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180: Subjective experiences, Downsides of overshooting evolutionary advantage

180: Subjective experiences, Downsides of overshooting evolutionary advantage

FromBeat Your Genes Podcast


180: Subjective experiences, Downsides of overshooting evolutionary advantage

FromBeat Your Genes Podcast

ratings:
Length:
47 minutes
Released:
Aug 1, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

Dr. Lisle goes in depth about why nature has selected for subjective experiences. 

The question is as follows:

What is your take on why a subjective experience would have been selected for, as opposed to animals simply being like machines with no subjective experience inside?  More importantly, what is your take on how a subjective experience can possibly be created in the mind? How could neurons firing create a personal experience?

Next, he tackles this broad few questions:

Why were we given the intellectual capacity to overshoot our evolutionary advantage and create inventions that cause our demise? 

Why would our minds become so advanced to create a world where we live with and around multiple pleasure traps daily, where even the strictest, most conscientious of us will fall prey to decision fatigue and give in to a few of these traps, thus affecting our happiness? Why do they have the capacity to do this? It seems as though we would have been happier animals as a species with a little less intellect.
Released:
Aug 1, 2019
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

Let's look at life through the lens of our ancestors. Our instincts were shaped by their struggles in an environment much different than our current environment. Our instincts haven't changed much but our environment has changed dramatically. We blend the science of evolutionary psychology with the clinical experience of Doug Lisle, PhD to explore common problems and stumbling points in our pursuit of happiness. New episodes come out Wednesdays at 8:30 PST. If you have a question or comment, or maybe even a complicated situation that you'd like some advice on, feel free to call us and leave a voicemail at (714) 900-2601 or send in a question through www.BeatYourGenes.org