Keith Henson
Keith Henson
Howard Keith Hensonis an American electrical engineer and writer on space engineering, space law, memetics, cryonics, evolutionary psychology and physical limitations of Transhumanism...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
CountryUnited States of America
brain problem victim
Cult recruiting methods based on dosing victims with the brain chemicals released during capture bonding would make cults even more of a problem than they are now.
children errors trial-and-error
Children do not have to learn that streets are dangerous places by potentially fatal trial and error.
military movement social
Cults, or related social movements such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, result in massive military expenses.
years long people
People repeat behaviour that leads to flooding their brains with pleasurable chemicals. The short-term reward loop acts over hours to years, and the long-term reproductive success loop over generations.
suicide growth population
Most of the suicide hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, a place not lacking in wealth. But due to rapid population growth, the wealth per capita has fallen by about half in a generation.
brain attention way
Attention is the way social primates measure status. It is highly rewarding because it causes the release of brain chemicals such as dopamine and endorphins.
successful attention behaviour
Successful cult memes induce intense social interaction behaviour between cult members. This trips the attention detectors.
opportunity wife males
High status males had multiple wives or additional mating opportunities in the ancestral environment.
giving feelings kites
Anyone who has ever had the feeling of being higher than a kite after giving a public speech is well aware of the effects of attention.
evolved humans
Humans have evolved to be exquisitely sensitive to changes in status.
exclusive major sources
The drug or cult has major if not exclusive sources of brain rewards.
areas deluded related
I can't think of anyone who is up on evolutionary psychology and related areas who is deluded enough to be called a utopian.
environment fraction human result suspect
I suspect that a substantial fraction of human problems in the world today, not just cults, result from the mismatch between the current environment and the environment in which we evolved.
bands emerges humans living million picture previous several small social
The picture that emerges for humans in the previous several million years is that of a social primate living in small bands and villages.