Naresh > Recent Status Updates

Denisovan DNA is present in native Australians.

A brief history of the Denisovans. On to the Genetic Revolution in archeology.

Prospective Theory! We feel happy to get $10 but even more sad on losing $10. Normative and descriptive methods.

The Endowment Effect! What I have values more than if I had to pay to get it. Letting go is hard!

From medieval authoritarianism to modern humanism

I wasn't sure to reach this far. It happens! :)

Exchange promotes division of labor and vice-versa. Value of a commodity is for an individual. Market price is the cost of exchange. Components of market price: labor, rent, and profit.

1- Man has social and selfish propensities. Existence of selfish propensities necessitates justice and morality. 2- Morality and justice. 3- Rules of justice restrain man from hurting others. They have little bearing on personal morality. 4- Rules of justice are a subset of rules of morality.

Moral sentiments and economics.

How do we launch humanity into space? :D

- 1876: Western Union is a telegraph monopoly.
- Bell invents telephone. There were several others with the same idea. Bells makes it big.
- A monopoly breaks down, another one rises, takes complete control over telephone industry. Government lets this one fly for public good, as sold by Theodore Veil.

In Alice Springs. Struggling with sick camels, and the confusion whether to continue the journey.

Ice is melting

Key West -> Camden -> Helifax -> Nuuk

Via St. Peter's Canal, Gulf of St. Lawrence, Labrador Sea, and Baffin Bay

Mulling over the Arctic dream.

Religion formed bigger groups.
- Animism: All nature is equal. Trees as well as Humans have spirits.
- Tribal Gods: Local Gods for specialized purpose like healing. All nature is equal.
- Polytheism: Specialized gods for Earth, Water, Fire etc. Humans gained supremacy.
- Monotheism: My god is omnipotent. Invented saints for specialized work. Nature is for humans to consume.
* Religion: Enforces supreme order.

Empires brought people with different lands, culture, and God together. They enforced strict laws that allowed exchange of goods, literature, and arts. As the empires grew, smaller tribes, and cultures disappeared merging into the empire.

What makes humans different from other animals is their organization into large groups. Individuals formed bands. Bands formed tribes. Tribes formed villages, then towns, and cities, and so on. Agriculture gave them capability to plan for the future, and introduced the concept of wealth. Imagined order, and scripts came as a consequence. Orders were supported by mythical facts as if races are divine creation.

Agriculture promoted collective farming, storage, and distribution. Some tilled fields, others dug irrigation channels, still others protected the crops? Who gets how much? What is the penalty of theft? This required a social order. Hammurabi's Code introduced division of society for the 'common good'. Why believe such a code? Because God said so. To move people in believing myths, a higher order myth is necessary.

20,000 years ago, Sapiens started to cultivation of wheat, barley, millet etc. It held the promise for comfortable living. Comfortable living meant higher procreation. Population explosion - more mouths to feed - more work - miserable life.
Presence of wheat on the planet increased exponentially. Is wheat evolutionary superior, and sapiens just a means of its evolution? Probably not - Ask this tomillions of chickens

- Humans decimated animal life as they moved out of Africa.
- Marsupials of Australia died out 30,000 years ago.
- Mammoths, Ground Sloths died out 15,000 years ago.
- Giant Camels as they moved South.
- Large animals in Madagascar about 5,000 years ago.
- Human foragers wiped out 90% of large species on the planet.
- Agriculture wiped out the vegetation.
- Industrial revolution is wiping out the sea life.

We hardly have any evidence to support the religious beliefs, economic, and political structure of sapiens pre-agricultural era. Best guess is that there were varied religions, economic, and political systems quite different from each other.