I would say the Mithen work needs to be read in conjunction with Richard Wrangham's "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human". Mithen has nothing to say about the domestication of fire and the effect it had on our evolutionary development. That is simply a glaring oversight in an otherwise find work. A comparatively new work by Timothy Taylor, that expands on this whole line of research, into human origin and subsequential development, is "The Artificial Ape: How Technology Change the Course Human Evolution": http://www.amazon.com/The-Artificial-Ape-Technology-Evolution/dp/0230617638/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369072720&sr=8-1&keywords=the+artificial+ape Have yet to get a hold of a copy -- the reviews at Amazon and else where have got me very intrigued.

@ Mr. Roboto No offense but speaking as another homosexual -- you really summed it up why we will fail as a species. It is all about "My Private Idah" there really is something in for everybody in progress. A hui hou ... Lucas.

Aloha -- Dave, Because he is a tenured prof, George Mobus, tends to be long-winded. But, by the stands of his profession, he does write with clarity. I bring this particular posts, by the good professor, to your attention because he, drags in to the discussion: A. Our alleged universal need for meaning. B. Deep evolutionary theory. C. He talks about sex {well he does bring up evolution}. http://questioneverything.typepad.com/question_everything/2013/04/can-we-envision-future-homo-eusapiens.html A question for you, O wise one, if evolved cleverness is the Fall, and the impending population bottleneck is the Tribulation, does that mean E.O. Wilson is Jesus Christ? A hui hou ... Lucas.

Dave, If you have not already read Christopher Lasch "The True and Only Heaven Progress and its Critics" you need to do so. http://www.amazon.com/The-True-Only-Heaven-Progress/product-reviews/0393307956/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1. Before reading Lasch I was a true-believer in one of the more heretical economic sects{at least in what was once referred as "the Free World"} -- Marxism -- afterwards I could start to think for myself. Here is a quote from Lasch: "Now we can see what was so novel about the eighteenth-century idea of progress ... Its original appeal and its continuing plausibility derived from the more specific assumption that insatiable appetites, formerly condemned as a source of social instability and personal unhappiness, could drive the economic machine -- just as man's insatiable curiosity drove the scientific project -- and thus ensure a never-ending expansion of productive forces. The moral rehabilitation of desire ... generated a new sense of possibility, which announced itself most characteristically ... in the hardheaded new science of political economy." {p.52} Yes, of course Progress is a religion, because like all other invisible cosmic beings, that men have created, it never dies -- Progress is eternal. Like other religions before it, Progress promises its believers eternal life, in that a progressive society is incorruptible without end. As Lasch puts it: "A positive appraisal of the social effects of self-gratification made it possible for interpreters of the new order to exempt modern society, in effect, from the judgment of time -- the judgment previously believed, by Christians and pagans alike, to hang like a sword over all man's works." {p.53} We have indeed raised up a great golden beast and worship it. The beast calls us its "children". We are proclaimed to be the apple of the golden beast's eye. The beast then tells us: "Children you are free!" We say: "Free? Free for what, O Creator?" The beast replies: "Why, my children you are free to want what you will." We say: "But what should we want, O our parent?" The beast smiles slyly and coos: "Children, children just look into your hearts and you will know". We grow very quite, a glint comes to our eyes, a roar rises in our throats, the shout goes forth: "WE WANT MORE!" With tears in its eyes the beast says: "Thus, you give me life and I to you." A hui hou ... Lucas

I think Buffaloian got a point. But, then I am person who can't say that I have never gotten in a physical fight with another person. I say it again, DAVE IS A PROPHET, and simply will not be regarded or respected. His level of understanding and compassion are simply too rare ... oh hell lets do the full quote: -- "Too Weird to live, too rare to die" -- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas -- Hunter S. Thompson. I wonder how much that goes for by the pound? Good thing most people are swine -- not to suggest they won't try to put a price on everything, it really is a question of knowing the value of anything. President Kimura is for the present simply living his culture, which does, as pointed out above, provide him with an honorable alternative when that is not longer viable. Now if we were as a species honorable, we would have quite some time ago, embraced the goals of the Human Voluntary Extinction Movement {see. www.vhemt.org}

Dave-- of course you have the right to complain. And your reward is that ye shall be proclaimed not scientist, not philosopher, not pundit, not doomer-for-sale but prophet. And as it is written "a prophet shall have no honor on his planet" {we all do now live in a "globalized society"} The Avatar of this the most unhappy era was not incarnated to bring joy-to-the-world but awareness. When you took up your calling, three years ago, you had much awareness but that final awareness was still denied you -- the awareness that the joke would be on you. Perhaps you had some inkling but now you know the brutal truth. I am not going say "buck-up the next year your hits are bound to go through the roof" because they are not. The pain, the frustration, the unhappiness all are not going to go way. The world will not change. Dave, what I can offer you is my unconditional love and total loyalty as a reader. Your insights, your compassion are unique and that is what makes them very precious. As you like to say "there is no free lunch". Your suffering is our gain. There is really quite a lot brilliance in the world. What sets you apart is that you do not look away no matter how painful it gets. Thus your light burns extra bright. Far too bright for most gaze upon. You really are now entering into uncharted territory. Jesus only lasted three years. But, each great passion is different. Who knows how long yours will last. Happy Anniversary -- expect a card from Honolulu A hui hou ... Lucas.

Mahalo nui loa for posting Robinson Jeffers. Will share with only friend who I think will appreciate.

I guess some problem in my HEAD will never get better. Will be a more diligent proof-reader for future comments posted.

Today I truly did not want to get out of bed. Things inside my end -- as you know the only place that really matters to any of us -- are simply going from bad to worse. Well as I lay there thinking what is the point a little thought entered my head: "I have to get up to read Dave. I hope it is a good one." Out of the ball park! My question is what would have this sycophant have written if Mittens had won? The mother of all consolation pieces? I read this big steaming pile as proof positive as to why "liberals" are more dangerously delusional then "conservatives". You say "ocean acidification". They say "gays in the senate". I am quite certain they truly believe that at some future date our first Black-lesbian-native-American-foreign-born president will be able to start the slow but certain process of dealing with those other "astonishing changes" Mike Roberts made reference to just above. Did not Obama mention climate change in his acceptance speech? Clearly the process has already started. Be prepared to be even more astonished.

Dave, I going to go off topic but I hope it is not irrelevant. I attended the public lecture -- no make that dog and pony show -- at UH Manona the pair of bozo anthropologists the ones with the "walking" statues of Easter Island: http://www.marklynas.org/2011/09/the-myths-of-easter-island-jared-diamond-responds/ put on. They had them eat out of palms of their hands. At one point a member of the audience did ask: "had Jared Diamond responded to your clearly brilliant work?" They said "well, yes but it was only in a blog." I thought of getting up and saying: "yes it may have been only been "a blog' but he did site peer-reviewed research that proves you two are full of horseshit". But, I did not. I guess am not you. Mediocre wins out. Do not forget watch NOVA next Wednesday to see the Statue that walked at Kualoa Ranch. A place where so much movie magic had been made including the hit TV series LOST.

Hi Dave it is me your number one fan. I have recently been trying to share my enthusiasm for Schopenhauer with a number of my "friends". As you can imagine that went over like a lead balloon. These are are actually very good people. How that I see Schopenhauer "self-help advice" in power-point form {who saids modern technology does not improve our lives?} I can see what I got right and what I am doing wrong. This should be a great help to my therapist. Must admit filled with desire to do more sharing with said friends. O, well no fool like an old fool. A quote from the great pessimist: There is no doubt that life is given us, not to be enjoyed, but to be overcome; to be got over.

I a fellow resident on the thirteenth floor just got to read this post. I am glad that you are posting on what the upscale propagandists at PBS are up to. I just finished a neat book on Earth First! by Canadian Political Science prof. Martha F. Lee http://www.amazon.com/Earth-First-Environmental-Apocalypse. No one has yet to review it at Amazon. Want to try and do so. The reason I bring this book up is that Lee documents how the Earth First! movement split over precisely over this issue you bring up all the time: "can humankind change its ways? Can we be educated to be different?" Dave Foreman and most of the original founders of Earth First! definitely believed the answer was no human nature is unchanging -- as you put it "with Homo sapiens, what you see is what you get". As the movement grew in size there emerged another faction who Lee calls "the social justice faction". This faction unlike the original "biocentric" founders very much believed education can make a difference -- that humans could be even perfected. I have come to believe that the stance one takes on this fundamental question is more than likely innate. I did not always believe that. I guess I have to a small degree lead an "examined life". This has not been easy given all my other problems. Still if you are lucky life has a way of educating you. This education is unlike what those who believe in "improvement" and people becoming better hold is possible. In my life terrible events have befallen me. When they happened I always felt "I must tell others of what has befallen me. I must help them learn from what I have learned from bitter experience". I look back now and just have to laugh. How could I have felt that way? What was I thinking. Actually I was at my old ways until about a week ago. Of course, I thought these others would realize what I have to say came "the easy way". Yes, I thought they will gravely consider what I have to say. No of course not -- they believed what is suited to their own nature -- full stop. I agree with you, I have no hope for salvation, for myself or for humanity. I would like to believe that the illusions no longer exist for me. Yet we go on. I do a little native forest restoration work here on O'ahu. I still talk enthusiastically about the work. But I have given up talking about "the big picture". I now believe it is more than likely within forty years the vast majority of remaining native species on and in the waters near O'ahu will be extinct. And what of the human presence? All I can say is that I have got to chuckle at what they continue to "plan" for.

wow population discussion -- my favorite. A female "friend" of breeding years just emailed telling me "population is just do not engaging" for her. She is in particular against limits on immigration "as what right do we have to deny others the opportunity to enjoy the benefits we already have?" Must get my copy of "Growthbusters: Hooked on Growth" back from her.

I rejoice in your "well, yeah" response to Dilworth and look forward to any postings you choose to do on the good professor's magnum opus. A bit of sharing if you do not mind. Remember those two archaeologists with their lolo {crazy} idea about how the Moai {statues} of Rapa nui {Easter Island} were "walked" into place? Well a new NOVA episode about their theory, "The Mystery of Easter Island", will have its world premiere next month {Oct. 17th} at our international film festival. Discussion to follow screening. I expect the "discussion" to be particularly heavily stacked in favor of the film as it will part of the Pacific Islanders in Communications series. {http://www.piccom.org/}. Doubt that comments suggesting the ancestors have not been slandered with be particularly welcome. But still plan to go. A hui hou ...

Glad to to see you got around to reading Grantham. The post that that Gail linked to is a very important one, as is her general point about tropospheric ozone . As far as the 400 years number I believe is strictly a theoretical number that has something to with the generation of waste heat as a result of thermodynamics. It really has nothing to do with the functioning of the biosphere per say. First read it at: Do the Math Using physics and estimation to assess energy, growth, options—by Tom Murphy. http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2012/04/economist-meets-physicist/ Going to end again with a plug for Craig Dilworth's Vicious Circle Principle. Go to: http://montreal.degrowth.org/downloads/papers/K074_Dilworth.pdf. Have yet to find a better theoretical treatment of human behavior. A hui hou ...

I will be voting because where I live -- Honolulu -- we actually have a choice for Mayor that appears to matter. The developers {including Sierra Club no real surprise there} are all for a "big rail" project that will enable us -- so we are told-- to "smart grow", the most isolated major metropolitan center on the planet, by up to another 300,000 residents. {and who knows by how many more, as we like to refer to them here in "paradise", visitors. But this proposed rail project is so f-ugly many are worried if it is actually completed, at this point a big if, that no one will want to come here anymore. Not that Honolulu, now, is what you would call an oil painting given all the ugly development that has already taken place.} This project will cost billions for what by Mainland standards, is a piss-ass amount of rail. But we are told that is no-never-mind because da federal government will pay for most of it. Any-who our former Gov Ben Cayetano is running against this rail scam so I will vote for good old {72} Ben. I started reading John Gray a while back because Gail at Wit's End thinks highly of him. You do know Gail comments regularly here? Always in relation to her concern with tropospheric ozone and dying trees. She is a great source if you ever want to look-in to that generally overlooked environmental problem. I hope your reading Gray will lead you to want to take a look at Schopenhauer -- if you have not already. His "Essays and Aphorisms" is simply great! I had actually wanted to respond to your brilliant "The Crooked Timber" post. A Lisa suggested to you that Danniel Quinn's distinction between "taker" and leaver" cultures explains a great deal -- in particular how agriculture was an experiment we "takers" tried. Well, I certainly do not agree with that view and I believe neither do you. I believe a better explanation is found in Craig Dilworth's "Too Smart For Our Own Good: The Ecological Predicament of Humankind". Dilworth is, unlike your humble self, one of those top-down thinkers. He is a philosopher, Like Gray, but unlike Gray he really knows his science. I would say that Dilworth has even made a important contribution to science with his "the vicious circle principle". I am going to let the good professor from Uppsla Sweden speak for himself: "According to the vicious circle principle (VCP) the evolution of humans generally, and the development of Homo sapiens in particular, differ from what is the case for other species in that we are the only species to develop technology. Paradagmatically this development occurs in a situation of scarcity, and turns that situation into one of surplus. This surplus allows the human population to grow until it runs into the problem of scarcity again. And then, in certain cases, a new form of technology is invented/discovered, and the scarcity is once again transformed into a surplus, with subsequent population growth. And so on. This explains, among other things, why the human population has constantly grown, while the populations of all other species vacillate about a mean." So we are stuck doing the same thing over and over but each time doing it bigger and more destructively. Dave I am going to go out on a limb and say for me you are Alfred Russel Wallace to Dilworth's Charles Darwin. Or maybe it is the other way around? All I do know is you do your bottom-up stuff and Dilworth has his big theory and you two are like a match made in heaven. I am going to end with some links to Dilworth on the web: http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/53100-the-vicious-circle-principle-of-the-development-of-humankind/ and http://montreal.degrowth.org/downloads/papers/K074_Dilworth.pdf. Plus a review: http://www.compassionatespirit.com/wpblog/2012/04/20/too-smart-for-our-own-good/ As we say here in Hawai'i nei: A hui hou ...

How about that I live in Hawaii to. A UH student friend of mine sent a very interesting post from www.thinkprogress.org. It is a summary of "Uber-hedge fund manager" Jeremy Grantham latest report entitled "Welcome to Dystopia! Entering a Long-term and Politically Dangerous Food Crisis". http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/08/16/681571/jeremy-grantham-on-welcome-to-dystopia-we-are-entering-a-long-term-and-politically-dangerous-food-crisis/. If you go to the post you will find that Grantham sees the global food situation as developing along the same lines that you do Dave. Read some of the responses to the post and you will find a number of them are quite stupid -- fine examples of "progressive conspiracy theorizing". They are filled with talk of Bildibergers and their evil "Malthusian agenda". This is my first response. I hope it is positive contribution to the discussion. Dave you have made the right decision about where to focus your energy!

Mr Andersen I presume is a liberal on race, class and immigration and so he feels he has the right to stereotype exactly who a smart America is. I am going to have to respectively disagree with his characterization. I live in Honolulu. In Honlulu we have a large working-class, immigrates are numerous and the majority are people of color. It has been my experience that all three categories are unrepresented among those doing the smart thing. While I am sure that most "go about their daily business" and do their jobs {what ever they may be} they are simply not interested in becoming educated about the human condition. Case in point young Mr. Bruno Mars who wrote a couple of years ago today's anthem to American Avariciousness "I Wanna Be a Billionaire": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jMu110fz6Q. Bruno is typical of the mind set of our young island locals. You would think given how vulnerable, we on the most isolated island chain in the world, are to the unforeseen that we would all want to be "a little smarter than the average bear". Hardly -- we here in Honolulu prove Dave right in spades.