Fascinating stuff, (4.00 / 3)

but there's an angle he's left out and that is that the same mirror neurons we use to connect with other people our ancestors also used to hunt prey. It's empathy that enables the hunter to anticipate, "if I were the prey, I would've gone here, done this." This stuff cuts both ways.

Montani semper liberi

---

by: Sadie Baker @ Sun Sep 05, 2010 at 14:30:51 PM UTC

Like all behaviors, reactions, and senses humans have evolved (0.00 / 0)

its all in how you use them. If I've learned one thing about biological systems it is that no component - an enzyme or a mirror neuron - has only one function. Multi-tasking is in our DNA, literally. Almost everything cuts both ways - trick is in balancing and adapting our evolutionary "baggage" to the tasks that confront us today.  

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."

---

by: SpitBall @ Sun Sep 05, 2010 at 19:41:39 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks, Daniel (0.00 / 0)

I'm becoming addicted to RSA presentations, and this one is terrific on all kinds of levels.

---

by: bystander @ Sun Sep 05, 2010 at 14:41:24 PM UTC

The Center for Building a Culture of Empathy (0.00 / 0)

Here's a website for more on empathy.
http://cultureofempathy.com
The Culture of Empathy website is a growing portal for resources and information about the values of empathy and compassion. It contain  articles, conferences, definitions, experts, history, interviews,  videos, science and much more about empathy and compassion.

There's a whole page on video talks by Jeremy Rifken
http://cultureofempathy.com/Re...

A talk and animation by RSA Director  Matthew Taylor  
Old 18th Century Enlightenment and Developing a New
21st Century Enlightenment that is Built on Empathy
http://cultureofempathy.com/Re...

A list and links to 60+ videos where Barack Obama Promotes Empathy.
http://cultureofempathy.com/Ob...

edwin

---

by: Edwin Rutsch @ Sun Sep 05, 2010 at 16:44:35 PM UTC

Alternate Narratives (0.00 / 0)

We need a counter narrative to the Gordon Gekko "greed is good" narrative that seems to have dominated our culture for the past three decades. We had a good narrative in the 1960s and 1970s around personal development within communities but that quickly morphed into pure greed and selfishness all the time. Empathy for others, the realization that we live and die as groups of people, not only as individuals, is part of this counter narrative. So too is the realization that no dictum like "greed is good" or its alternative are true all the time, that there are limits.

Whether we can come up with a way of looking at ourselves, describing ourselves, that empowers people in positive ways, who knows. But it's good to see these ideas floating around. Maybe they'll morph into something truly constructive.

---

by: TSlavin @ Sun Sep 05, 2010 at 16:45:23 PM UTC

It won't go over with the conservative Christians (0.00 / 0)

but I think John Lennon had the good narrative (if we go beyond the sexist limitations):

"I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together."

Educate, Agitate, Organize, Mobilize, Act!

---

by: LibWingofLibWing @ Mon Sep 06, 2010 at 03:32:15 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Those RSA Animates really are fantastic (0.00 / 0)

Here's a link to all of them if you didn't have it already: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk...

The Empathic Civilization one is probably the best, but I also really enjoyed the one they did for Barbara Ehrenreich's "Smile or Die."  The Slavoj Zizek one was also really good.  

The 21st Century Enlightenment one that a previous commenter referred to was pretty good, but I kind of wanted to like it more than I did--the execution didn't live up to the idea.  Still worth watching, though.

---

by: DavidN @ Sun Sep 05, 2010 at 18:27:25 PM UTC

Misunderstands Mitochondrial Eve, Y-Adam (4.00 / 1)

This isn't exactly the point of the lecture, but the misunderstanding of Mitochondrial Eve is a bit of pet peeve of mine.  It is mathematically guaranteed that over time, all mitochondrial lines will die out except for one.  That means there will be a Mitochondrial Eve, regardless of the details, if you go back far enough.

Are we all related to that one woman?  Yep.  But we are all related to everyone of those 10,000 people she lived with as well.  With the exception of a few lines that completely broke, we are direct descendants from each and every one of them.

To make it clear, if you go back 175,000 years ago, assuming 25 year generations, you have 7000 generations.  That means you have 2^7000 direct great-great-(etc)-grand parents from that time, (with 2^7000 greats).  That means each of those 10,000 people is your great^7000 grand parent 2^6986 times.  But only one of those paths is all female (mother to mother) and only one other is all male.

---

by: Mark Matson @ Mon Sep 06, 2010 at 00:27:01 AM UTC

I was (0.00 / 0)

A bit dubious about that regard too, but don't have the biology chops to really sort it out.  What about the Y-Chromosome Adam part?  

Also, he should at least have noted Y-Chromosome Adam and Mitochondrial Eve didn't live at the same time so any similarity to the literal bible story is rather thin.

---

by: Daniel De Groot @ Mon Sep 06, 2010 at 02:27:29 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thought Experiment (4.00 / 1)

The same goes for Y-Chromosome Adam.  What makes mitochondria and Y-chromosomes so cool to study is they follow a very direct path and they don't get altered via sexual reproduction.  We get mitochondria only from our mothers and Y-chromosomes only from our fathers.

To understand why all strands but one will eventually die out, one can do a thought experiment.  Imagine 4 couples, so 4 men and 4 women.  Each has two children, but gender is random and follows the 'normal' distribution: couple A has two boys, couple B has two girls, and couples C and D have one each.  Woman A's mitochondria line just died out, as did man B's Y-Chromosome.  Man A, however, now has half of the Y-chromosome of the children.  Woman B has half the mitochondria.

You follow this through a few generations and eventually all Y-chromosome and mitochondria lines but one die out.

---

by: Mark Matson @ Mon Sep 06, 2010 at 04:49:31 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

great stuff (0.00 / 0)

The process of expanding the experience/scope of empathy strikes me as a key evolutionary dynamic that has potential to increase our prospects for progressive change.  Or, to put it another way, as the video notes, without it we may not make it as a species for too many more decades.

I don't know anything about mirror neurons, but the term reminds me of a technique I learned years ago in couples counseling--to paraphrase back to the other person what they say and what they're experiencing, until they are convinced that you're understanding them.  And I recently read something about debates being designed this way (and being much more fruitful for it), so that one side is required to summarize the other side's position until the latter accepts it as an accurate summary.

Looking at this from another perspective, the lack of (and trampling of) empathy in the political/media world of DC/Versailles is a major and chronic obstacle to sustained forward movement in progressive directions.  I give the mass media a lot of credit/blame for this, especially since they have access to technology and reach with such powerful potential.  Fortunately, the Internet is gradually displacing it as a means of "virtual" connection.  

For me, the influence of electronic media with regard to promoting or destroying empathy is a core factor in the debate over the future of the Internet (e.g., net neutrality).  Does it move in the direction of attention-addicting one-way entertainment/infotainment (with the web's interactive capabilities used to feed consumption-promoting limited scope/depth "empathy"--e.g., what "brand" of jeans do you prefer?), or does it move in the direction of citizen-to-citizen communication, collaboration, dialog, empathy, mobilization, mutual assistance/understanding, etc.?  

I'm marginally hopeful on that score, but also expect that this will require ongoing netroots efforts which will, in turn, be an evolving example of how movement in the latter empathy-enhancing and progressive direction can evolve in form and impact.

---

by: mitchipd @ Mon Sep 06, 2010 at 02:32:00 AM UTC