Keith Henson
Keith Henson
Howard Keith Hensonis an American electrical engineer and writer on space engineering, space law, memetics, cryonics, evolutionary psychology and physical limitations of Transhumanism...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
CountryUnited States of America
compulsive gamblers rewards step unless
The rewards that compulsive gamblers get are only one step removed from exogenous chemicals, unless you are a big winner.
bands emerges humans living million picture previous several small social
The picture that emerges for humans in the previous several million years is that of a social primate living in small bands and villages.
environment fraction human result suspect
I suspect that a substantial fraction of human problems in the world today, not just cults, result from the mismatch between the current environment and the environment in which we evolved.
areas deluded related
I can't think of anyone who is up on evolutionary psychology and related areas who is deluded enough to be called a utopian.
exclusive major sources
The drug or cult has major if not exclusive sources of brain rewards.
evolved humans
Humans have evolved to be exquisitely sensitive to changes in status.
giving feelings kites
Anyone who has ever had the feeling of being higher than a kite after giving a public speech is well aware of the effects of attention.
children wife young
Brigham Young had 47 children, and over 50 women as wives.
president paper example
As for leadership, I am the kind who leads reluctantly and more by example than anything else. Someone had to be on the incorporation papers as president.
opportunity wife males
High status males had multiple wives or additional mating opportunities in the ancestral environment.
successful attention behaviour
Successful cult memes induce intense social interaction behaviour between cult members. This trips the attention detectors.
brain attention way
Attention is the way social primates measure status. It is highly rewarding because it causes the release of brain chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins.
suicide growth population
Most of the suicide hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, a place not lacking in wealth. But due to rapid population growth, the wealth per capita has fallen by about half in a generation.
years long people
People repeat behaviour that leads to flooding their brains with pleasurable chemicals. The short-term reward loop acts over hours to years, and the long-term reproductive success loop over generations.