Comments on: Chicken Soup for the Evolutionist’s Soul

By: fourcultures

fourcultures — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:47:53 +0000

I noticed that the econometric economist Ed Leamer has written a book for MBA students inspired by this quotation about pattern-seeking story telling animals and I wrote about it at Fourcultures. The book is sceptical of truth claims in economics and suggests that for this particular discipline, 'theory' is really just patterns and 'evidence' is better understood as stories. Where he diverges from Michael Shirmer is his claim that the question of true/false is trumped by the question of 'fit for purpose'.

By: J Pettibone

J Pettibone — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 19:24:42 +0000

Sorry: I’m late to the party here.

Are the examples really zero-sum? They exist in a closed system. For example: the vampire bat example is not really non-zero sum: While the bats are cooperating, the blood “donor” probably doesn’t see this as a positive outcome. By viewing only the bats, one has drawn a box around their environment.

By: TM Akashi

TM Akashi — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 05:10:11 +0000

Since Robert Wright gave his take on the meaning of life in Nonzero, and annick laporte seemed to have wanted the answer, here’s my take:

“The purpose of life is to help to have children and to help to raise them intelligently.”

In case you didn’t realize this, no one can have a child without someone else’s help. All we can do is to help to have children. This fits with the adage, “It takes a village to raise a child.” And if humans are sentient beings with a neo-cortex, then it seems reasonable to assume that raising children intelligently is part of our purpose. I think Mr. Shermer would agree that raising our children rationally and intelligently would be a most desirable goal. Because of the title of this thread, “Chicken Soup for the Evolutionist’s Soul”, I would like to add that it will take many generations of following this purpose, before we hopefully evolve enough to live and act more intelligently.

By: MaxD

MaxD — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 07:27:34 +0000

Didn’t Bill Clinton say this was one of the most important books he’d ever read?

By: annick laporte

annick laporte — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:28:07 +0000

Darn!
I haven’t believed in gods or psychic powers since I was a little kid, but for a moment there, just a moment, I felt that warmth, that velvet euphoria that comes with belief of a higher purpose. Until you turned the lights back on four paragraphs from the bottom, my mind had extinguished the lamp of reason to bask in the warm and fuzzies. Funny. I know many deeply religious people (and one UFO nut) and never thought I could step into such obvious traps. Thanks, Michael. Slightly bitter though the moment was, I would rather march forward in the light than stand still in the dark.