fromderinside
Mazzie Daius
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2008
- Messages
- 15,945
- Basic Beliefs
- optimist
Sometime deep in the future, when we have a far greater understanding of how brains function in total, we may have a physiological explanation of our thinking process, but that is not now. Genetics and epigenetics cannot account for how we think, though in some cases, we get clues to how it may cause mental dysfunction. What I am trying to say here is that there really is no way to escape some kind of reasoning in favor of some kind of automatic response that is built into us. This idea is the seed of social disorder because that common referent may well be the limbic system, which essentially is irrational and more an alarm system than a planning structure.
Organisms, particularly social organisms that must mate, must first solve a problem. Is that which is coming suitable for mating or is it suitable for fighting. There are others fight or flight, seek or avoid, but, the bottom line one for social animals is distinguishing between mate or foe and then behaving in ways to accomplish those those. The literature is awash with the genetics of arousal, flight, flight, mating, etc and there is always arbitration among using those chemicals most needed for each or both.
Recent political, psychological and genetic history is filled with the study and the genetics of acceptance and exclusion and their roles in culture, war, progress, and social system. This, to me, is just an extension of a fighting fish working out whether to allow another fighting fish access to her nest or to go out and kill that damn intruder. The fighting fish issue has been resolved in favor of evolutionary genetics. Fighting fish are public in that males fight for the honor of mating and females and for maintenance of their bubble nests. When when seeing a winner the female is much more likely to chose the winner, approach him and endure the waggle dance ritual that comes from conflicting impulses to mate or fight. (see for instance: Public Information: From Nosy Neighbors toCultural Evolution http://www.edanchin.fr/plugins/fckeditor/userfiles/file/Danchin et al Science 2004.pdf )
In fact the article proposes a model that could apply to humans.
By the way there's a lot of pathways between the limbic system to visual, auditory, association and language cortex suggesting the machines of the limbic system are probably significantly refined.