[-empyre-] ethology?

[Alan Sondheim]

There's also considerable violence in small societies, in small towns; and 
of course there are altruistic decisions people make at any scale - 
otherwise there wouldn't be global charities, giving to flood victims in 
other countries, and so forth. For me, it has to do with picturing the 
other in relation to the local, a kind of negotiated logic...

Thanks!, Alan


On Fri, 14 Nov 2014, John Hopkins wrote:

> The balance between the violence and empathy probably have a break point 
> at the number 150 -- the 'average' maximum number of relations that the 
> human brain is evolved to be mindful of -- the clan-based society... 
> Empathy can extend no further than that (perhaps), except in 
> extraordinary circumstances (Jesus, Buddha, etc)...
>
> The rest of those outside the 150 are simply challengers of my use of 
> resources that I employ to optimize the reproducibility of my clan 
> (unless there is an attractive gene-pool-mixing opportunity 'out 
> there').  Those may have to be taken by force.
>
> What genetic evidence is there of altruism that extends beyond clan? I 
> know there has been some research in that regard, but my 
> phenomenological observations suggest that humans are, on average and in 
> aggregate, unable to make altruistic decisions on a wide scale (global 
> warming seems to be one example)... Decisions can be made on a smaller 
> scale when conditions pressure such, but otherwise, resource consumption 
> and nest-soiling tendencies are not immediately impinging on quality of 
> life, so, who cares?
>
> and so on...
>
> jh
> -- 
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Dr. John Hopkins, BSc, MFA, PhD
> grounded on a granite batholith
> twitter: @neoscenes
> http://tech-no-mad.net/blog/
> ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
>

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