the most important adaptation an ideology can make to improve its inclusive fitness for consumption by the human brain is to
refrain from making falsifiable claims
convince its followers to aggressively expand
1 is accomplished by making the ideology rest on a priori claims. everything that rests on top of that claim can be perfectly logical given the premise. since most people don’t examine their beliefs axiomatically, few will question the premise as long as they are provided the bare minimum of comfort. 2 is accomplished by activating the “morally righteous” centers of the brain. We’re not aggressively expanding, we’re bringing democracy/communism/god/whatever to the heathens.
Having a high standard of living seems incompatible with natural selection. Like sadness and pain leading to greater inclusive fitness in an individual, devoting more resources to expansion increases the inclusive fitness of any social system. Those who don’t expand are swallowed by those who do. It only takes one aggressively expansionist civilization per hubble volume to wipe out all other forms of civilization.
the most important adaptation an ideology can make to improve its inclusive fitness for consumption by the human brain is to
refrain from making falsifiable claims
convince its followers to aggressively expand
1 is accomplished by making the ideology rest on a priori claims. everything that rests on top of that claim can be perfectly logical given the premise. since most people don’t examine their beliefs axiomatically, few will question the premise as long as they are provided the bare minimum of comfort. 2 is accomplished by activating the “morally righteous” centers of the brain. We’re not aggressively expanding, we’re bringing democracy/communism/god/whatever to the heathens.
Having a high standard of living seems incompatible with natural selection. Like sadness and pain leading to greater inclusive fitness in an individual, devoting more resources to expansion increases the inclusive fitness of any social system. Those who don’t expand are swallowed by those who do. It only takes one aggressively expansionist civilization per hubble volume to wipe out all other forms of civilization.