A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century: Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life

Among the many benefits of first principles thinking is that it helps one avoid falling prey to the naturalistic fallacy,2 which is the idea that “what is” in nature is “what ought to be.”

Modern Homo sapiens arose approximately two hundred thousand years ago, the product of 3.5 billion years of adaptive evolution.

Fitness is indeed often about reproduction, but it is always about persistence. A successful population can ebb and flow through time.

Omega Principle

Epigenetic regulators, such as culture, are superior to genes in that they are more flexible and can adapt more rapidly.

Respect, not fear.

If we compare gibbons, which are monogamous, with baboons, which are not, we see that baboons have marked sexual size dimorphism and enlarged canines. Polygyny—which is associated with strategies two and three from the previous chapter—leads inexorably both to male-male violence and to the morphology that enables that violence.

Polygamy: individuals of one sex have just one reproductive partner, but individuals of the other sex have multiple partners. Subtypes include: Polygyny: (poly—many, gyn—female): One male and multiple females Polyandry: (poly—many, andr—male): One female and multiple males.

In times of stability, when inherited wisdom allows individuals to prosper and spread across relatively homogeneous landscapes: Culture reigns. But in times of expansion into new frontiers, when innovation and interpretation, and communication of new ideas, are critical: Consciousness reigns.