A Story of Stories

With Lulu, the Johnsons had a whole array of options (to consider).

But gluing together is a behavior. And human behavior lives in a magic laboratory of variety.Could that additional flexibility find a way to create a human beehive?

First, their primal motivations are super complex. On top of all the standard animal desires, humans are incentivized by all kinds of weird Snausages and electric fences. They crave self-esteem and want to avoid shame. They yearn for praise and acceptance and detest loneliness or embarrassment. They pine for meaning and fulfillment and they fear re... See more

The Johnsons have problems. First there’s Moochie. (Their pet dog)

In a lot of ways, human history is just a bigger version of this story. The same toolkit the Johnsons had access to in changing Lulu’s behavior has turned out to be a breathtaking evolutionary innovation.

And Moochie shapes right up.

The Story Virus

The Johnsons didn’t have too much to think about when they decided to change Moochie’s behavior. Moochie’s behavior equation presented a clear strategic winner—alter his environment, and his behavior will adapt to the changes.

Indirect knowledge only works in favor (of learning) when it’s coupled with reason.

This is the power of human beliefs. Not only do they produce an endless array of behavioral varieties—a million little evolutionary experiments—they allow for the complete behavioral mutation of any one of them within a single generation. Sometimes within a single day.