CDZ Brain power is out of control

[there4eyeM]

This poster tends to think that the human brain may be to humans what the saber teeth were to the famous, extinct tiger. It is a biological development that has itself become an impediment to further existence.
'We' don't understand how to apply our mental capacities in order that the most consistently constructive results derive. The tendency is to seize upon whatever used to be the standard as being perpetually positive.
Tiny example: it used to be imperative to carry water with one. This led to containers, which led to one-use containers. The 'good' was having convenient hydration available. The 'thoughtless' was the evident fact that when everyone copied this, the one-use containers would be impossible to contain.
No moralizing here, just showing how things went and how they should have gone if our race had used the brain for what it is worth.
Are we doomed to continuing to use the brain in excess of our power to control ourselves, thus sooner or later eliciting extinction from the universe?

 

[night_son]

This poster tends to think that the human brain may be to humans what the saber teeth were to the famous, extinct tiger. It is a biological development that has itself become an impediment to further existence.
'We' don't understand how to apply our mental capacities in order that the most consistently constructive results derive. The tendency is to seize upon whatever used to be the standard as being perpetually positive.
Tiny example: it used to be imperative to carry water with one. This led to containers, which led to one-use containers. The 'good' was having convenient hydration available. The 'thoughtless' was the evident fact that when everyone copied this, the one-use containers would be impossible to contain.
No moralizing here, just showing how things went and how they should have gone if our race had used the brain for what it is worth.
Are we doomed to continuing to use the brain in excess of our power to control ourselves, thus sooner or later eliciting extinction from the universe?

Interesting, there4. Perhaps it is more a case of rock, arrow, musket ball and full metal jacketed round? Take a nest of bees for instance. One hundred percent efficient, one hundred percent of the time, barring destructive or alterative factors such as climate and geographic anomalies. The human race? Not so much. Fortunately (or unfortunately) we remain individually free of any biologically collective hive mind. That water container? No queen bee says yeah or neigh in a species compelling way.

 

[sartre play]

It takes a lot more time & effort too wade through conflicting information on any subject in a effort to gain a more informed view. Much easier to just go with your groups choices, lots less stress on your brain.

 

[there4eyeM]

It is as if we are witnessing the demise of an otherwise very promising species, killing itself with its finest attribute.

 

[Indeependent]

It is as if we are witnessing the demise of an otherwise very promising species, killing itself with its finest attribute.

Trying for 3,000 years and failing.

 

[there4eyeM]

It is as if we are witnessing the demise of an otherwise very promising species, killing itself with its finest attribute.

Trying for 3,000 years and failing.

Just getting a running start.

 

[there4eyeM]

It remains possible that this brain could still save itself, but there is no reason to be overly optimistic.

 

[007]

This poster tends to think that the human brain may be to humans what the saber teeth were to the famous, extinct tiger. It is a biological development that has itself become an impediment to further existence.

Had the statement above, which you opened your premise with been true, then you wouldn't have had the intelligence to even propose this hypothesis.

 

[there4eyeM]

This poster tends to think that the human brain may be to humans what the saber teeth were to the famous, extinct tiger. It is a biological development that has itself become an impediment to further existence.

Had the statement above, which you opened your premise with been true, then you wouldn't have had the intelligence to even propose this hypothesis.

This does not logical follow. The mentioned tigers as individuals lived and used their teeth, but in the long run the physical presence of the teeth proved disadvantageous to survival.
It isn't that humans don't have enough intelligence, it is that they have too much for their own good, given their demonstrated inability to constructively use it.

 

[there4eyeM]

Obviously, that should read "logically".
Sorry

 

[flacaltenn]

This poster tends to think that the human brain may be to humans what the saber teeth were to the famous, extinct tiger. It is a biological development that has itself become an impediment to further existence.
'We' don't understand how to apply our mental capacities in order that the most consistently constructive results derive. The tendency is to seize upon whatever used to be the standard as being perpetually positive.
Tiny example: it used to be imperative to carry water with one. This led to containers, which led to one-use containers. The 'good' was having convenient hydration available. The 'thoughtless' was the evident fact that when everyone copied this, the one-use containers would be impossible to contain.
No moralizing here, just showing how things went and how they should have gone if our race had used the brain for what it is worth.
Are we doomed to continuing to use the brain in excess of our power to control ourselves, thus sooner or later eliciting extinction from the universe?

I actually opined about 30 years ago, that Disney would own this country before I die and that all commerce and recreation would be built around electronics to amuse ourselves to death.. We've not only bought the rope to hang ourselves -- but we're enjoying the heck out of the show...

NOBODY is practicing critical thinking on social media or EVEN in the "squawking head panel" version of event/news analysis.. It hurts too much.. Takes too much time.. Better to just "share" a meme... Life is too easy. And that prize possession of million of years of human evolution is ALREADY shrinking....

 

[there4eyeM]

This poster tends to think that the human brain may be to humans what the saber teeth were to the famous, extinct tiger. It is a biological development that has itself become an impediment to further existence.
'We' don't understand how to apply our mental capacities in order that the most consistently constructive results derive. The tendency is to seize upon whatever used to be the standard as being perpetually positive.
Tiny example: it used to be imperative to carry water with one. This led to containers, which led to one-use containers. The 'good' was having convenient hydration available. The 'thoughtless' was the evident fact that when everyone copied this, the one-use containers would be impossible to contain.
No moralizing here, just showing how things went and how they should have gone if our race had used the brain for what it is worth.
Are we doomed to continuing to use the brain in excess of our power to control ourselves, thus sooner or later eliciting extinction from the universe?

I actually opined about 30 years ago, that Disney would own this country before I die and that all commerce and recreation would be built around electronics to amuse ourselves to death.. We've not only bought the rope to hang ourselves -- but we're enjoying the heck out of the show...

NOBODY is practicing critical thinking on social media or EVEN in the "squawking head panel" version of event/news analysis.. It hurts too much.. Takes too much time.. Better to just "share" a meme... Life is too easy. And that prize possession of million of years of human evolution is ALREADY shrinking....

Interesting perspective and largely true.
The original thought was more in the vein of technology that we are clever enough to build but not smart enough to control (nukes, etc.). But simply blithering into terminal decay is quite possible.

 

[sparky]

Better to just "share" a meme

~S~

 

[there4eyeM]

Better to just "share" a meme

~S~

How utterly revolutionary! Subversive, even! Such a devilishly simple concept. What would happen if such a thing were to occur?
Oops! No knee-jerk soldiers! No automatic, "born" religious fanatics! What would the "élite" do without their mindless minions?

 

[sparky]

What would the "élite" do without their mindless minions?

cease to exist ,along with wars, poverty, etc....IF and only if, we admit our foibles counterproductive to evolving towards a better race

 

[flacaltenn]

This poster tends to think that the human brain may be to humans what the saber teeth were to the famous, extinct tiger. It is a biological development that has itself become an impediment to further existence.
'We' don't understand how to apply our mental capacities in order that the most consistently constructive results derive. The tendency is to seize upon whatever used to be the standard as being perpetually positive.
Tiny example: it used to be imperative to carry water with one. This led to containers, which led to one-use containers. The 'good' was having convenient hydration available. The 'thoughtless' was the evident fact that when everyone copied this, the one-use containers would be impossible to contain.
No moralizing here, just showing how things went and how they should have gone if our race had used the brain for what it is worth.
Are we doomed to continuing to use the brain in excess of our power to control ourselves, thus sooner or later eliciting extinction from the universe?

I actually opined about 30 years ago, that Disney would own this country before I die and that all commerce and recreation would be built around electronics to amuse ourselves to death.. We've not only bought the rope to hang ourselves -- but we're enjoying the heck out of the show...

NOBODY is practicing critical thinking on social media or EVEN in the "squawking head panel" version of event/news analysis.. It hurts too much.. Takes too much time.. Better to just "share" a meme... Life is too easy. And that prize possession of million of years of human evolution is ALREADY shrinking....

Interesting perspective and largely true.
The original thought was more in the vein of technology that we are clever enough to build but not smart enough to control (nukes, etc.). But simply blithering into terminal decay is quite possible.

Have you ever read Marshall McCluhan -- "The Media is the Message"??? He predicted the decline of critical thought the same way I predicted we'd become addicted to hearing our own electronic voices... He was right about a lot of this while telephones still had cords on them....

He also predicted an increase in tribalism the more connected we became...

 

[flacaltenn]

Better to just "share" a meme

~S~

How utterly revolutionary! Subversive, even! Such a devilishly simple concept. What would happen if such a thing were to occur?
Oops! No knee-jerk soldiers! No automatic, "born" religious fanatics! What would the "élite" do without their mindless minions?

I was taught how to think, not what to think.. It's just temporarily past out of style like the BeeGees.. HOPEFULLY, we get tired of being dumbed down and made into bickering chickens and figure out that we're DEFENSELESS unless you're taught "how to think"....

Lots of defenseless people on social media that have an overabundance of self-esteem and no means to defend their "what they think"....

 

[Olde Europe]

This poster tends to think that the human brain may be to humans what the saber teeth were to the famous, extinct tiger. It is a biological development that has itself become an impediment to further existence.
'We' don't understand how to apply our mental capacities in order that the most consistently constructive results derive. The tendency is to seize upon whatever used to be the standard as being perpetually positive.
Tiny example: it used to be imperative to carry water with one. This led to containers, which led to one-use containers. The 'good' was having convenient hydration available. The 'thoughtless' was the evident fact that when everyone copied this, the one-use containers would be impossible to contain.
No moralizing here, just showing how things went and how they should have gone if our race had used the brain for what it is worth.
Are we doomed to continuing to use the brain in excess of our power to control ourselves, thus sooner or later eliciting extinction from the universe?

This is, in the Western world, a very, very old theme. It has its oldest roots probably in the founding documents of Christianity, when the ability to reason led to the expulsion from paradise, setting off Christianity's anti-intellectual resentments, and it found its most brilliant expression in Adorno's and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment.

The difference is, of course, that the saber teeth was unable to analyze what rendered it unfit for its ecological niche, whereas humankind has that capacity, and puts it to good use to figure it out, currently. The problem, it turns out, isn't so much humankind's capacity to reason; it's humankind's selfishness, egocentrism, greed, (intellectual) laziness, and their ability to believe seven completely implausible things before breakfast to avoid to follow what reason tells us (and told us for decades), namely, it is unwise to destroy the ecosystems that sustain us. Self-destructive, to boot.

 

[there4eyeM]

This poster tends to think that the human brain may be to humans what the saber teeth were to the famous, extinct tiger. It is a biological development that has itself become an impediment to further existence.
'We' don't understand how to apply our mental capacities in order that the most consistently constructive results derive. The tendency is to seize upon whatever used to be the standard as being perpetually positive.
Tiny example: it used to be imperative to carry water with one. This led to containers, which led to one-use containers. The 'good' was having convenient hydration available. The 'thoughtless' was the evident fact that when everyone copied this, the one-use containers would be impossible to contain.
No moralizing here, just showing how things went and how they should have gone if our race had used the brain for what it is worth.
Are we doomed to continuing to use the brain in excess of our power to control ourselves, thus sooner or later eliciting extinction from the universe?

This is, in the Western world, a very, very old theme. It has its oldest roots probably in the founding documents of Christianity, when the ability to reason led to the expulsion from paradise, setting off Christianity's anti-intellectual resentments, and it found its most brilliant expression in Adorno's and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment.

The difference is, of course, that the saber teeth was unable to analyze what rendered it unfit for its ecological niche, whereas humankind has that capacity, and puts it to good use to figure it out, currently. The problem, it turns out, isn't so much humankind's capacity to reason; it's humankind's selfishness, egocentrism, greed, (intellectual) laziness, and their ability to believe seven completely implausible things before breakfast to avoid to follow what reason tells us (and told us for decades), namely, it is unwise to destroy the ecosystems that sustain us. Self-destructive, to boot.

For me, the Eden story is not about the capacity to reason, but the implicit imposition of duality on the universe by the presence of a sentient being.

 

[sparky]

I was taught how to think, not what to think.. It's just temporarily past out of style like the BeeGees.. HOPEFULLY, we get tired of being dumbed down and made into bickering chickens and figure out that we're DEFENSELESS unless you're taught "how to think"....

And this may well be where reason and rationale transcend intellect ....

The problem, it turns out, isn't so much humankind's capacity to reason; it's humankind's selfishness, egocentrism, greed, (intellectual) laziness, and their ability to believe seven completely implausible things before breakfast to avoid to follow what reason tells us (and told us for decades), namely, it is unwise to destroy the ecosystems that sustain us

interesting to apply both micro/macro ....

For me, the Eden story is not about the capacity to reason, but the implicit imposition of duality on the universe by the presence of a sentient being.

the realization of 'self' .....

~S~