Why sex, food, and shelter aren’t enough for Homo Sapiens | Agustín Fuentes
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- čas přidán 26. 07. 2024
- This interview is an episode from @The-Well, our publication about ideas that inspire a life well-lived, created with the @JohnTempletonFoundation.
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What is the capacity for belief in humans, and how does it shape our lives and interactions with the world? According to Agustín Fuentes, a professor of anthropology at Princeton University and author of Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being, the human capacity for belief is the most significant trait that sets us apart from other animals.
This capacity for belief, which importantly is not limited to religious belief, allows us to take our experiences and turn them into perceptions, ideologies, and lifestyles to which we can fully commit - thereby shaping our reality and the reality of future generations.
At its core, Fuentes explains, human belief is rooted in, and contingent on, our evolutionary history. Unlike other mammals, human infants are born with brains that are just 40% of their adult size. This extended childhood allows for constant social and environmental influence, which become the fabric of our being. Beliefs even influence our biological make-up, from our gut microbiome to our hormones.
0:00 Why are humans so complicated?
1:16 Human baby vs. giraffe baby (aka the human brain is an anomaly)
2:18 How belief becomes reality
3:52 The religion question
5:25 When realities collide
Read the video transcript ► bigthink.com/the-well/evoluti...
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About Agustín Fuentes:
Agustín Fuentes, a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, focuses on the biosocial, delving into the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. Earning his BA/BS in Anthropology and Zoology and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, he has conducted research across four continents, multiple species, and two-million years of human history. His current projects include exploring cooperation, creativity, and belief in human evolution, multispecies anthropologies, evolutionary theory and processes, and engaging race and racism. Fuentes’ books include Race, Monogamy, and other lies they told you: busting myths about human nature (U of California), The Creative Spark: how imagination made humans exceptional (Dutton), and Why We Believe: evolution and the human way of being (Yale).
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Read more from The Well:
How saying “me” or “we” changes your psychological response - and the response of other people
► bigthink.com/the-well/pronoun...
Biology’s unsolved chicken-or-egg problem: Where did life come from?
► bigthink.com/the-well/biology...
Why has every postwar generation since the 1950s become less religious?
► bigthink.com/the-well/postwar...
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Can you think of a way we can ensure more harmony in a world of conflicting beliefs?
Updating our social code (Like the 10 commandments perhaps) by taking a hard look at who we are today and disregarding ideas that don't serve us (due to new technologies for example) or abuse us (generational abuse).
Yes
Reduce the population to something reasonable.
What’s reasonable?
Best figure that out before the guns of war
determine it for us.
I enjoyed your book, ‘Creative Spark'
Enlightenment.
Good ways to increase harmony are to increase standards of living as well as levels of education. Part of our problem is that very few people are properly equipped with robust critical thinking skills and the ability to examine their own beliefs for accuracy and bias. People generally don't care about logic, reason, or evidence in their beliefs. They care much more about what makes them feel good, regardless of truth.
We need to move towards mastering our emotions and allowing them to benefit us, and not letting emotions control us like we do now.
Education is how we accomplish all of this. It is impossible to expect people to be intelligent, thoughtful, effective decision makers when we do not enable them to be these things because of societal failures like poverty and outdated school systems. Our methods of educating future generations hasn't changed much in hundreds of years; it's time for some upgrades.
Human development is dependant upon environmental factors, this is proven by how much a person's zip code can be used to predict their lifetime earnings. In a perfect world, a person's physical location of birth (which is 100% out of their control) shouldn't have such a large impact on their success.
As was said in the video, people's beliefs depend on their upbringing and their surroundings. We simply need to create better surroundings and then better people will come, in time.
@@TheDragonSlaayer just an fyi; our methods of educating future generations have changed radically. you have that utterly wrong. I could offer examples across a half-dozen axes, but just to be brief : people in India can *read* now. lol The median American has more than five years of education. We're also making a dizzying variety of changes over recent generations, as well as RIGHT NOW the past few and coming few years, in even the most "essential" aspects of education, including reading. You might try the internet, if you're unaware of what is happening in education the past 500 years. You've apparently missed that episode. // To offer something positive, yes, as you say, human development is partly dependent on environmental factors (incl education). Although NO, that's not "proven" by zip code data. No, that's absolutely terrible reasoning. Zip codes also predict height, but the actual causation is a mix of genetics and environment.
"You are who you meet" - this line striked me emotionally
May we meet interesting, kind, loving, giving people. And, may we be them.
Yer name ? hahaha.
@BradynLee haha
@BradynLee someday you'll meet someone who isn't like that; if you yourself aren't. just keep working on yourself and getting out there
"stop saving someone that does not need to be saved".
I created this random quotes
What you guys think?
It would be really awesome if these were available as audio files, maybe in the form of a podcast
Type in CZcams to audio
Or just close your eyes 😅
😊
@@jayk5549 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Goggle convert youtube to mp3.
I read once that humans have highly developed nervous systems because thousands of years ago, every day was a struggle to find food and ward off larger predators. Now that things are relatively safer, we enjoy things like extreme sports, gambling, driving fast etc etc that stimulate our nervous systems.
In other words, humans hate being bored, so we invent conflicts in order to be NOT bored. And today's world is NOT boring!
Good
@@akashdeep-xc6nc ????
@@djf750 we bored more than other Animals we demand high stimulation.
@@akashdeep-xc6nc Yes, that's what I wrote
@@djf750 so what is solution awareness live in the moment
We are definitely shaped by our social realities/environments and by our belief/traditional structures. We need those to define ourselves, categorise ourselves into boxes and ground ourselves because we desire consistency in knowing who/what we are as human beings.
I think the more we acknowledge this the more we can accomplish, there seems to be this egotistical view that we are always in control
@@bamflyer Right, it also comes down to the point of "meaning", beliefs shape the meaning of our lives. As a result that inflects control
Good job you solved humanity
If you need an abstract belief system to define you then you're not a human.
@@jasonh.8754 at least you have it figured good for you
We are storytellers and we are stories in our own way.
"Reflect upon the Past.
Embrace your Present.
Orchestrate our Futures." --Artemis
🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨
"Before I start, I must see my end.
Destination known, my mind’s journey now begins.
Upon my chariot, heart and soul’s fate revealed.
In time, all points converge, hope’s strength re-steeled.
But to earn final peace at the universe’s endless refrain,
We must see all in nothingness... before we start again."
🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨
--Diamond Dragons (series)
YES
It sometimes upsets me how many ways to live life there are, and how I will never get more than a minuscule fraction of possible experiences. Focusing on my own experience helps.
Here’s a quote that might help:
“You will never be able to experience everything. So, please, do poetical justice to your soul and simply experience yourself.” - Albert Camus
@@Meejie I think any microcosm completely encloses the entire macrocosm.
It is a possibility that only one parent consciousness exists, and all others are copies, so in a way you are also experiencing other experiences, I have felt it during meditations!!
All conditioned beliefs and experiences are half truths, different perspectives from different Vantage points.
@@PianoByArnaud "Each of us is an aperture through which universe experiences itself"
"Reflect upon the Past.
Embrace your Present.
Orchestrate our Futures." --Artemis
🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨
"Before I start, I must see my end.
Destination known, my mind’s journey now begins.
Upon my chariot, heart and soul’s fate revealed.
In time, all points converge, hope’s strength re-steeled.
But to earn final peace at the universe’s endless refrain,
We must see all in nothingness... before we start again."
🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨
--Diamond Dragons (series)
"If there is anything I have learned in my travels across the Planes, it is that many things may change the nature of a man. Whether regret, or love, or revenge or fear - whatever you believe can change the nature of a man, can."
*_1_* From the time we are born, we are heavily conditioned by society, religion, tradition, and customs.
*_2_* We must teach our children at a very early age to think on their feet, to stand alone, to not follow the crowd, to not bear bullying and hazing, and to not act like robots.
*_3_* The self causes most problems and all wars-self-importance is our doom.
*_4_* Happiness is within us, not in the society we live in or in the company we work for; not in how many friends we have or in how many followers we have on social media; not in the amount of stocks, bonds, art, gold, real estate, and businesses we own.
*_5 Without love and sense of humor there’s unhappiness and life is meaningless._* 💕☮🌎🌌
Not entirely true. Our happiness absolutely is effected by external events eg, not having the basics in life such as food and shelter and safety from wars. We are not entirely our own masters.
@@marianhunt8899 Op is talking about 1st world or wealthy people’s solutions.
@@Crabbadabba Those five points apply to people living in the First World, the Second World, and the Third World.
@@marianhunt8899 This is for 80% of the people of world.
Great vid! We are not what we eat, but who we meet. Simple, yet profound. A reminder of why hateful politics can alter people's mindset. I teach vocational arts in a jail. You've given me much philosophical content to ponder.
Jail ? Wow
@@saptadipbasak9884 I've taught from middle school to college and teaching inmates is the most rewarding. No one has to attend...only if they have the desire.
I teach construction, we build cool stuff, have some laughs and guys have gotten well paying carpenter's union jobs and left the life of crime.
I love it!
@@johnputt6029 That's awesome! :D What's been your most memorable or interesting experience from teaching in a jail?
@@AlwayzAnonymous Thank you! We are all brothers and sisters and I rarely have issues with students. I treat the students with respect and that sets the tone of class.
I've seen many successes too.
Building complicated carpentry projects with many inmates who have not had much success in life....well, self-esteem grows and they want to learn more.
Sure, inmates have gotten careers,where many have never had a job. The average grade level completed is 5th grade.
I see men grow in respect for themselves and others each day.
I'm from the 60's and all I'm looking to do is spread peace and love.
Thank you for asking.
Giving back builds my character as much as they build theirs.
@@johnputt6029 So wholesome! :'D Thank you for sharing!
It was great to learn about how our beliefs shape how we interact with the world, and how this can lead to conflict with others. I think it's important to understand why people believe what they believe in order to address contemporary issues like war, suffering, and inequity.
Our beliefs are shape by history, and that history was created by chance. At random.
Thats what I believe, I also believe that the only way to end conflict is to stop being judgemental and to not allow yourself to be arrogant.
That's what we have to teach our own "groups", hoping the others will do the same.
But, maybe conflict exists because it's somehow necessary.
I'm too young to understand.
@@goodguysolid6398 It's interesting to think that beliefs can be formed without conscious decision-making. It's a reminder that we should be mindful of.
@@SearchOfSelf it's scary honestly, especially when you become arrogant about it. Thinking you're in the right.
@@goodguysolid6398 This is a fascinating and profound subject that could make an excellent topic for one of my videos. Thank you for raising it!
This… is a masterpiece! Something so simple yet so complex explained in the best way… in my humble opinion everyone interested in psychology and neurology should watch this!
Dr. Fuentes just made me love being human. While listening to this presentation, I literally had the thought “I love being human.” Also, excellent video!
what an amazing explanation of how humans are not only a product of our genes, but also very much of our environments, which influences us in so many ways we can't even comprehend.
Something being on my mind lately .. but you just put it into incredibly simple words and i just LOVED IT!! Humans really are the finest creatures but sometimes we just forget the power we hold and waste our time and life in useless conflicts.
I hope in the near future we will be able to put our conflicts asides and work together for the betterment of humanity
That won't happen when the military industry complex exists to make profit from the 'forever wars'.
That’s never going to happen lol
We are so complex. With all knowing the reality of conflicts, we do it again and again because we always disagree with each other. I think this disagreement with each other make us think more about things and to become more develop.
some people may like conflicts just because its fun
The visuals alone are impeccable but of course the dialogue is also beyond profound! Thank you for another great video 👏🏿
Great explanation! We need more videos with Agustín Fuentes!
We are one humanity connected to everything in a oneness world
Much love and light for all living beings
disconnect me please
Thank you. What you have explained in seven minutes, and how you put the thoughts and concepts together is worth a book, a sizable book to.
Im so glad I found this channel. Thank you!
This is an amazing video! Big Think should try to get him (and maybe other experts) to talk about this in a longer format.
A great proposition by professor. Thanks.
This is exactly what we need to see right now! Love it so much
Lot of words, not much substance. Maybe what he meant was that the belief systems are structured by the social environment in which humans live. However, he didn't explain *why* we need these belief systems in the first place. I think we need them because each culture stores its generational learning in the form of belief systems and rituals. The things that allow people to survive in a particular environment is passed down the generations in the form of a sacred knowledge or culture. As different populations have evolved in different environments, hence the emergence of a large number of belief systems which conflict with each other. The belief systems indeed contain an abstract version of the truth about reality perceived & shaped by many generations.
This is really spot on. You have to look at the history of belief from around the globe to understand it. This video is a completely Euro-centric view and the John Templeton Foundation is only concerned with saving Western religions.
He was giving a demonstration of the core message of what he wanted to say: Humans make things complex simply because they can 🙂.
*Interesting Freudian, "scared"
Yes. I found Vsauce‘s video from 6 months ago about reasoning and beliefs very informative.
Lots of words, not much substance. That applies to your comment. The videos is precise and structure nicely. Your rant is, well, just a rant with little meaning.
I wish it was longer... I am definitely reading your book.
Looking forward to reading your book , excellent video.
I'm looking forward to this book. This video is amazing and timely.
I honestly doubt that there will be harmony among humans because they aren’t intelligent enough to figure out that working together is the most efficient way of doing things.
But I’d like to think that the general public has become somewhat smarter over the centuries so there is hope.
We are deliberately divided by many of our leaders. Have you not noticed how much hate they have spewed? When is the last time you heard a Western leader try to heal divisions in society?
Yes, but thinking that unity is the most important thing is also belief
While other people believe they should isolate themselves and their families from those who might wish them harm, or just inadvertedly cause it.
Well spoken insights. Thank you for sharing these. As for a way to ensure more harmony in a world of conflicting beliefs, the way we were raised and formed in isn’t necessarily the only way to live an abundant life. Our way is one of many. New people means new ways and we gain a greater appreciation of our own upbringing by learning about other cultures, especially those we deem “incompatible” with our values and ideologies.
😂x
‘bf vcc. c bang green never get greg gf cuz zac cc fed cc
This account is the best! To have all these different, interesting perspectives in an account
It comes down to choice. We can be ourselves, rooted in our beliefs and upbringings but still cooperate with each other. We just need to be wiser with our decisions
I enjoyed this explanation very much.
Hmmm... what's on today's to-do list:
1: Run around
2: Find food
3: Have sex
4: Try not to die
I think I can get three out of the four done easily enough.
😂😂
Yeah.... running around is hard.
@@Damiardo 🤣
Run around, find food, and try not to die are fairly easy nowadays. Though the running part seems to be weirdly difficult for a lot of people? I don't know why people don't exercise more often.
Bride kidnapping solves one of those
"We are who we meet". I want to go out and test this, but then i think of how the loss of a friend has affected me, and I an understand the phrase.
I agree so much! How beautiful would it be for all to rediscover his true purpose on earth and reunite in harmony with all !
We need a podcast for this
I'm heartened by the quality of the comments here. People are thinking deeply and that's a great start. 👏🏻 We have to pull aside the curtain that hides the power elite. By that I mean those who control so much of our sensory and intellectual input, control what we teach in schools and what is said from the pulpit. Lifelong learning is the path for me: studying history especially, as well as culture, psychology, comparative religion and of course, science. 📚
Capacity for belief is an evolutionary adaptation that gave our ancestors the extra edge to continue to survive.
Wonderful, simply wonderful content.😍
Amazing way to describe what it is, hopefully we can find a way to work together realizing this
One of the most interesting video I've seen so far!
I always like seeing videos of what i think but put into better words.👍
Thank YOU so much, Big Think.
Thanks..
Shaping our beliefs which is not Contradictory to different societies is very difficult. Because the human ego is always want to be superior from others and that's why the ego hold its belief strongly. I think the only way of social harmony is not having belief at all .then the humans will act by their understanding and intellect.
The video is amazing. Thank you, Big Think
is nobody going to talk about how good that ballpoint pen drawing in the thumbnail is?
Love this!
Incredible and intriguing video!
Can't tell you how much I loved this video. ❤
Very honest & heart felt
Great video, makes me think about:
1. Can we still live in peace with each other even sharing different beliefs?
2. Is a certain belief superior to another, or they are all equal?
3. If yes, does that justify the people of a certain belief imposing their belief on another group?
🤔
this video just reiterated things everyone already knows!!
vid came at perfect time been thinking of this very hard for a couple months
I don’t have sex, no permanent shelter and barely enough food. I don’t have enough money to travel to the people I love.
@@LaNina_DJ can you help me in any of these matters?
@@ashishdewani777 that is so weird man
Solve the last 3 and the first one is way more likely to happen.
So Awesome!
That was truely insightful thanks heaps
I learned a lot from you.
👍👍👍👍👍
A good try to answer by Agustín Fuentes to the existential question of human kind
Amazing !
The way i see it , is that conflict is part of being human but im not sure if the point to live with no conflict or to adapt to it in a healthy manner that benefits us (maybe by focusing on what we have in common and be curious about diffrences instead of feeling offended from it)
Ojalá todo el mundo pudiera ver videos como éste, especialmente en mi Latinoamérica, donde reina la ignorancia y la superstición religiosa.
No te creas tan importante, amigo. Aquí habemos muchos latinoamericanos viendo estos videos.
amazing. loved this
I love listening to him
Well done.
ngl i love this man and his series
Holy sh*t this is the most intriguing topic that's been stuck in my mind. Yes, I have been watching the world, seeking it's mystery, only to question
"what's the point of all these mess to a point that we can't go back and restart?
What's the point of you believe a certain religion, if you don't actually *Believe* it?
What's the meaning behind what I am doing?? Is what I am doing *right* or *wrong* ?"
I wish I can discuss this with the people who actually think about all these topics
Because we know we will die, survival is a given, while "life" and "living" is the time filled trying to avoid thinking about it.
This is epic. ❤
Excellent! Our beliefs are us, including that belief Mr. Fuentes utters "incredible inequality".
Great video
Sometimes i think that to live is complicated, because seems that everything has to be balanced for us to live well. All these feature in human life perfectly aligned to us enjoy this world
great video
The Well is and are the holo. All is in all.
Great... Now, I HAVE to buy his book...
When beliefs are contrary to the actual, physical environment - problems arise. Money is an interesting belief in this manner as it is almost wholly dissociated from how the physical world actually works. Some of this value-belief mismatch is actually the causal factor for many of humanity's ills.
Great video....
This is a great video!!
He is smart af. Few weeks ago, I was thinking about how we are so complex and how we have made our world so complicated with money and society that now, even if we think we don't need them, the problem is, these things had put us where we are standing as human society right now.
It's a huge mesh of everything that we use (society, politics, religions, culture etc)and invented/discovered (science, math, philosophy) that contributes to our success as species.
Excellent
Great vid
this video is fascinating
That one was the most eye opening video from BT so far! Thank you.
Very well spoken.
In theory, it‘s the course to a peace nobel prize. Unfortunately you can‘t teach old men.
Very beautiful video😊!!!
I agree with most of the things, other than the sex part - because I haven't experienced it yet.
I think having so many ideologies is what make life tricky.Alot of people only see the world from their ideology
I think different about almost all concepts than all the people I met. About love, identity, money, work,...
Wow🙌 you are who you meet …
And that's why we think so high of simplicity and always crave simplicity.
"Humans need fantasy to be Human. To be the place where the Falling Angel meets the Rising Ape." Terry Pratchett, Hogfather.
Very simple:
LET IT BE
It’s interesting the thought that “belief causes reality, there are multiple realities and there is no single correct or true reality.” Something that most religions and belief systems fail to recognise.
If we step outside our narrow world views and have experiences that allow us to see another person as a person rather than as a conflicting ideology, I think that does a lot towards pushing a person or group of people to change how they react to those with opposing viewpoints.
Verbal, in-person communication, specifically where you look another human in the eyes, is hugely impactful. A strong, emotional response besides anger is needed that we can relate to in some way is needed for us to become harmonious with a stranger. We need to see that in the world, our way is not the only way and that in the end, noone is really better than anyone else, regardless of wealth, race, social factors, even percieved intelligence, etc.
Why is the world not being led by people such as these great thinkers? This old world needs new ideas
his classes must be amazing
I was interested in your book but disappointed it was not available on Audible
I can get all the points he said🎉
As I understand it: Humans have a multistage womb, the first is biological, and the second is social. This second one can also be divided into a nested architecture of social womb settings; the first social womb is primarily the mother. The next social womb is the local family, community, and world. These outer "wombs" facilitate the differentiation process of individual and group psychology as it carries us from a highly dependent-defined environmental influence to a more autonomous, able-to-define, mature state. As we mature (if the process is not arrested or destroyed) we become voices in the choir.
genius! thanks Joe Carter, I copied your words down in a journal to reread and quote later!
@@nothingtofind9099 Thank you. I would be grateful to hear your thoughts after you digest the idea further.
One important foundational point I did not articulate is how the individual develops inside the group body. We inherit our baseline ideas and ritual behaviors from the group (and from nature itself which is the physical womb in which groups exist). This group social womb architecture can sometimes be the individual's birthplace (maturing into a definer, able to choose) or stagnate at the developmental level of being defined. This is where some (perhaps most) people exchange their full potential on the altar of safety, false certainty, and acceptance of the crowd. Exploration turns into evangelism - the idea that everyone who does not think like the group is wrong. This group behavior is represented well by schools of fish. Of course, it's not an either-or thing but gradients and transitional phases. Words only have so much carrying capacity, they may have failed to capture and transmit the essence of the idea here. I hope I was clear.
We’re apes who are good with tools.