Take a step up
// August 7th, 2010 // No Comments » // Uncategorized
I watched a very interesting TED video yesterday – A monkey economy as
irrational as ours by Laurie Santos. Laurie, along with a team of
students from Yale performed a series of experiments to try understand
why the human species makes the same illogical blunders over and over
again. Their focus was on the financial mistakes that we’ve seen over
the course of humankind’s history. She initially posits that perhaps
we put too many clever systems in place and then can’t keep track of
them or can’t manage them because they’re too complex for us to
manage. Her other supposition is that perhaps we make these mistakes
over and over again because we’re hardwired that way. They experiments
she performs end up proving the latter. I can’t help feeling a little down by this result. These problems are
hardwired into our very DNA from at least 35 million years ago. Trying
to change habits we develop during the course of our own lifetime are
difficult enough to change; what about a habit rooted in our very
essence for the last 35 million years? That’s certainly going to take
more than an Alan Karr seminar or two! But deep down I feel that these shackles we’re born with are there for
the singular reason of allowing us to overcome them in order to
advance along the next evolutionary step. Up until now, evolution has
been governed by the selfish gene – the self-preservation instinct of
the individual. We see this in every interaction we have with our
environment, the other members of our species and indeed other species
too. What if the next step in evolution is to step beyond the
preservation of self and instead rise to the preservation of the
species? Understanding the system we are a part of and making the
necessary changes and individual sacrifices in order to keep the
species alive? That would be the first step. Understanding the complex
subtle interplays involved in the world around us and balancing the
survival of our species with the survival of all others around us
would be the next. Noble thoughts, but possible? I think so. Now it’s just a case of
convincing the rest of you.
irrational as ours by Laurie Santos. Laurie, along with a team of
students from Yale performed a series of experiments to try understand
why the human species makes the same illogical blunders over and over
again. Their focus was on the financial mistakes that we’ve seen over
the course of humankind’s history. She initially posits that perhaps
we put too many clever systems in place and then can’t keep track of
them or can’t manage them because they’re too complex for us to
manage. Her other supposition is that perhaps we make these mistakes
over and over again because we’re hardwired that way. They experiments
she performs end up proving the latter. I can’t help feeling a little down by this result. These problems are
hardwired into our very DNA from at least 35 million years ago. Trying
to change habits we develop during the course of our own lifetime are
difficult enough to change; what about a habit rooted in our very
essence for the last 35 million years? That’s certainly going to take
more than an Alan Karr seminar or two! But deep down I feel that these shackles we’re born with are there for
the singular reason of allowing us to overcome them in order to
advance along the next evolutionary step. Up until now, evolution has
been governed by the selfish gene – the self-preservation instinct of
the individual. We see this in every interaction we have with our
environment, the other members of our species and indeed other species
too. What if the next step in evolution is to step beyond the
preservation of self and instead rise to the preservation of the
species? Understanding the system we are a part of and making the
necessary changes and individual sacrifices in order to keep the
species alive? That would be the first step. Understanding the complex
subtle interplays involved in the world around us and balancing the
survival of our species with the survival of all others around us
would be the next. Noble thoughts, but possible? I think so. Now it’s just a case of
convincing the rest of you.
