1. Human beings are created to not to be too creative
--> too strong enterpreneurialship is not encouraged.
2. We are creating so many new things that today's world is so diversified, but not just a big variety.
-->what about the source for the innovation in societal forms? why is there such a diversity of societies? what are the biological references of social revolution into the division of collective and individualistic societies?
3. Nature doesnt make leaps. The inetia of status quo is because the status quo is already adapted.
4. There prevails the diverged evolution:
-->biological (slow and hence habitual acts prevail-bees and me story
-->cultural (fast and human beings are the ones who create new environment)
As a result, problems emerge due to the discrepancy of the two, for instance, biological sweet teeth to distinguish good fruits and bad ones, however meaningless man-made sugar food.
5. The best guarantee we have, is still that there is no guarantee of eternity.
--> what are progresses for? getting closer to the end? shouldn't we then slow down the process of progressing?
6. Human beings have developed the ever-increasing powerful violence and efficient killing means, unlike the poisonous snakes not hurting each other.
7. Human beings are biologically endowed to be bad at dealing with slow growing big problems, however good at fast obvious small problems to respond, to react and adjust; and we are not good at killing with our own bodies which accounts for the outstanding functioning of the brain.
--> Are institutions today actually lowering our adaptive capability as everything is too well taken care of by the institutions?
8. Size of the brain only matters cross-species, not within. The bigger the brain, the more social the species is. Monkeys, for instance, also tend to choose the "best cooperator".
9. Consciousness is one of the evolutionary result of human beings: to be aware of the awareness of the surroundings and to reflect actively. "if i see it, i would know it. If it smells bad, it is bad."-by human judges. On the contrary, dogs are very alert, but not aware.
-->where does consciousness come from? maybe like enough H2Os makes wetness, enough nerves cell makes conciousness.
10. what are the functions of conciousness: 1. self-reflection quality to rationalize (i want to, but i cannot-however, the pursuit of perfection is ultimately evolutionary given the more sophisticated rule of competition for survival of human beings) 2. externalization of problems in order to solve it. (all kinds of tests and experiments) 3. we are hopeful monsters, however, big ideas tend to be wrong.
11. What if we could see how others see us? that is why we need to put ourselves in others' shoes.
-->Game theory means that your payoff not only depend on your own actions, but also others' and hence it requires the evolutionary development of our anticipation ability.
12. why is it more difficult to toiletry children than cats and dogs? because we evolve from the trees.
13. Altruism is ultimately biologically selfish. Kindness only happens by manipulation.
14. What is the group's effect on creativity?
15. Why do human beings keep learning?
16. What is the link among instinct, intuition, consciousness and creativity? (Blink)
-->Intuition is not always good. Look at Bush administration's reliance on intutions and its decision makings in absence of important information.
17. Other species got distinct because of the environmental change, but we human beings are taking the initiative of changing the environment, wouldnt it cause the danger of ruining ourselves instead of prolonging our civilization?
18. What is the nobelity in the pursuit of perfection?
next masterclass: http://www-psych.stanford.edu/~dweck/ Carol Dweck -the psychology of success
