A Conservative Policy Solution to Slow Down Climate Change?

[7Wannabe5]

Actually, it’s even more complex than that model because humans have externalized digestive system complexity in favor of brain complexity. So, complexity of wood burned to cook seal or barley or depreciation of complexity of Potato chip factory would also have to be included in system.

[Alphaville]

depreciation of complexity of Potato chip factory

potato chip factory is the death of potato complexity



mmmm, mashed papa amarilla... wish i could get that here...

[7Wannabe5]

Yeah, follows that eating factory potato chips leads to diminishment of human complexity compared to Ice Age guy found with 30 different species in his belly. Also probably analogous to how domesticated animals average 1/3 less brain weight than their wild ancestors. Also why anything resembling foraging is fun activity.

[Hristo Botev]

This growing tendency towards assortative mating in the U.S. is a huge change from mid-20th century when there was MUCH less correlation, likely because people married earlier and made decision more heavily weighted towards sexual attraction rather than educational or career success attainment. Luckily, although IQ is partially heritable, it is also quite sporty (will frequently pop up unexpectedly), or results of meritocracy would be even worse.

I remember reading about this in, I think, one of Ross Douthat's books--maybe his most recent about decadence. In anecdotal terms (which are what I rely on to understand concepts), it's that executives don't really marry their secretaries anymore (actually, most executives don't even have secretaries anymore). With a 2-income household, there's naturally more of an emphasis on marrying someone of a similar educational/career prospect level. And while there are certainly pros to this kind of emphasis, there are lots of cons as well.

[jacob]

Ditto domesticated humans ... OTOH, brain weight isn't everything, apparently. It is interesting to realize just how far back the progress trap goes.

[7Wannabe5]

Yeah docility in an adult human usually correlates directly with stupidity. OTOH, civility in an adult human usually correlates directly with intelligence and outsourcing violence. OTOOH, feigned docility in an adult human might also correlate directly with intelligence, see B’rer Rabbit, Tom Sawyer, Moll Flanders, etc.

BTW, I just read that Google’s AI solved the protein folding problem. Any day now...

[Jean]

Yeah, follows that eating factory potato chips leads to diminishment of human complexity compared to Ice Age guy found with 30 different species in his belly. Also probably analogous to how domesticated animals average 1/3 less brain weight than their wild ancestors. Also why anything resembling foraging is fun activity.

I would have said anything resembling hunting.
My brother (a cop) once said something alike :"i'de rather be hunthing mamoth, but they are gone, so i'll take your driver license"

My long canceled favorite youtuber spent a lot of time comparing wild animals (including humans) with their domesticated variant. I cannot say if i agreed because he was right, or because of my archaic features.
The only way to get back to hunting, is to be able to defend a hunting territory with only the ressources that hunting on it provides.
Or to be granted this privilege (like natives in canada) by an entity that control this territory with other ressources.
If everyone had this pursuit, climate change would be solved. And one could argue that reverting to paleolithic is extremely conservative.

[7Wannabe5]

Foraging and hunting both offer primitive thrills. I think the main difference is something like relative dopamine vs testosterone and whether visual center is more sensitive to color vs movement. One of the reasons I love gardening is that you can set your own stage for high bliss foraging experience. Department store shopping is just too easy.

Good point that you would have to defend hunting territory with only resources found/made on hunting territory. Only other functional model would require slipping through the net of dominance. For instance, the woman I read about in a book on suburban foraging by a writer for Outdoors magazine. She would simply sneak up and choke Canada geese in an urban park setting and then hide them in a bag while riding on the bus. I wish I was that brave.

[Alphaville]

nomadism and adventure also offer primitive thrills and it’s more fun to track the herds than stay put in the same old damn patch.

reconsidering something i said above to @hb: while my wife did feel homesick for new mexico my personal payoff coming here was “let’s go see what’s out there!”

i come from a long line of nomads. it’s hardwired.

[Hristo Botev]

Re: Canadian goose strangling, a little while ago I heard of a fancy, farm-to-table type restaurant that had a good bit of social media cancelling-type blowback because, after hours, some restaurant employees had nailed a small dead animal skin/carcass to a board outside next to the on-site veggie garden--either because they were just being stupid, or because they thought it might scare away veggie garden intruders, or some combination of both. The dead animal was likely one the restaurant had ordered from a local farm, skinned on site, and then used in dishes at the restaurant (it's that kind of restaurant). Anyway, my initial reaction to your Canadian goose-strangling woman was to think: "Oh my that's so cruel." But then I realized I was being just as compartmentalized and naive in my thinking as all those people who got SO upset on social media about the "cruelty" of what the restaurant workers had done--many swearing they would NEVER eat at the restaurant again.

Anyway, not sure what the direct link is to the stated topic; perhaps this belongs more on @alphaville's food and CC thread--but, seems related.

[Alphaville]

Anyway, not sure what the direct link is to the stated topic; perhaps this belongs more on @alphaville's food and CC thread--but, seems related.

hah, yeah, gets confusing, we were talking housing in the food one, idk where we @ anymore.

-

i always thought if i became homeless i’d get a slingshot & eat winged rat.

[Hristo Botev]

Well, DD is learning about ecosystems in school and she asked me for an explanation of what that means. My explanation involved linking humans, our food consumption, our energy consumption, our housing, and our waste management practices; so, there you go. Probably not the explanation she was looking for, but, that's what happens when you ask your conservative hippy dad (Birkenstocked Burkean) for an example of an ecosystem.

ETA: Ha! I knew I'd heard that expression somewhere before: https://www.nationalreview.com/2002/07/ ... od-dreher/