I thought this book was pretty cool. Watch this review if you want to see me ramble about it for thirty minutes!
00:00 Introduction
03:56 You are not as smart as you think
10:45 Humans are social animals
14:32 How culture plays our genomes like a fiddle
19:27 How culture gaslights us
23:08 But why us???
28:58 Conclusion
#booktube #anthropology
source
"It is not good for man to be alone, let us make a helper fit for him."
I feel like a study setting apes to compete against literal, drooling toddlers might not be an accurate representation of human cognitive ability
Consider this video supported
Interesting, thanks.
To paraphrase a Harlan Ellison quote this type of content often makes me think of:
"Some dumbos used to say "Like, some people think really neat thunks in the sci-fi scene, but they're kinda ass at writing lol," and now those idiots gotta deal with sci-fi being ultra popular."
And I like this quote because it's happening again on youtube.
Sucks for so many to have to alter the formstting to adhere to some algorithm, glad to see that people still make stuff to put their thoughts out there.
This was super interesting! I just today watched a documentary about fungi where they discussed that one reason for our „startup“ might’ve been hallucinogenic mushrooms that grew in parts of Africa where our ancestors lived which basically enabled neuro pathways to form in our brain which enabled us to complicate communication. Like language and stuff. I’m not quite sure what to make of that theory but it’s really cool hearing even more about how we might have „started“! 😀 Thanks for the video, I’d love to see more like it!
I really hope he gets big someday so that I can keep watching these videos . I love deep breakdowns like this , though this wasn't that deep yet it was fun
For the first minute i thought this was another tomfoolery. Apparently not. My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined
It's amazing. please do more of everything you do and have a nice spicy dinner.
That Wiki definition starts from the wrong foundation. We are not just particularly clever apes. We are human beings, created in the image of God. That is the foundation from which to start.
Was that study done with chimps/orangutans and children who were the same age? How about doing the same study with chimps/orangutans and humans that are both at their full adult stage?
Wish this didn't include chewing.
I've always thought that if octopuses wrote things down, they'd be the dominant life form on this planet.
I love this, thank you so much. Please share more stuff like this, I've already borrowed the book from my library because of this video
TL;DR Natural selection doesnt just act on genes, but memes (in the generalized sense of cultural information that reproduces). Those memes which help their hosts survive the most get passed on.
Just by pure chance, people will come up with memes (e.g. nixtamalization) that'll help them survive, and therefore reproduce, which is why cultures dont necessarily need intrepid scientists coming up with new survival techniques.
Importantly, none of this requires the host of the meme to actually know why it works. Just as you dont need to know how cells to live, you dont need to know why you do some tradition to benefit from it.
This was nice, I love a good wholesome appreciation of evolutionary biology. Have you read The Social Leap by William Von Hippel or The Ape That Understood the Universe by Steve Stuart Williams? They first specifically references an instinctive team up mode humans have for things like launching volleys of rocks at lions as a team, and the second explores that concept you mentioned at the start of looking at humans from the perspective of an outgroup (some dumb culture war stuff in there too, but the book came out in 2018 so what ya gonna do?), but it's real magic is in the back 25% talking about mimetics and ideas experiencing Darwinian selection pressures.
What were some of the things you thought would be fun to include in your writing?
Will Wood said it, culture's not your friend
Calling homo sapien ape species makes more sense then Human so I get a massive secular bias from the person who wrote that bc you could use "person" or "being" as human feels more emotional and personal and psychological.
Great video. Check out 2 books, Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst, and Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, both by Robert Sapolsky, I think you'll like them.
Great review. The themes you outline here tie in very well with "the righteous mind" by Jonathan Haidt. Have you read it?
This was great, really wanna read that book, and hope you make more longer content like this!
Love these types of videos as well as the memes!
Your comments in your conclusion remind me that at the end of a lecture when everyone is visibly edging to pack up and leave, I love being the first person to put my laptop in my bag, and watch everyone else immediately do so as well
I quite enjoyed this review. Don´t know what it means in this context but I am a psychologist and many ideas mentioned remind me of another book. Richard Dawkins "The Selfish Gene". Might I intrest you in reading and reviewing it? It´s brilliantly written and quite a breeze to go through.
Keep up the good work. I love your Ideas/Memes. Maybe there is no meaning to the world but you can always find depth and wonder.
Id be curious to know if you've read Debt: the first 5000 years because the anthropological references and cultural propensities are adjacent to some of the ideas you touched on here/from the book in question.
Regarding your final thoughts on culture, morality, and evolution, you might be interested in Johnathan Haidt's stuff on evolutionary psychology and the origins of altruism.
I like your content a lot. Your fiction coverage is insightful and endearing, but I think your nonfiction breakdowns are outright fantastic. I watched this video yesterday and I listened to it again while playing Rogue Legacy just now. I am enamored with your content and riotously beg you to keep on keeping on.
You said you're in India? The mountains behind you look beautiful. I hope your trip goes well, friend.