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Carl Sagan wrote a book titled, "The Dragons of Eden", in which he speculated on how our brains evolved. He said they were three part (Triune, he called it.) First evolved the reptile ancestors brain. Then lower mammals. Then, higher thought; abstract thinking, etc. He also said that when stressed, people revert to reptilian thinking. They become control-freaks, anal, etc.
Boy, have I seen this in communities I've visited! I suspect some would attribute it to this: People fed up enough with the mainstream to up and leave it will be strrrrrreeeeeesed out folks.
How does this reptilian thinking manifest itself?
Fringe thinking. Extremist thinking. Lunatic fringe thinking.
Inordiante fear of dirt, chemicals, and the modern world.
Female fear of men, and all that is sexual.
Etc.
Trouble is, such thinking turns many off. Folks leave; turnover is high. Cliques of the disturbed form, and they view beliefs contrary to their own as heresy. (Go to a community and say genetically modified food is inevitable, unstoppable, and that totally opposing it is counterproductive. Or, turn the fan off in the outhouse on a hot summer day. Spray for bugs in the perpetually roach-infested kitchen. Etc.)
Anyway. That's all. I just see ghosts of our reptilian ancestors.
Boy, have I seen this in communities I've visited! I suspect some would attribute it to this: People fed up enough with the mainstream to up and leave it will be strrrrrreeeeeesed out folks.
How does this reptilian thinking manifest itself?
Fringe thinking. Extremist thinking. Lunatic fringe thinking.
Inordiante fear of dirt, chemicals, and the modern world.
Female fear of men, and all that is sexual.
Etc.
Trouble is, such thinking turns many off. Folks leave; turnover is high. Cliques of the disturbed form, and they view beliefs contrary to their own as heresy. (Go to a community and say genetically modified food is inevitable, unstoppable, and that totally opposing it is counterproductive. Or, turn the fan off in the outhouse on a hot summer day. Spray for bugs in the perpetually roach-infested kitchen. Etc.)
Anyway. That's all. I just see ghosts of our reptilian ancestors.
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Indianapolis
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Re: REPTILIAN THINKING
Tue, January 13, 2009 - 12:17 AMI don't really know any reptiles myself, seen some around but I haven't tried talking with them much so I don't know them.
I think it is a mistake to think of people as acting like reptiles or having reptilian brains. Mammals have shown themselves to do incredibly stupid things as well. Some mammals are more hostile than reptiles, some reptiles are very gentle.
Lemmings are mammals, and lemmings jump off cliffs into the sea. Humans so something fairly similar. Humans ignore the signs and keep heading down a path of mutual destruction. Lemmings at least have a chance of being able to swim across the ocean, while humans believe that that nuclear war won't happen even though war is extremely profitable and even though there as been a whole lot of extremely close calls with nuclear weapons.
It is not problems with the brain, it is badly designed decision making systems. Nature has much better examples of society, but we ignore them. Ants have the ultimate system of society, which has proven itself for 100 million years. Ants can do agriculture, that ought to mean something. No other animal other than humans can do agriculture. Ants have completely free individual thinking. No leader.
Sure ants have different brains, but ant brains work the same as human brains. The difference is ant brains are smaller. Ant brains can process complex thoughts and speech. Ant brains can't figure out how to do agriculture, yet ant society can. Think how much humans could accomplish if they used that type of society.
conceivia.com
Tony -
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Re: REPTILIAN THINKING
Tue, January 13, 2009 - 8:05 AMYou need to consider the source on this one, guys. Sagan was a cosmologist/astronomer/astrophysicist at Cornell, NOT a biologist. The reptilian brain is concerned with only a few important things: eating, temperature maintenance, and procreation. Eating allows the metabolism of a reptile to 'catch up' to a particular level of movement induced by heat (ever notice how lizards and snakes speed up in the summer?). Temperature maintenance means that they need to have their blood at a warm enough temperature for movement. They are cold-blooded.
Humans, like mammals, possess the ability to PLAY. With some mammals, it's deadly serious...testing out those fangs before using them on prey. With others, it's simply having fun....like a sea otter sliding down ice to end up in a lake or the sea itself. Mammals also have the capacity to take care of their young after birth. Cooperation in mammals is not limited to humans....wolves and jackals do it when chasing down their prey.
The ability to think independently and make choices, however, is unique to humans. If a human makes a bad choice, it has the potential to affect many others around it. Not that it always does, but it can. The converse of making a good choice is also true. -
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Re: REPTILIAN THINKING
Thu, January 15, 2009 - 12:50 AMSnakes have fangs, and snakes are reptiles.
I also disagree that "The ability to think independently and make choices, however, is unique to humans."
To an extent all animals and insects have that ability. Also, even humans only have that ability to an extent. For the most part, humans like all animals and insects, do what those around them do. The music people listen to is decided by those around them. The cloths they wear is decided by those around them. The way people think and the things they believe in are decided by those around them.
Some have a much greater ability to be independent in thinking than others, in humans, animals, and insects. Some lead the way into new ways of thinking, new ways of living, new foods to eat, new ways of dressing, and new music to listen to. Some accept new ways quicker than others as well.
There is really almost nothing totally unique of humans. Accept the fact that humans are animals, and you'll be better off.
If you are looking for something that makes humans what we are, two possibilities are society and communication. Many animals can communicate though, and actually having society is probably what makes them develop the ability to communicate, so it is probably all a matter of society.
Ants also have society, and ants also communicate, but then again, ants also know how to do various forms of agriculture, raising plants, fungi and various livestock. Since ants are of extremely low intelligence, I believe that means that ant society is vastly superior to human society. Since ants are not destroying the environment, and since no one complains about the over population of ants, which has maintained about 60 billion pounds for 60 million years, I'd say their society is superior. Since ants do not destroy their food sources, and they do not have poverty, I'd say their society is superior. In short, ant society has none of the problems we are facing in human society, yet ant society has all the advantages.
That is why I believe we can design a human society based on ant society, and end global warming, peak oil, and poverty and in short save mankind. conceivia.com
Tony
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Re: REPTILIAN THINKING
Tue, January 13, 2009 - 10:03 AMmakes me think of David Icke.
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Re: REPTILIAN THINKING
Thu, January 22, 2009 - 9:48 AMI think that there are certain stereotypes in all communities of people. There's always a control freak who, afraid of chaos, tries to impose structure and order. -
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Re: REPTILIAN THINKING
Fri, January 23, 2009 - 8:30 PMI think it is all about the belief systems we hold. What are the reasons we believe the way we do? Chaos is nothing to be afraid of. It is the Tao. It is where we are from. Without the belief systems that we presently have, we would simply not exist in this form or even at all for that matter. The beliefs that we hold and that our parents and grandparents held have pulled the chaos together into the forms that we are and see everyday in the world around us. We see what those before have seen because of the connection physically and psychicly.
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