangles, and 1000 orange circles, in the world, which is more unique?  Green triangles or orange circles?