9/23/09 The Zeitgeist Movement Bi-Weekly Report with Peter Joseph

eryksun

9/24/2009 7:43 AM UTC

Regarding sexual selection, the question was about people competing to impress a potential lover, or even a competition between potential lovers, testing the waters to see if each other is worthy (think of the film "Hackers"). You need values that keep a friendly competition from turning ugly and violent. Friendly competition inspires creative expression in many forms, from art to engineering.

eryksun

9/24/2009 6:56 AM UTC

Regarding intelligence, it comes down to speed and working memory (SNR and propagation speed in axons, resources from glial support cells, and neurotransmitter concentration in synapses), pattern recognition (degree of neural interconnectedness), and long-term memory (feedback to future learning and problem solving). You may have more raw intelligence in one part of your brain than others (e.g. visual vs. auditory), but practice can make you smarter.

eryksun

9/24/2009 6:26 AM UTC

Regarding ornamentation (including iPods and iPhones), it's an expression of what we like and/or find beautiful. It also communicates our identification with various subcultures. I see nothing wrong with it. However, it gets exploited for profit, like every other aspect of human psychology and society, by Madison Avenue and Hollywood. They've used psychologists to manipulate us ever since Bernays capitalized on his uncle Freud's work.

eryksun

9/24/2009 5:25 AM UTC

What was the relevancy of the basic research of Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, and Heisenberg to social problems in their respective time periods? You seek to use the Internet and robotic automation to change the world, and I agree our problems are pressing; however, we'd still be reliant on the horse and ox if not for the 'irrelevant' work of basic science. Another dividend coming down the pipeline is nanotechnology, which will fundamentally change the way we do manufacturing.