Humanity: Does It Live in an Apple World or an IBM World?
I mentioned in my last post that I’ve recently been reading about evolutionary psychology. It, like most social sciences, seems to be a whole lot of words and arm-waving about relatively little beef in the bun.
What I did glean, however, is that there are two main camps in this relatively new field of study. The currently dominant camp believes that the behavior of humans, in all their glory as word-slinging animals extraordinaire, is largely shaped and ultimately determined by the culture outside of them. Call this the IBM model of human programming. The possibilities for human behavior are endless, as changing how people behave is only a matter of carrying out external programming.
On the other hand, on the basis of a few simple biological and basic evolutionary considerations, the minority camp thinks that human behavior is governed largely by their basic biological equipment (think “instincts” and remember your own adolescence if you have forgotten what those are). To a lesser extent human behavior is changed and governed by human problem-solving and human communication abilities. Call this the Apple model of human programming. Under this model, human behavior changes over time and space, sure, but only very slowly and only to a limited extent given the sea anchor of our basic biological equipment and its ontogeny.1
I’m guessing that the believers in the IBM model of things are going to eventually be lifted off the earth in some kind of rapture event (uploaded?), leaving the rest of humanity down here on the Earth doing pretty much the same things we and the rest of life have been doing in the dirt for the last 3.5 to 4.0 billion years.
For those who want to learn more about the ongoing controversy in psychology regarding the evolution and basis of human thought and culture, Leda Cosmides and her husband, John Tooby, provide a primer on the subject at this ResearchGate link.
Cosmides and Tooby are card-carrying members of the beefier minority.
Regarding that sea anchor, see https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2024/01/11/ancient-DNA/4491704996936/