Curt Doolittle

Category: Human Behavior and Cognitive Science

  • AND OTHER TRAITS We rarely are this honest about ourselves. And fail to grasp th

    http://lb-stage.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2013/07/chinas-marriage-market?fsrc=rssHYPERGAMY AND OTHER TRAITS

    We rarely are this honest about ourselves. And fail to grasp the role of property rights in reproduction. We were right, they copied us.

    The other asian difference thats interesting is their concept of harmony vs our concept of equality. They are right. We used to be like them.

    Their use of verbs and ours of nouns. Looks like science favors particularists and we are right.

    Their use of lies, deception, and delay, and our use of truth and conflict to resolve problems quickly. We are right because of the external consequences if deception.

    They have no illusion about the nature of man. We have confused the ideal that we aspire to with the factual nature of man. Both of us have failed in this respect.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-16 03:17:00 UTC

  • BRAVADO Funny. Lots of posturing males in the States. Depends on class and area.

    BRAVADO

    Funny. Lots of posturing males in the States. Depends on class and area. Seattle always seemed so civilized to me compared to the rather barbaric east coast. But then, it never had the race and culture integration problems we did in the eastern cities.

    Russian and Ukrainian men are really interesting. Not a lot of time for posturing. Low barrier to ‘punching in the face’. Happens absurdly fast. First hint of threat. None of this holding and wrestling and resisting thing. Just knuckles and jaws. Lots of knockouts. No beating while he’s down.

    (I live above a pub.)

    Very polite society really.

    I love the men here. Life has such ‘clarity’. 🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-14 20:02:00 UTC

  • CORRECT PALEO DIET EPISTEMOLOGY It isn’t that our bodies haven’t evolved very qu

    CORRECT PALEO DIET EPISTEMOLOGY

    It isn’t that our bodies haven’t evolved very quickly under agrarianism.

    Paleo is a rule of thumb for avoiding complex fats and sugars.

    Criticism of paleo on evolutionary grounds is as absurd as defending it in evolutionary grounds.

    Net is that if you eat Paleo you are just eating fewer things that are bad for you.

    Misapplication if the logic of evolution both in support and criticism is particularly ironic for some reason or another. 😉

    Its amazing so few of us still think the world is flat. :/

    Its hopeless really. The enlightenment was at best a marginal improvement.

    Sigh.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-13 08:44:00 UTC

  • IS HAVING BABIES? It’s obvious

    http://jaymans.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/whos-having-the-babies/WHO IS HAVING BABIES?

    It’s obvious.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-12 20:19:00 UTC

  • “fluid tests are more reflective of cognitive processes while crystallized tests

    “fluid tests are more reflective of cognitive processes while crystallized tests are more reflective of acquired skills and knowledge. “

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-11 20:44:00 UTC

  • THE PROBLEMATIC QUESTION: With the death of the nuclear family as an economicall

    THE PROBLEMATIC QUESTION:

    With the death of the nuclear family as an economically productive necessity, and reproduction under complete control of the female, and in a technological environment where survivability is high, life is long, and overpopulation places extraordinary stress on the planet, does a woman have the right to reproduce at the expense of others, and in particular at the reproductive sacrifice of others?

    Like Camus’ first question of philosophy, this is the first question of redistributive government.

    (The first question of politics is why don’t I kill you and take your stuff? The first question of philosophy is why don’t you commit suicide?)

    Painful question. But one must answer it. Otherwise all redistributive questions are meaningless.

    🙂

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-11 05:53:00 UTC

  • NON RATIONAL IDEAS “If you persist in the illusion that either the enlightenment

    NON RATIONAL IDEAS

    “If you persist in the illusion that either the enlightenment vision of equality of ability limited only by will, or the postmodern vision of equality limited only by environment, then you are, in fact, non-rational, unscientific. “

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-10 09:25:00 UTC

  • Любовь — это соревнование между мужчиной и женщиной за то, чтобы доставить друго

    Любовь — это соревнование между мужчиной и женщиной за то, чтобы доставить другому как можно больше счастья

    Стендаль

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-09 11:48:00 UTC

  • DOMINANCE IN THE FACE OF IGNORANCE – REASON IS DISCOUNTED BY TIME 1) Dominance i

    DOMINANCE IN THE FACE OF IGNORANCE – REASON IS DISCOUNTED BY TIME

    1) Dominance is both useful and necessary in the face of ignorance. Nurture is extremely slow and expensive. A parent is not sacrificing when nurturing as he or she is perpetuating his or her genes. Everyone else pays a cost. They are sacrificing something else that they could do in order to nurture. So they are selective with their investments. And most of us make small bets on many different options in the hope that we find a few investments worth making.

    2) It is helpful to possess 6 or 7 points of IQ difference in communication (1/2 standard deviation). It is valuable to possess as much as 15 points, in order to translate complex concepts into digestible form (one standard deviation). But at 30 points (two standard deviations) we are effectively different species, and communication begins to be impossible on anything other than sensory grounds. Compassion is possible across the gulf, but argument is not.

    3) Since demonstrated intelligence consists of four basic properties 1) g, (an aggregate), 2) short term memory, 3) general knowledge, and 4) biases and wants, and because general knowledge conveys patterns that IQ alone could not identify on its own, accumulating vast knowledge will compensate considerably for (g) – (the Flynn effect of scientific knowledge for example.) The only way to accumulate this knowledge given our pervasive ignorance is through skeptical empiricism (science), or what this group refers to as critical rationalism (which is a weak term compared to skeptical empiricism, and why Taleb is an improvement on, via expansion, Popper and Kuhn.)

    4) It is a work of ‘fraud’ to claim that it is a moral obligation for anyone to invest time in anyone else without compensation in exchange. It’s just a another form of theft. Only with exchange do we know we have not wasted our time and the world’s resources. And only with voluntary exchange do we know that no one is stealing from another. Only with exchange do we know we are not contributing to ill manners. In debate we exchange our efforts in the hope that we will learn, the same way boxers practice fighting in the ring, fencers on the pisté, or orators on the stage. And that is compensation enough – it is a cheap price of entry for the richest competition man has yet made outside of war.

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-08 07:24:00 UTC

  • INCREASE IN FEMALE INFIDELITY? 😉

    http://theweek.com/article/index/246421/do-better-jobs-lead-more-wives-to-cheat40% INCREASE IN FEMALE INFIDELITY?

    😉

    Source date (UTC): 2013-07-07 15:40:00 UTC