This makes a lot of sense. I'm fairly certain you are on the right path. I'm curious about how this works in the longer term. Which would be necessary for a population and or societal connection. Clearly I can see the connection for immediate management and balance of the metabolism over the course of a day, week, or even a month, perhaps? Preparing to run a marathon seems stressing and your metabolism would adapt as would your personality...all self induced environment. Makes sense that the environment, not self induced, would trigger similar responses. That is crystal clear and most likely correct. It is far less clear how over the course of a year, for instance, our bodies could adapt and balance our metabolism based on some predicted environment--famine ahead--as an example. Unless we were already heading in that direction...then perhaps features or characteristics emerge within a larger group that seem connected... A lot of human behaviors within groups might be explained. Including, societies in general and other cooperative characteristics. Uncooperative characteristics wouldn't make sense. And as a species we are pretty uncooperative. War, for instance, wouldn't be a thing if our metabolism's were making energy decisions for survival purposes as the most stark example. I guess, perhaps, as hunter gathers, if War triggers a physiological response akin to something like "The Hunt" and our bodies were predicting the abundance of meat and protein we would be very excited. Just like the excitement in a wolf pack prior to a hunt...etc. Perhaps I answered my own question...not about time scale though. But those behaviors could literally just emerge...they could be completely wrong if the predicted environment doesn't follow the triggers...and that would signal confusion and dissent in the population... I like the theory. No I idea how to put any of it into practice to make things better...other than with the tools we already have. Religion, sports, war, advertising/media, and pharmacology...
I actually think War is absolutely related and along with it is genocide. Men in the evolutionary history have about a 1 in 2 chance of procreation. If you are an old chief facing social unrest you want to have a war - ideally somewhere else. Religion is actually the vehicle to coordinate, the better the cohesion - the better the chance of success. If you are a young man with physical capability and no peaceful access to mates, and sensing a drought or just increased costs (Arab Spring) you ever more rather gable in violent chaos than be crushed by hierarchy out of existence. Not to mention that if you have a famine facing your tribe..there is likely a famine next door. As to solutions, I suppose first we more fully identify the problem.
This makes a lot of sense. I'm fairly certain you are on the right path. I'm curious about how this works in the longer term. Which would be necessary for a population and or societal connection. Clearly I can see the connection for immediate management and balance of the metabolism over the course of a day, week, or even a month, perhaps? Preparing to run a marathon seems stressing and your metabolism would adapt as would your personality...all self induced environment. Makes sense that the environment, not self induced, would trigger similar responses. That is crystal clear and most likely correct. It is far less clear how over the course of a year, for instance, our bodies could adapt and balance our metabolism based on some predicted environment--famine ahead--as an example. Unless we were already heading in that direction...then perhaps features or characteristics emerge within a larger group that seem connected... A lot of human behaviors within groups might be explained. Including, societies in general and other cooperative characteristics. Uncooperative characteristics wouldn't make sense. And as a species we are pretty uncooperative. War, for instance, wouldn't be a thing if our metabolism's were making energy decisions for survival purposes as the most stark example. I guess, perhaps, as hunter gathers, if War triggers a physiological response akin to something like "The Hunt" and our bodies were predicting the abundance of meat and protein we would be very excited. Just like the excitement in a wolf pack prior to a hunt...etc. Perhaps I answered my own question...not about time scale though. But those behaviors could literally just emerge...they could be completely wrong if the predicted environment doesn't follow the triggers...and that would signal confusion and dissent in the population... I like the theory. No I idea how to put any of it into practice to make things better...other than with the tools we already have. Religion, sports, war, advertising/media, and pharmacology...
I actually think War is absolutely related and along with it is genocide. Men in the evolutionary history have about a 1 in 2 chance of procreation. If you are an old chief facing social unrest you want to have a war - ideally somewhere else. Religion is actually the vehicle to coordinate, the better the cohesion - the better the chance of success. If you are a young man with physical capability and no peaceful access to mates, and sensing a drought or just increased costs (Arab Spring) you ever more rather gable in violent chaos than be crushed by hierarchy out of existence. Not to mention that if you have a famine facing your tribe..there is likely a famine next door. As to solutions, I suppose first we more fully identify the problem.