Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat Up Females, Increases Mating • Hacker News Board

Re: Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat Up Females, Increases Mating

#51

Post by lqdc13 » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 1:06 AM UTC

bitsandbeaches wrote: post #40

lqdc13 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now what is more human then - human body or that of an android? Of course android body. It doesn't matter that it is not innate because we weren't born with it. What matters is that we have consciously chosen to build it and replace our body. If you keep going with the theme of 'the changes we come up with are more human than what is innate', where does it end?

Certainly an android is more human - humans and only humans create those machines and make them a part of us. We could ask, was mowgli more human than all of the suited gentlemen in New York? Of course not. Mowgli was lesser human than them. Where does it end? Who knows? At this point, Isaac Asimov's The Last Question comes to my mind.

To me it's not at all "The Last Question", but more like The Matrix, where all human qualities are effectively inferior to those of machines.

Being human is not about being nice and living in harmony. It's about struggle and unfairness, compassion, competition, fights, power, tranquility, hate, love and war. I don't think there is anything rational or reasonable about it.

Ultimately, any sort of action increases entropy. So might as well enjoy it while it lasts instead of thinking of the greater good and how to force humans into this hegemony of cooperation and sustainability.

This is not to say that some of the more base instincts/behaviors shouldn't be squashed, but I think we should stop short of suppressing most of them.

Re: Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat Up Females, Increases Mating

#52

Post by stcredzero » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 1:48 AM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #48

stcredzero wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Our "natural" biological impulses are often incredibly destructive Tribalism is easily the most destructive of our impulses, especially in the way in which it can interact with ideology. Through ideology, such tribal impulses can camouflage their own effects and short circuit the "better angels of our nature" to excuse the dehumanization end even the slaughter of the out group. I think that's the last great barrier t…

Indeed. Nationalism, playing the man instead of the ball, blindness to hypocrisy because "the other side does it", whataboutery, and all round aversion to principles and reasoning. It long predates social media, but social media makes it worse, and the dilution of a basic consensus source of truth into fragmented tribe-truths - I don't know where it leads but it's not a good place. Soon, whatever deluded tribe gets t…

Soon, whatever deluded tribe gets their hands on the rudder will drive the ship of state until it hits the rocks of reality.

There's a word for this happening throughout human history. It's called "government."

Re: Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat Up Females, Increases Mating

#53

Post by antisthenes » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 2:28 AM UTC

lj3 wrote: post #50

sethbannon wrote: post #2

I look forward to the day a majority of people realize that our biology is, to a large extent, something to be overcome. Our "natural" biological impulses are often incredibly destructive, for both ourselves (e.g. sugar cravings) and for those around us (e.g. the impulses in this article).

> I look forward to the day a majority of people realize that our biology is, to a large extent, something to be overcome. I look forward to the day a majority of people realize that our biology is something that cannot be overcome. You work with mother nature or you get crushed by her. Those are the only choices available to us.

Even if you override the natural instincts, you have to replace them with some other form of behavior. There is no ideal set of behaviors, unless you strip all humanity from a species.

Once you overcome the 'hurdle' of 'undesirable' behaviors, you just adopt a new set of behaviors, which could be, in the long run, just as detrimental as the ones we have now.

I think Brave New World describes this quite well. The world where everyone is happy isn't necessarily the one that wouldn't be shocking to us in its behavioral patterns.

Re: Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat Up Females, Increases Mating

#54

Post by antisthenes » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 2:29 AM UTC

respiratory wrote: post #45

My long-term lover enjoys being slapped, choked, and generally degraded during sex. Doing these actions increases the amount of mating we indulge in. Through this effect, I too find myself conditioned to sexual arousal in these circumstances, noticeably increasing the extent of my tumescence. There are plenty of other females out there who desire similar treatment. Perhaps humans are not so different to baboons in th…

More than 50% of women have a rape fantasy[1], so...probably?

source:

[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19085605

Re: Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat Up Females, Increases Mating

#55

Post by qbrass » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 3:26 AM UTC

Fricken wrote: post #34

drewrv wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been thinking of this as a sci-fi concept recently. On Star Trek all the other races have this singular defining trait, vulcans are logical, klingons are warriors, ferengi are greedy. The defining trait of humans is going against their natural impulses. We evolved from violent savage apes yet strive toward peace. Some choose veganism. Others choose celibacy.

Wasn't Captain Kirk the one always going with his gut instinct? The Vulcans were once an extremely emotional and violent race. Their logical traits are the result of generations of disciplined mastery over their natural impulses.

McCoy was usually the one making the emotional appeal to the captain for the audience's sake. And humans in general were the emotional ones.

However, Kirk was supposed to be the moderate one that didn't give-way to pure logic or emotion and find the best solution somewhere in between. Which was the moral of the story of the week.

Re: Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat Up Females, Increases Mating

#56

Post by hou7 » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 5:39 AM UTC

stcredzero wrote: post #46

jrs95 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>If humankind ever destroys itself, in all likelihood, some group will have ideologically convinced itself that it should do so for some incredibly noble reasons. You mean like the people commenting here advocating replacing us with AI?

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-emotion-go... Pretty much anyone on the internet that gets traction is using outrage to spread their message. Since the emotions that cause viral spread on the internet are only outrage, lust, and awe, some huge whopping fraction of all communications on the internet through social media results in positions so extreme, someone eventually basically advocates destroyin…

Turn off the like/view/retweet counts or at least delay them and the outrage cycles can be slowed down and controlled. This will happen after some catastrophic event produced through uncontrolled fear mongering. As it is most country's are turning of the networks everytime a crisis happens. Its matter of time where there arises need for a global shutdown. And then the clowns in silicon valley will wake up and do it.

Re: Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat Up Females, Increases Mating

#57

Post by dwaltrip » Sat, Jul 08, 2017, 8:18 AM UTC

laretluval wrote: post #29

jacquesm wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The really frustrating part is that people that do not behave in a 'proper' way often seem to get way ahead in life. No such thing as a just world.

Almost as if the "proper" behavior isn't really optimal...

Perhaps the better conclusion is that the concepts of "proper behavior" or "optimal outcome" can often be misleading or ill-posed.

Re: Evolution of Sexual Intimidation: Male Baboons Beat Up Females, Increases Mating

#58

Post by oliv__ » Sun, Jul 09, 2017, 11:16 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #17

oliv__ wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we are already perfect.

Evolution does not strive for perfection, it is a utility function without so much as a moments pause for what you might think.

So what's our function?