I had a moment when I was writing my book that made me feel important but also small at the same time.
My parents, grandparents, great grandparents, are an uninterrupted line going all the way back to the first single celled organism on earth.
I'm carrying the torch as the avatar of this inheritance, but part of my job is passing the torch to my son, who will hopefully go on to sire a long line of his own.
So many things you don't realize are part of that inheritance. You're scared of things because your grandparents were scared of those same things and survived where others did not. You like certain things because your grandparents liked those same things and survived where others did not. A multi-billion year line of winners, passing forgotten knowledge to you through your DNA.
Suddenly I realize my generation really needs to understand stuff like this more. So nihilistic (in the sense of no value, reason, or sense) when reality is the opposite of nihilistic. Just being alive today is something unimaginable.
My parents, grandparents, great grandparents, are an uninterrupted line going all the way back to the first single celled organism on earth.
I'm carrying the torch as the avatar of this inheritance, but part of my job is passing the torch to my son, who will hopefully go on to sire a long line of his own.
So many things you don't realize are part of that inheritance. You're scared of things because your grandparents were scared of those same things and survived where others did not. You like certain things because your grandparents liked those same things and survived where others did not. A multi-billion year line of winners, passing forgotten knowledge to you through your DNA.
Suddenly I realize my generation really needs to understand stuff like this more. So nihilistic (in the sense of no value, reason, or sense) when reality is the opposite of nihilistic. Just being alive today is something unimaginable.
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It isn't either/or.
It's undeniable that our DNA is key to fear on some level. Without your DNA, it's impossible to feel fear, since it's something inherited by being human. It's a part of your brain. Moreover, there are fears that children have before they have enough exposure to a culture to learn they're supposed to be afraid. Loud noises, heights, strangers, and separation from parents. They're innate.
On the other hand, obviously some fears couldn't possibly be written into our DNA because things we're afraid of didn't exist on evolutionary timelines. A good example is fears about new technologies and their impact on individuals or society. We know you can train people to be afraid of something through direct action or through society.
So I think it's fair to say that our mental landscape is built on a combination of the reality of ourselves as embodied humans with a brain built through evolution, and the reality that our brains wire themselves in response to the world around us.
That being said, I think there's a lot of things where we're more afraid or less afraid of certain things because we're predisposed through our genetics. For example, some people have hypothesized that some fundamental fears we have as adults are heightened by an innate predilection. In particular, the fear of being rejected, particularly by members of the opposite sex, is so intense it can't be explained by mere societal conditioning. There's a voice telling us that if we're rejected by our tribe, that's a death sentence -- even though in our modern society that simply isn't the case and in fact our entire culture is opposed to that notion. As an example in the opposite direction, we are wired to worry about urgent imminent threats, but we don't worry nearly as much about things that may be just as dangerous but only on a longer time horizon. So for example, a gradually worsening financial condition can be a fundamental existential threat, but we're not wired to worry about it until it's an imminent and urgent problem, which might explain the massive debt burdens people likely can't ever pay back on average and how people don't seem to change their habits despite that.
Neurology and genetics and epigenetics are all almost infinitely complicated when combined together. It's incredible.
It's undeniable that our DNA is key to fear on some level. Without your DNA, it's impossible to feel fear, since it's something inherited by being human. It's a part of your brain. Moreover, there are fears that children have before they have enough exposure to a culture to learn they're supposed to be afraid. Loud noises, heights, strangers, and separation from parents. They're innate.
On the other hand, obviously some fears couldn't possibly be written into our DNA because things we're afraid of didn't exist on evolutionary timelines. A good example is fears about new technologies and their impact on individuals or society. We know you can train people to be afraid of something through direct action or through society.
So I think it's fair to say that our mental landscape is built on a combination of the reality of ourselves as embodied humans with a brain built through evolution, and the reality that our brains wire themselves in response to the world around us.
That being said, I think there's a lot of things where we're more afraid or less afraid of certain things because we're predisposed through our genetics. For example, some people have hypothesized that some fundamental fears we have as adults are heightened by an innate predilection. In particular, the fear of being rejected, particularly by members of the opposite sex, is so intense it can't be explained by mere societal conditioning. There's a voice telling us that if we're rejected by our tribe, that's a death sentence -- even though in our modern society that simply isn't the case and in fact our entire culture is opposed to that notion. As an example in the opposite direction, we are wired to worry about urgent imminent threats, but we don't worry nearly as much about things that may be just as dangerous but only on a longer time horizon. So for example, a gradually worsening financial condition can be a fundamental existential threat, but we're not wired to worry about it until it's an imminent and urgent problem, which might explain the massive debt burdens people likely can't ever pay back on average and how people don't seem to change their habits despite that.
Neurology and genetics and epigenetics are all almost infinitely complicated when combined together. It's incredible.