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Homo Sapiens Quotes

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Homo Sapiens Quotes

“Como en el resto de las tendencias destructivas, el hecho de que el empleo del maltrato tenga una lógicas adaptativa subyacente no significa que debamos aceptarlo, desearlo o descuidar su erradicación. Por el contrario, una mayor comprensión de la lógica que subyace a tales tácticas y de los contextos en que se producen puede llevar a métodos más eficaces para reducirlas o eliminarlas.”

“Evolutionary mismatch may occur when an evolved mechanism encounters a novel environmental context that falls outside of the range that was recently encountered over its evolutionary history (the EEA or environment of evolutionary adaptation). In the new context, a functional mechanism can give rise to maladaptive outcomes or even induce dysfunctions in other mechanisms.”

“In modern societies, for example, the media expose people to a relentless stream of images of unrealistically attractive "competitors" -an artificial, evolutionarily novel kind of social stimulus. It has been hypothesized that such exposure hyperactivates the evolved mechanisms that regulate female competition for attractiveness and status, thus contributing to the rising incidence of eating disorders.”

“For instance, people who form early representations of the world as dangerous or uncontrollable may become anxious and start avoiding situations that they perceive as threatening. Avoidance is usually an adaptive response to danger; in this case, however, it prevents anxious individuals from learning that the environment is actually safer than they believe, thus locking them in a state of exaggerated anxiety. Even if such catastrophic failures of learning mechanisms are statistically rare, they can be highly maladaptive for the individuals who experience them.”

“Defensive mechanisms can make two symmetric kinds of mistakes: they can fail to activate in the presence of a threat (false negatives) or become activated when no threat is present (false positives). Even when defenses are functional and optimally calibrated, errors cannot be completely avoided; given the tradeoffs between the costs of different types of errors, the smoke detector principle suggests that defensive systems should typically evolve to commit more false positives than false negatives.”

“Research from Baton and Konner in 1985 and Cordain et al. in 2000 estimated that about 65 per cent of the diets of pre-agricultural Palaeolithic humans may still have come from plants – far more than only your recommended five fruit and veg a day, I would say. Interestingly, anatomically modern humans are believed to have more copies of the starch-digesting genes than the Neanderthals and the Denisovans (another extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle palaeolithic), suggesting that the ability to digest starch has been a continuous driver through human evolution as much as walking upright, having big brains and articulate speech - perhaps being a baker may be the oldest profession after all.”

“We are now accelerating towards probably the most important moment in the entire history of Earth, comparable in significance only to the emergence of life itself on this planet -- the Technological Singularity, Intelligence Supernova, the Omega Point of Homo sapiens, progressively morphing into one Global Mind. This 'cosmic event' would mark the end of human era, as we are to inexorably transcend our animal biology, and even more importantly, we are to transcend our limited dimensionality. History is, after all, 'a shockwave of eschatology' in the words of McKenna.”

“Tan solo el ser humano podía concebir el potro de torturas, la doncella de hierro y el aplastapulgares. Tan solo el ser humano hará sufrir únicamente por el gusto de hacer sufrir. Esta es la mejor definición del mal que he sido capaz de formular. Los animales son incapaces de hacer algo así, pero los humanos, con sus atroces capacidades de semidioses, sí que pueden.”

“En resumen, la mayoría de los hombres -sin religión- comparten aún pseudo religiones y mitologías degradadas. Cosa que en nada nos asombra, desde el momento en que el hombre profano es el descendiente del homo religiosus y no puede anular su propia historia, es decir, los comportamientos de sus antepasados religiosos, que lo han constituido tal como es hoy día.”

“Food processors, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, and clothes-washing machines have substancially lessened the physical activity required to cook and clean. Air conditioners and central heating have decreased how much energy our bodies spend to maintain a stable body temperature. Countless other devices, such as electric can openers, remote controls, electric razors and suitcases on wheels, have reduced, calorie by calorie, the amount of energy we expend to exist.”

“Homo sapiens have explored many ages: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age and, as of late, the Industrial Age, of which we have only tried for a couple hundred years. Before we seemingly dive headfirst into a Digital, Automated or Artificial Age, we are in desperate need of an Age of Reflection.”

“Es apasionante darnos cuenta de que, al igual que nosotros, las estrellas, las galaxias y el mismo universo son dinámicos y cambiantes, y evolucionan a su propio ritmo y manera, y de que la mente humana sea capaz, desde su limitado espacio y durante su corto transcurso, de preguntarle y arrancarle al universo un puñado de sus más íntimos secretos.”

“In short, the Industrial Revolution was actually a combination of technological, economical, scientific and social transformations that rapidly and radically altered the course of history and reconfigured the face of the planet in less than ten generations -a true blink of an eye by the standards of evolutionary time.”

“Humans became able to move much more freely through the landscape because their support networks were more stable over time. These supportive relations between groups made it possible for sapiens to colonize forbidding environments with very limited foods supplies, supporting only very small residential groups. A band of a family or two would not be stable over the long term, without support from a wider network. While small groups can penetrate harsher environments, they need social risk management. They need to be able to reconnect at times of need.”

“Our deep-time ancestors very likely had the genetic resources needed for formal quantitative reasoning, but without the cultural invention of numerals and a umber line, those resources could not be exploited. The same may be true of language. The central role of cultural learning in the construction and transmission of language (qua social phenomenon) is enough to show that the use of language depends on cultural scaffolds, not just appropriate genetic potential.”

“Nosotros evolucionamos a partir de comedores de fruta arborícolas - de ahí nuestros ojos frontales, nuestra visión de color y nuestras manos prensoras-, pero nuestro tamaño y nuestras aptitudes especiales nos confieren un porte depredador. Probablemente es por esto por lo que nos llevamos tan bien con nuestras mascotas favoritas, que son dos carnívoros peludos.”

“Quienes no se emparejan no se convierten en antepasados. Cada ser humano, por lo tanto, desciende de una línea larga e ininterrumpida de otros que se emparejaron con éxito a lo largo de millones de años. Si uno de nuestros antepasados no hubiera conseguido salvar los complejos obstáculos que supone el emparejamiento, no estaríamos vivos para reflexionar sobre tales hechos improbables.”

“The missing link between animals and the real human being is most likely ourselves”. Konrad Lorenz “Nothing exists except atoms and space; everything else is opinion”. Democritus of Abdera “The simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is a powerful source of creativity”. Edward de Bono.”