<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/" xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/" xmlns:media="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/" > <channel> <title>Cultural Evolution – Dangerous Intersection</title> <atom:link href="https://dangerousintersection.org/category/science/cultural-evolution/feed/" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" /> <link>https://dangerousintersection.org</link> <description>Human Animals at the Crossroads of Science, Religion, Media and Culture</description> <lastBuildDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2022 22:20:48 +0000</lastBuildDate> <language>en-US</language> <sy:updatePeriod> hourly </sy:updatePeriod> <sy:updateFrequency> 1 </sy:updateFrequency> <site xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">2851851</site> <item> <title>The Dangers of Living in an Impoverished Ever-Malleable Present</title> <link>https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/11/28/the-dangers-of-living-in-an-impoverished-ever-malleable-present/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-dangers-of-living-in-an-impoverished-ever-malleable-present&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-dangers-of-living-in-an-impoverished-ever-malleable-present</link> <comments>https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/11/28/the-dangers-of-living-in-an-impoverished-ever-malleable-present/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Erich Vieth]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2022 22:19:04 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Blackouts]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Complexity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Corruption]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cultural Evolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Evolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Good and Evil]]></category> <category><![CDATA[History]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Media Blackouts]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Narratives in Media]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Woke Issues]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dangerousintersection.org/?p=36362</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>My dog lives in the eternal present. It’s OK for dogs to do so, but not OK for people. People need a sense of history to avoid the mistakes of the past. People need a foundation of hard-earned knowledge on which to make sense of the future or else they will not ever accomplish great things. Without a solid foundation of knowledge based on history, people will live like dogs.</p> <p style="padding-left: 40px;">Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.</p> <p>George Orwell – 1984…</p>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/11/28/the-dangers-of-living-in-an-impoverished-ever-malleable-present/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">36362</post-id> </item> <item> <title>How to Be a Human Animal, Chapter 22: Ontology and Mushy Words</title> <link>https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/03/12/how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-22-ontology-and-mushy-words/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-22-ontology-and-mushy-words&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-22-ontology-and-mushy-words</link> <comments>https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/03/12/how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-22-ontology-and-mushy-words/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Erich Vieth]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Sat, 12 Mar 2022 07:32:00 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Biology]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Communication]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Complexity]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cultural Evolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Evolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[How to Be a Human Animal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Human animals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Language]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Science]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dangerousintersection.org/?p=34908</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Hello again, <em>hypothetical</em> baby! I’m back to offer you yet another chapter to help you to navigate this convoluted world into which you have been plopped. I’m trying to teach you things that I<a href="https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/02/13/how-to-be-a-human-animal-suggested-reading-for-every-newborn-baby/"> did not know while I was growing up.</a> I learned these lessons the hard way. You can find links to all of these (soon to be 100) lessons in one convenient place: <a href="https://dangerousintersection.org/how-to-be-a-human-animal-all-chapters/">Here</a>.</p> <p>To begin, here is a “thing,” a work of art that I created:</p> <p><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" class="wp-image-34909 aligncenter" src="http://dangerousintersection.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Risen-682x1024.jpg" alt="Risen" width="395" height="593" title="How to Be a Human Animal, Chapter 22: Ontology and Mushy Words 1" srcset="https://dangerousintersection.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Risen-682x1024.jpg 682w, https://dangerousintersection.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Risen-200x300.jpg 200w, https://dangerousintersection.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Risen-768x1152.jpg 768w, https://dangerousintersection.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Risen.jpg 853w" sizes="(max-width: 395px) 100vw, 395px"/></p> <p>What is this thing? It started out as a part of a 2-D paint splatter I intentionally created–paint on canvas. I then photographed it and carted it into Photoshop and blended it with other layers until it looked like this. It’s now a thing that that looks almost 3-D. I call work of art “Risen.” Is it really a “thing” or does it just look like a thing?</p> <p>As you grow up, you will constantly deal with “things,” physical and otherwise. It will surprise and annoy you that human animals constantly disagree about what a particular thing is and even whether that “thing” exists at all. Philosophers tuck these disagreements into the branch of philosophy called “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ontology</a>,” but these disagreements aren’t limited to philosophy classrooms. They occur constantly out in the real world.</p> <p>You will find it a challenge to determine whether there are such things as violence, justice, love, intelligence, humility, courage or happiness. In the year 2022, people argued a lot about “race” even though …</p>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/03/12/how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-22-ontology-and-mushy-words/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">34908</post-id> </item> <item> <title>How to Be a Human Animal. Chapter 4: You are (Indeed) an animal.</title> <link>https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/02/16/how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-4-you-are-indeed-an-animal/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-4-you-are-indeed-an-animal&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-4-you-are-indeed-an-animal</link> <comments>https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/02/16/how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-4-you-are-indeed-an-animal/#respond</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Erich Vieth]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Wed, 16 Feb 2022 07:47:38 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Biology]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cultural Evolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Evolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[How to Be a Human Animal]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Human animals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Science]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">https://dangerousintersection.org/?p=34741</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Chapter 4: You are an animal.</strong></p> <p>I need you to listen very carefully because most of the people who enter your life are extremely uncomfortable with the thing that I’m about to tell you.</p> <p>You are an animal, a human animal. You are a tail-less primate, an ape. Your DNA is 99% the same as the DNA of a chimpanzee. We have great great great . . . grandparents who are also the great great great grandparents of modern day chimpanzees, and that’s just the beginning. We are cousins with every other living thing. You and that potted peace lily hanging near the window are biologically cousins. We are part of an extremely complex web of life, not separate from it or in charge of it in any meaningful way because that web includes our bodies. And even this deep relatedness to every other living thing is only the tip of the iceberg because, as Carl Sagan noted, we are made of materials that were manufactured by ancient stars.</p> <blockquote><p>Our Sun is a second- or third-generation star. All of the rocky and metallic material we stand on, the iron in our blood, the calcium in our teeth, the carbon in our genes were produced billions of years ago in the interior of a red giant star. We are made of star-stuff. . . . The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”</p></blockquote> <p>There are real-life consequences to being …</p>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>https://dangerousintersection.org/2022/02/16/how-to-be-a-human-animal-chapter-4-you-are-indeed-an-animal/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>0</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">34741</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Why there are not any civilizations without temples – Video featuring Jonathan Haidt</title> <link>https://dangerousintersection.org/2014/10/31/why-there-are-not-any-civilizations-without-temples/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-there-are-not-any-civilizations-without-temples&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=why-there-are-not-any-civilizations-without-temples</link> <comments>https://dangerousintersection.org/2014/10/31/why-there-are-not-any-civilizations-without-temples/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Erich Vieth]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Fri, 31 Oct 2014 18:34:16 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Anti-science]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Biology]]></category> <category><![CDATA[cognitive biases]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cultural Evolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Evolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Human animals]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Ingroup/Outgroup]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Patriotism/Nationalism]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Politics]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Psychology Cognition]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Science]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Haidt]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=27213</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>Jonathan Haidt explains why there are not any civilizations without temples, starting at minute 14 of this video. This is the 2013 Boyarsky Lecture at Duke University. About 10,000 years we went from an almost instantaneous transition from hunter-gathers to Babylon. A huge part of our evolutionary development is this newly learned ability of humans to circling around sacred objects (religious and political objects are two dominant examples) in order to form teams. As we circle around, we generate a social energy that knits the social fabric, but also encourages Manichean thinking–us versus them, blinding us to our own faults and faulty thinking. No shades of gray are allowed when we are intensely groupish. This kind of groupish thinking is radically incompatible with scientific thinking. Science is squeezed out, replaced by sacred objects, groupishness and authoritarian obeisance.</p> <p>At min 24, Haidt gets to the crux of his talk. Those of us who focus on the “care” (empathy) foundation of morality, often circle about it bonding with others like us, rejecting and denigrating the impulses and ideas that tend to drive those who are politically conservative. </p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/b86dzTFJbkc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>…</p>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>https://dangerousintersection.org/2014/10/31/why-there-are-not-any-civilizations-without-temples/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">27213</post-id> </item> <item> <title>Just Talkin’ Here</title> <link>https://dangerousintersection.org/2014/08/04/just-talkin-here/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=just-talkin-here&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=just-talkin-here</link> <comments>https://dangerousintersection.org/2014/08/04/just-talkin-here/#comments</comments> <dc:creator><![CDATA[Mark Tiedemann]]></dc:creator> <pubDate>Mon, 04 Aug 2014 13:32:54 +0000</pubDate> <category><![CDATA[Communication]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Community]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Cultural Evolution]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Culture]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Internet]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Language]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Media]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Social Media]]></category> <category><![CDATA[Writing]]></category> <category><![CDATA[featured]]></category> <guid isPermaLink="false">http://dangerousintersection.org/?p=27011</guid> <description><![CDATA[<p>A couple of decades of online conversation has revealed many things about our culture, about our selves. One is how little most of us seem to consider what we say before we say it. I recently saw the term “flaming” used in a description of certain problematic exchanges in a forum I till recently frequented. I’m sure it’s still in current usage, but I hadn’t thought of the term in some time because I long ago vacated forums and chatrooms where this was a common problem. One of the more congenial things about FaceBook is that while flaming (and trolling and all such related hate-baiting tactics) still happens, users aren’t locked into the thread where it occurs. With multiple conversations going on all the time among many different arrangements of “friends” it is not a problem requiring something like a nuclear option to deal with. You just stop commenting on a poisoned thread and move over to a new one, often with the same people. True, the flamer might move with you, but the mix-and-match nature of FaceBook makes this less convenient. Unlike a dedicated forum with a regular membership, etc. You can find one, filled with like minds and congenial conversation, which can run on for some time till one day someone you thought you “knew” (solely from the interactions in the forum) says something wholly baffling and even hurtful, but certainly unexpected and baiting. Or a new member shows up and after a few days or weeks turns …</p>]]></description> <wfw:commentRss>https://dangerousintersection.org/2014/08/04/just-talkin-here/feed/</wfw:commentRss> <slash:comments>1</slash:comments> <post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">27011</post-id> </item> </channel> </rss>