Bret Weinstein talk 

Answer

Bret Weinstein Talk

Project Title

Why do humans personify inanimate properties of the universe?

A Synopsis of the Project

The project focuses on addressing reasons why evolutionary biology remains stuck without progress. One of the areas of focus is the tendency of humans to personify inanimate properties associated with the universe, which is a frequently dismissed subject by biologists.

Explanation of the Goal of the Study

The goal of the study is to establish or determine why humans personify inanimate properties of the universe.

The Rationale Behind the Study

Evolutionary biology remains stuck when it comes to understanding human evolution owing to the fact that natural science often finds ways of stop addressing or talking about puzzles that are stuck, thereby resulting in an impression that such puzzles do not exist. To ensure progress in the field of evolutionary biologist in terms of new discovery, there is a significant need for the discipline to start focusing on addressing issues or puzzles that have long been discarded or considered non-existence. The tendency of humans to personify inanimate aspects of the universe happens to be among the puzzles that evolutionary biologists have ignored for a long time. Therefore, addressing this puzzle serves as a significant step towards accomplishing great strides or advancements in the field of evolutionary biology in relation to the comprehension of human evolution.

An Outline of the Methods Used

Assumptions of the Study

The methodology of the study is founded on five primary assumptions.  First, evolution does not adapt creatures to their environment, but instead adapts them to the environments of their ancestors.  Second, culture in itself is an evolutionary adaptation. Third, there is no hierarchy of cultures any more than there is a ladder of species. Fourth, the giant, massively cultural human brain had fully emerged approximately 200,000 years prior to the occurrence of farming to anyone. Fifth, the culture content has to be factually true for it to be adaptive.

Omega Principle

After laying out the principles upon which the study is founded, the researcher then proceeds to focus on the Omega Principle as guide to the study. This principle holds that epigenetic phenomena can be supposed to be serving genetic ends. The researcher then follows this step by presenting a four-part test for adaptation.

Four-Part Test for Adaption

This test states that if a trait possesses a recoverable expense, evolutionary persistence, variability in spent cost, and complexity then there is a justification for presuming its adaptive value. In relation to this, there is no need to know whether or not a trait is housed in a cultural layer, genetic layer, or somewhere between the cultural layer and genetic layer. The primary assumption is that trait within the cultural layer are serving genetic ends as established in the Omega Principle.

Thought Experiment

The next stage of the methodology is the presentation of a thought experiment. In this experiment, the researcher makes an imagination of a pre-farming humans being dropped into a modern city, purged of all contemporary people. Food is provided to these humans on a regular basis and all doors of the city locked. The researcher then asks what these pre-farming human would make of the modern city.

Description of the Results

The findings of the study are based on the questions asked about the thought experiments and are founded on the assumptions outlined in the methodology, omega principle, and the four-part test for adaptation. For instance, to respond to the query concerning how pre-farming humans would conceive or make of the contemporary city, the researcher talks about the experience of these humans with an elevator, and proceeds to make a case that the pre-farming humans would not know what happens in case they enter into the elevator, push a button, and it takes them to the eleventh floor. The researcher argues that these while these humans would eventually know how to operate the elevator, they would not figure out how it operates. The researcher then proceeds to state the features of the mysterious elevator and other encounters such as a fire prevention system in the modern city as perceived by the pre-humans. These features are mysterious in its underlying explanation, predictable in its behavior, and important not to offend it. The researcher then pauses to introduce the concept of literal falseness, which holds that the only adaptive concern is the utility of the adaptive behavior or resulting behavior, and that many false beliefs serve to generate fitness enhancing response.

People reason by metaphor and analogy. In relation to this, the researcher establishes that novel things function like things that are known. The researcher then proceeds to ask how the pre-farming humans in the modern city would analogize elevators and sprinklers. To answer this question, the researcher states that a tiny amount of force is employed in reaching the elevator by a mere pushing of a button, and that it does not matte the amount of force you apply on the button, as that does not make the elevator to arriver quicker. To the researcher, comprehending the operation of an elevator would be complex to a pre-farming human. For instance, such a human would not figure out a dam locating several miles away that helps in driving mortars that are used to generate electricity that powers the elevator. The researcher then provides an example of a horse as something the pre-farming humans would reach for that operates in the same way as an elevator. To the researcher, a horse can be set in motion by something akin to a button push. For example, a horse can be spooked and it runs off. The researcher then states that imaging a horse to be solar-powered would not provide an analogy that works. On the other hand, imagining horses as different kind of object in that they do not adhere to the normal physical laws would provide an immediate analogy that works and permits the encoding of aspects such as the behavior of an elevator, sprinkler system, and other aspects whose operation cannot be comprehended by a pre-farming human. In relation to this, the researcher proceeds to argue animism and eventually the belief in personified deities is an approximate heuristic built of the one thing in nature that functions so as to violate what seems like normal physical law. The researcher proceeds to state that people and animals act is ways that contradict physical systems. According to the researcher personality quirks abound and that people have a tendency of violating physical laws and can thus metaphorically stand in for “emergent” phenomena. 

Discussion of the Significance of the Results

The significance of the results of this study lies in the fact that they open a new debate in the field of evolutionary biology, especially when it comes to the focus of evolutionary biologists in the study of certain areas that have long being considered irrelevant. The reasons why humans always personify inanimate properties of the universe happens to be among the areas of study that have been neglected in evolutionary biology. Therefore, by revealing some critical findings in this area of research, the study served as a wakeup call to evolutionary biologists to begin pondering over and researching a plethora of areas that have been sidelined from research in the field of evolutionary biology.

The Next Steps in the Study

One of the significant areas of focus in the future studies should be the determination of whether or not epigenetic phenomena can be assumed to serve genetic ends. The findings in this area of study will mark a significant step towards the attainment of in-depth comprehension of the reasons why humans often personify inanimate properties associated with the universe.