11 Replies to “The Nature of Human Nature”

  1. “DNA neither cares nor knows. DNA just is. And we dance to its music.”

    Of course there’s always that “free will” thingy.

  2. It’s been said that the only settled social science is the part of it that confirms what anybody with life experience could have told you, no expensive research required.

    If the great social scientist agrees with your grandfather, the scientist is almost certainly right. If he doesn’t, he’s probably made a mistake in his calculations.

    Your grandfather would have said, Like father, like son.

    So, now, is anybody actually going to act on that knowledge? Like…oh, I don’t know…discourage the lazy, stupid and violent from breeding? Because that’s the only “progressive” proposal that ever had a chance of working as advertised.

    1. Identical twins separated at birth often have amazingly similar markers in their lives. But I’m afraid straight up observation of massive differences in siblings leads me to believe it’s genes + nurture + free will in proportions that appear to vary randomly.

      Claiming entitlement on the basis of genetic inevitability is, I predict, the next wave of rent seeking in the West.

    2. We tried that in the 1930s, but eugenics is very verbotten since maybe 1950 in Canada. Alberta used to sterilize some.

  3. Most intelligent people want their sons and daughters to marry others from good families. My definition of “good” is not in trouble with the law, holds down a decent job, keeps on educating themselves, have goals and achievements, have stable family backgrounds (occasionally there is the “crazy” person in the background somewhere).
    In our family, we can see re-occurring traits in every generation. I was a commercial designer, my brother was an architect, our father was an electrical engineer and electrician, our paternal grandfather built houses, our great grandfather was a “master-builder” in Scotland. We are always involved in the building trades.
    So yes, DNA does matter!

    1. Elephants don’t marry giraffes.

      You are inclined to marry your own demographic and within your own social strata.

      When I brought my fiancé home to surprise my parents, it turns out both sets of parents knew each other professionally, our mothers were in the same club.

      So yup DNA.

  4. In this first episode of “The Nature of Human Nature” they delve into statistics a little too soon into the piece. I would’ve preferred that they first cover a broader range of topics within this category. Granted, this is a complex topic. I really didn’t learn as much as I would’ve like to for my 1:00 hour and 12:12 minutes and seconds.
    For example:

    — We are 99% identical to each other and 50% identical to a banana.
    — There is a 50% similarity and a 50% difference in parents and children.
    — Fraternal twins aka dizygotic twins.
    — Etc. Etc.

    There was a lot common sense, but nothing new to the average biology/zoology student. They know a lot about their topic but were poor salespersons about getting us to want to subscribe to their website that is behind a paywall.

    I was hoping they discussed Genetic Real Estate regarding topics such as, to name just two:
    — Race vs I.Q.
    — DNA in Crime Solving

    I shall not subscribe to their channel for now.

    However, while on the topic of Genetics, I shall share with you, dear Reader, some interesting images to prove that the study of genetics is a fun one. Do remember that love, and life is really about Man, Woman, Birth, Death and Infinity.

    Here are 15 photos from the “Bored Panda” website of side-by-side portraits of famous historical figures and their direct descendants. Imo the closest resemblances with their descendants are: #2 Charles Dickens, #3 Emeline Pankhurst and #4 Napoleon.
    See for yourselves:

    https://tinyurl.com/y54lpete

    1. They mostly look photo-shopped to one degree or another, at least to my untrained eye. But even still, I don’t think any of them come as close as the resemblance between Fidel Castro and his son, Justin. 🙂

  5. Fishing on a lake in N.Ontario some years ago, a local man I was fishing with pointed to a cliff some distance away situated right beside the lake, roughly 50 ft. in height methinks, tells me how several months before a young man in his mid thirties drove his car off the cliff to his death…suicide apparently. How or why on Earth there’d be a path/roadway ending at a cliff into a lake is anyone’s guess. I suspect the cliff abutted a farmer’s open pasture/field, but can’t say to a certainty.
    Sad as that story was… he tells me the young man’s father had taken his own life in the same manner and at the same location as well as his father’s father years before that. Three lives, same family, same manner, same cliff. WTH??!!!???
    Open mouthed gobsmackery on my part to say the least. A definite miswiring of that family’s genes, DNA or whatever ya want to call it. Never was sure of the difference.

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