Richard Dawkins on Why Scientific Achievements Might ACTUALLY Be USELESS for Humans

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Whether you believe that humans and other species have evolved or you believe in a creator of living things, this episode is going to excite you or challenge you to think outside the box. Both scenarios are worthwhile, as Tom is joined by the world renowned evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins. Trying to fully grasp how the human mind works and what role evolution plays with our emotions, thought processes and sexual selection can be overwhelming. Tom highlights the inspiring works from Richard and discusses some complex ideas from his latest book, Books Do Furnish A Life. This is a deep dive into what evolution is, and raises the question of whether or not science, technology, and the human search for meaning and exploration has surpassed our basic evolutionary need for survival. Where does that leave humanity and what options are potential solutions worth exploring?

Order Richard Dawkins new book, Books Do Furnish A Life: https://amzn.to/39fEeSU

SHOW NOTES:

0:00 | Introduction Richard Dawkins
1:34 | How The Mind Works
7:28 | Nature of Thought & Emotion
14:01 | Emergent Properties Beyond Survival
21:13 | Lack Of Evolving Creativity
29:30 | The Great Leap Forward
30:46 | Evolution of Sexual Selection
41:25 | The Handicap Principle
45:17 | Human Sexual Selection
57:13 | Genetic Variance
1:04:07 | Finding Origin of Life
1:10:55 | Natural Selection & DNA
1:27:29 | Writing Sci-Fi & Morality
1:37:58 | Hard Problem of Consciousness
1:41:32 | Memes + Hyper Connectivity

QUOTES:

“What I tried to do in my writing career is to emphasize the rational, thoughtful side of the brain, and to not deny the existence of the emotional, but to try to foster the control of the emotions by reason.” [6:48]

“What the human mind achieves today, in the form of science in particular, technology, is utterly bewildering when you think about it in an evolutionary context. It is so far beyond what we're ever naturally selected to do.”

“The origin of life on this planet is not a highly implausible event, it’s not a very rare event...” [1:09:49]

“The idea that every particle in the universe has a minute mote of consciousness seems to me to be complete rubbish.” [1:39:17]

“It's got to be a manifestation of great complexity of interacting units. No, one of which is conscious in itself, but when you put them together, consciousness emerges from the interactions among them.” [1:40:47]

“Cultural evolution is a real phenomenon, it really looks like evolution, it really has the same progressive qualities as evolution does.” [1:42:39]

“I introduced the idea of the meme as a virus of the mind. Something that goes viral is this successful meme.” [1:45:56]

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