0044 Where did I leave off?

After 2017, Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein find that they no longer have jobs.  But, surely, they remain professors.

0045 So what happens next?

The culture of podcasting on the internet_3H values (selects for) people_2H with disciplinary expertise_1H.

Yes, the podcasting “culture” is looking for pre-2017 types of professors_2H.

0046 Bret Weinstein launches the Darkhorse podcast, a very attractive production in the internet arena.  He remains a professor.  Now, he also professes more than biology.

And, that brings me to the book, which applies lessons from evolutionary theory to life in the 21^st century.

Podcasting and book-writing are very similar to higher ed.  Each podcast has its own mission statement.  Each podcast format displays a certain expertise.  Advertisers support well-subscribed podcasts.  Patrons support the podcast directly.

0047 Here is a picture of what (I suppose) podcasting looks like, in terms of an intersection that appropriates the relationality of biological evolution for cultural evolution.

0048 What label applies to the single actuality that is the union of professor_2H and podcaster_2V?

How about the term, “guidance”?

One watches podcasts for guidance.

0049 On that note, allow me to recall the full title of Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein’s book, A Hunter-Gatherer’s Guide to the 21^st Century: Evolution and The Challenges of Modern Life.

If the single actuality is “guidance”, then I ask the reader how phrases in the title associate to elements in the above intersection.

0050 In the normal context of cultural selection_3H, the actuality of the authors_2H emerges from (and situates) the potential of expertise in biological evolution_1H.  That expertise_1H covers the natural history of the Homo genus.

The normal context of institutional development_3V brings the actuality of podcasting_2V into relation with the possibility of addressing people who would otherwise be hunter-gatherers and who are now facing the novel Lebenswelt of the 21^stcentury_1V.

0051 Here is a picture of the intersection for the cultural evolution that Heying and Weinstein now enter.

0052 The mission statement intimates that we are adapted to survive as hunter-gatherers.  Figuratively, we have “ancient bodies”.  Hunting and gathering describe team endeavors in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  Team endeavors?  Surely, no one hunted or gathered on his or her own.

According to Clive Gamble, John Gowlett and Robin Dunbar (in their 2014 book, Thinking Big), hominins evolve in social circles, including family (5), intimates (5), team (15), bands (50) and communities (150).  These social circles play big roles in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  Indeed, the German word, “Lebenswelt”, means “living world”.  The German language is ideal for synthesizing words through concatenation.

What does that imply?

Heying and Weinstein are on your team.  So read their book.  Plus, tune into the Darkhorse podcast!

0053 After dealing with theory in chapter one (titled, “The Human Niche”), the authors provide a broad view of all of evolution (chapter two, “A Brief History of the Human Lineage”).  In chapter three (titled, “Ancient Bodies, Modern World”), the authors present the mission of their book.  Our bodies are innate expressions of our DNA.  Yet, our Lebenswelt has radically changed.  It is no longer the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  Rather, our current Lebensweltincludes a hypernovel postmodern civilization filled with hazards, such as colleges_2V that switch from traditional mission statements_1H to statements of advocacy_1V.

0054 Yes, the postmodern world of the 21^st century is a dangerous place.

It is especially hazardous because administrators_2H are selected for, rather than faculty_2H.

Plus, instructors_1H manifest the potential of the appearance of expertise_2a, because certification triumphs over… well… dealing with observations and measurements of natural phenomena.  What certification do instructors_1H obtain?  Instructors_1H are certified to promulgate knowledge about models that are endowed with certitude and supported by certain observations and measurements of social phenomena.  State bureaucracies provide certitude.  Selective observations provide proof that the models are… um… beyond question.

0055 How does instruction work?

Well, it starts with a sales pitch, sort of like that serpent in the garden of Eden telling Eve, who is obviously not aware that the serpent is instructing her, how the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is beautiful and should be tasty. Oh, did I mention that it will also make Eve wise and, even better, if she eats the fruit right now, if she buys into the narrative, she can be even more powerful than that patriarchal, know-it-all, busy-body, who thinks that He can tell Her what is or is not forbidden?

Talk about hyper-novelty befuddling innate adaptive tendencies.

0056 Our current Lebenswelt is clearly not the same as the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

0057 What is the concept of punctuated equilibrium?

Steven J. Gould came up with the idea that natural history contains long periods of stasis followed by sudden unravelings of the stasis… or should I say?… changes.  So, the pattern is long period of one configuration, change, then long period with a different configuration.  Punctuated equilibrium is not a theory.  It is an observation that makes sense of the fossil record.

0058 Now, I would like to consider the author’s creation of the omega principle, as a principle where apparently distinct concepts get muddled.

0059 For example, consider this claim.  A cultural adaptation may be in the service of the genes of a particular human lineage.  In other words, there is a crossover from adaptation_2H to phenotype_2V, even though their nested forms are distinct.

How could this happen?

They belong to a single actuality! 

0060 Another example is the way that the intersection for biological evolution (unexpectedly) applies to cultural evolution.  The cultural trauma endured by the authors fits a cultural evolution version of punctuated equilibrium.  Higher ed₂, as a cultural species, foundationally changes between the pre-2017 and post-2017 intersections.  The unraveling of the pre-2017 stasis presumably will end in a post-2017 stasis.  At least, administrators_2H hope so.  But, the instructors_1H are restless.  State funding is increasingly limited.  Plus, there is an entirely new species evolving, called “guidance₂“.

0061 Now, I ask, “How can I appreciate cultural punctuated equilibrium using the intersection?  Is there more to the picture than snapshots labeled ‘before’ and ‘after’?“

Perhaps.

The intersection is a single actuality₂ composed of the contradiction-filled union of two actualities, each with its own nested form.

Here is a picture for biological evolution.

0061 Long periods of stasis (the “equilibrium” aspect of punctuated equilibrium) may be depicted as the single actuality₂of the intersection entering into a category-based nested form.

0062 As long as the normal context₃ and the potential₁ remain stable, then the single actuality₂ holds together, despite the contradictions between the two wedded actualities, adaptation_2H and phenotype_2V.

Take a look at the phylogenetic trees in chapter two (A Brief History of the Human Lineage).  Each branch point may be viewed as an episode where one nested form “branches” into two.  Because normal contexts₃ tend to exclude one another, each lineage goes its own way.

0063 The beauty of this depiction of the equilibrium aspect of punctuated equilibrium may be found in the divergence of the chimpanzees and humans (on page 31).  One lineage stays in tropical wet regions.  The other moves further into mixed forest and savannah.  The phenotype for the former remains knuckle-walking.  The phenotype for the other shifts to bipedalism.

Once the second lineage is fully bipedal, the human niche (of the potential of triadic relations) opens up and the genome (the potential of australopithecine DNA) begins to produce phenotypes that are more attentive to signs, mediations and other triadic relations.  The second lineage changes through descent with modification.

0064 So, I can label the normal context₃ for the human genus₂ as “the Lebenswelt that we evolved in” and I can imagine that the potential corresponds to actualities_2a on the content level below the situation-level actualities of adaptation_2b(2H)and phenotype_2b(2H).

0063 As long as the normal context₃ and the potential₁ remain stable, then hominins become more and more adapted to triadic relations₂, such as signs, mediations, judgments, category-based nested forms and so on.  Plus, they become more phenotypically capable in cognitively processing triadic relations.  This is discussed in Razie Mah’s masterwork, The Human Niche.

0064 Now, I shift to the cultural, using the example of higher ed (before 2017).  Recall, higher ed₂ is the intersection of professors_2H and colleges_2V.

Here is a picture of cultural equilibrium before 2017.

Here is a picture of the category-based nested form that allows us to understand the single actuality.

Here is a picture of how I configure the normal context₃ and potential₁ for the single actuality of higher education (before 2017)₂.

Once again, the potential₁ consists in the content-level actualities that underlie the situation-level nested forms that comprise the intersection.

0065 Here is the first picture of cultural equilibrium after 2017. 

In this cultural equilibrium, administrators_2H, not faculty, adapt to the niche of an education system composed of instructors_1H.  Heying and Weinstein depart.

Here is a picture of how I configure the normal context₃ and potential₁ for the single actuality of higher education (after 2017)₂.

0066 Where do Heying and Weinstein migrate to?

They enter another cultural equilibrium, discussed before, where professors adapt to the challenge of applying the lessons of biological evolution to life in the 21^st century.  The metaphorical genome of podcasting are individuals who sense that our current Lebenswelt is not the same as the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  We are adapted to the lifestyle of hunters and gatherers.  But, that is not all, we are also adapted to the potential of triadic relations.

Here is a picture of a new single actuality₂, guidance.

0067 Here is a picture of how I configure the normal context₃ and potential₁ for the single actuality of guidance (after 2017)₂.

0068 Listening to a darkhorse podcast is more rewarding to a team of moderns (remember hunters and gatherers work in teams) than attending a formal lecture by an instructor who is grading on the curve.  How so?  The darkhorse podcast is a conversation geared to draw people into conversation.  In the course of conversation, one learns information and how to be a member of a team.  If one becomes a member of the podcast community, one joins the team.

The cost is small, compared to a college course.

0069 The exorbitant cost of higher education pays tribute to the long-held belief that certification opens the door to professionalism.

So, what happens when podcasts offer alternate certification?

Then, guidance₂ will directly compete with higher education₂.

0069 Chapter three (Ancient Bodies, Modern World) completes the author’s theoretical approach, which has been critiqued, using the philosophy of Charles Sanders Peirce.  The authors are not aware of a novel vision that encompasses their view that biological evolution involves adaptation into proximate niches of material conditions.  The ultimate human niche is the potential of triadic relations.  Why are hominins capable of switching proximate niches?  All proximate niches are perfused with signs.

Heying and Weinstein are not alone in this regard.  Few modern biologists (before 2023) have considered Razie Mah’s three masterworks, The Human Niche, An Archeology of the Fall, and How To Define the Word “Religion”, that pertain to the Lebenswelt that we evolved in, the first singularity, and our current Lebenswelt, respectively.

Yet, even without a well-articulated theoretical framework, Heying and Weinstein can draw lessons from biological evolution as it is currently configured, as if adaptations_2H and phenotypes_2V belong to the separate disciplines of natural history and genetics, and no one is quite sure how they belong to a single actuality.

Plus, disciplinary knowledge in biological evolution is superior to advocacy, in the same manner that a professor is superior to an instructor.

0070 Our bodies evolved in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

Our modern world in the 21st century is a hypernovel episode of our current Lebenswelt.

So, lessons from our biological evolution will show how our modern world is not so good for our ancient bodies.

0071 The remaining chapters contain applications.

Chapter four (medicine) applies guidance to the topic of medicine.

And, the cultural intersection looks like the following.

0072 At the end of chapter four, the authors offer a section called, “The Corrective Lens”, in which they encapsulate their guidance on medicine.

0073 For purposes of this examination, I will look closely at chapter five (Food).

0074 Guidance₂, the intersection of professors_2H and podcasting_2V, enters into the nested form of postmodern internet education₃ and situates the possibility of the authors’ disciplinary expertise along with their mission (which is to join your team at the same time that you join theirs)₁.

0075 The chapter starts with two warnings.  First, there is no fixed recipe as to what to eat.  Second, food is not merely nutrition for survival.  Eating food occasions social engagement.  Yes, cooking is important.  So, is eating with others.  Know the culinary habits of your lineage.

Here is a picture of what the authors are offering.

0076 Here is how they proceed.  Place food₂ in the place for species₂ as the single actuality₂ that is composed of adaptation_2H and phenotype_2V.  Then, consider the following intersection from more than one point of view.

0077 The first adaptation_2H that comes to mind is cooking with fire_2H.  What does fire do to raw food?  Elevated temperatures break down cellular and structural impediments to digestion.  Cooked food provides more calories than raw.

The corresponding phenotype_2V includes changes in the ways that we perceive flavors.  Cooked food tastes good.  But, that is not all.  Cooking offers an occasion for everyone to eat together and talk.  In the Lebenswelt that we evolved in,humans practice hand talk, which means that no one talks while eating raw food.  But, with cooked food, one does not have to eat and eat and eat and chew and chew and chew to get nutrition.  Plus, cooked food tastes better!  Plus, afterwards, everyone can sit around the fire and enjoy conversation.

In this respect, after the domesticatin of fire, hunter and gatherers have it good.

0078 But, what about our current Lebenswelt?  What about the 21_st century?

0079 Our current Lebenswelt is one of specialization.  After the mechanical revolution starting in the early 1800s, specialization increases beyond imagination.  All sorts of new species of “food for humans” arise in the 21^st century.  And, one popular item is called, “fast food”.

On the horizontal axis, the normal context of product selection_3H brings the actuality of processed food_2H into relation with the potential of industrial food processing_1H.

On the vertical axis, the normal context of business development_3V brings the actuality of restaurants_2V in line with commercialization_1V.  Commercialization_1V appears to be like the genome_1V.  Think of brand recognition.  Each brand has a slogan.  Slogans are the DNA of advertising.

0080 Here is the resulting interscope.

0081 Well, that is my guess as to how the author’s discussion plays out.

Every inquirer will come up with a different scenario.

That is one beauty of this type of exercise.

0082 Once can replace restaurants with diet regimes.  Once can replace processed food with vitamin supplements.

On top of that, different topics are available.  Fire is just one.  Fire is domesticated in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.

What about other domestications?

Animal and plant domestication occurs much more recently.  Sometimes it is hard to tell whether animal and plant domestication begins in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in as opposed to our current Lebenswelt.  Dogs are domesticated in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in.  What about pigeons?

0083 The topic of food shows me that there is a big difference between cooking_2H and eating_2V in the Lebenswelt that we evolved in and processed foods_2H and restaurants_2V in our current Lebenswelt.  Guidance is required.  Guidance₂ is the single actuality that combines the professor_2H and the podcaster_2V.