The Elephant in the Brain | Robin Hanson | TEDxAsburyPark

We humans are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to get ahead socially, often by devious means.
Understanding hidden motives in everyday life can dramatically change how we view social familiar institutions such as education, medicine, politics and religion.
Dr. Hanson is an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. He has a doctorate in social science from California Institute of Technology, master's degrees in physics and philosophy from the University of Chicago, and nine years experience as a research programmer at Lockheed and NASA.
He says that we need social institutions to pretend to give us what we pretend we want, while giving us what we need.
He is the author of "The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth" and co-author of "The Elephant in the Brain."
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@thel1355]

Robin Hanson made the mistake of thinking that TED Talks were about presenting novel and insightful ideas. No, they're about giving the audience a false sense of knowledge and sophistication without having to do all the hard work of studying the subject themselves.

[@hessischbynature]

"which level of signalling are you on" "one maybe two" "you're like a baby, watch this" What if he pretended to pretend to pretend to give people a false sense of knowledge, pretended to pretend to promote his book, pretended to signal that he as a researcher is more high status than them, and in reality just needed an excuse to get out of NYC on that particular day?

[@TheJamesRedwood]

Why do you think it was a mistake? Perhaps the mistake was yours when you thought that about TED Talks. I know exactly what you're talking about, I have seen hundreds of these things, been to two TEDxs before I got bored with the concept. But I wouldn't make that general statement about the audience. I used to think I went off the format because it didn't result in the group taking action. I had thoughts of creating an "After TED" complementary event, where the audience, all fired-up, upper-middle class wealth, could convene in a few seminars and come up with some proactive actions that responded to the calls to action implicit in the talks. Then I realised that that would work only if most of the audience agreed with the speaker, and that not all the talks had calls to action, they were simply interesting. For all that the audience is more likely to be liberals, it is not a political rally. What's wrong with a bunch of people wanting to get a quick version of some interesting topics? What sane person would want to attempt to become a polymath if they didn't have the brain for it? Which is what you are suggesting the audience should do, I assume - go off and actually get degree-level understanding of *every* talk they watch for them to not be considered shallow dilettantes. Is that what you are suggesting? If you have that criticism of TED talks, how do you feel about good journalism? good documentaries? They are both short summaries of complex and deep topics, designed to be digested by non-experts for their personal edification. Are they also to be sneered at? Why are you watching it?

[@rogersyversen3633]

I think they are aware. excerpt from the book: "In case it's not clear by now, this chapter helps explain Kevin and Robin's "hidden'' motives for writing and publishing this book. To put it baldly, we want to impress you; we're seeking prestige." (page 166, subtitle "the elephant in the book").

[@Sharetheroad3333]

TheJamesRedwood beautiful response. Thank you.

[@tdreamgmail]

What do SJWs hate the most? Truth

[@oman636]

robin hanson is a brilliant mind and i don't know why he doesn't get more credit

[@jirikivaari]

Robin Hanson is probably the greatest reductionist thinker in all human history. He may not get the recognition today but if humanity is still there (and he is working on trying to improve our changes, god bless Robin) he will be remembered with likes of Aristotle, Newton and Einstein. No joke. Newton, Einstein or Plato (although he had some ideas) never discovered signaling in such explicit form. They were too busy signaling intelligence through physics or philosophy to know what they were even doing. Of course he worked on other's shoulders, like Michael Spence.

[@morinohisagi2138]

So, why are you writing in small letters? Do you think you look cool like that??

[@SchopenhauerVsCamus]

i wrote this comment to signal that i am open to questioning my previously held assumptions about how people operate in the social realm. also used all lowercase letters cos it’s “cool”

[@user-yl7kl7sl1g]

He get's credit from people smart enough to matter. I hope he takes care of his health to be around when machines cure aging. :(

[@sevdesar2709]

This was one of the best talks I've ever listened. Thanks? I don't know.

[@nickmagrick7702]

4:03 laughter has to do with either Novelty, or stress reduction (such as in social situations). Im fairly confident those are the two over arching reasons behind all laughter.

[@karlnord1429]

Right, stress reduction is implicit in what he was saying.

[@pairadeau]

Bravo!

[@Bob-Maplethorpe]

You can see how nervous he is. Great ideas, and enjoyed listening to him on Sam Harris podcast.

[@raygunn95]

I'm listening to him speak on Sam Harris' podcast and he punctuates his sentences with little laughs in the same way. There's a live audience in that case too, but I'm inclined to believe that it's just his manner of expressing himself. I definitely agree that it appears nervous but I'm not convinced that it actually is. It might just be a persona he uses for presenting ideas that he knows are challenging so that it's more palatable. Or maybe something else entirely idk

[@DanElton]

Nah that’s just how he is.

[@dawgyv72]

his breathing, aaaaah!

[@pame7911]

thanks 😻

[@Retrolux]

The book is awesome

[@yoyoyoman11]

Genius!

[@MichaelKleyn]

I close my eyes and hear Dan Aykroyd

[@No_Avail]

The emergence of the _anti-hero_ in much recent fiction suggests that there's a real hunger for the insights that a book like The Elephant In The Brain dispenses. Would it be unduly optimistic to predict that a majority of the population would welcome these findings? I'd like to see some RCTs with the goal of discovering just how prevalent these *"yay anti-heroes / boo ideal heroes"* attitudes are. Those types of findings should have implications for the broader topic.

[@abdulazizhawsah9884]

I love him 👍🏾 The elephant in the brain is a holy book to me 😙

[@morinohisagi2138]

I just got it today and I'm way too excited to read

[@abdulazizhawsah9884]

@@morinohisagi2138 Have an open mind 😁. Do recommend any books?

[@axwi1957]

@@abdulazizhawsah9884 sapiens!! Read that . Read that one then after read the elephant in the brain

[@joyfulspirit22]

Sounds about right to me

[@jbperez808]

Jung’s Shadow

[@z0uLess]

This could be translated (interpreted as analogous), with a little goodwill, to the theoretical framework of the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Also, the philosophical question of whether one can say anything about ideology or if you cant because you yourself is affected by ideology (Mannheim paradox) is very interesting. If anyone can say anything half intelligent about it, I would be glad to hear it. It is a question I am struggling with in my studies as a social scientist - whats the point if the science is not able to be self-referentially consistent? The same cunundrum is posed by Clifford Geertz. He called it "Sphinx's Riddle".

[@yashyadav9397]

Science is never meant to be consistent. It's just that we like things to remain constant or moving in a well defined trajectory 😂

[@z0uLess]

@@yashyadav9397 Ah, because we dont understand anything, people can have their livelyhood predicated on the reassurances that they will make us understand something some day?

[@peddlinshutterbug]

Apparently the side that controls his arms lost the argument....

[@paulrozy]

OG

[@SavHub]

Interesting; however, the part about medicine didn't convince me at all...

[@gggrow]

Ok, what are your objections to his ideas on that?

[@Bob-Maplethorpe]

SavHub he is perfectly on with this point. People aren't interested in health, which is mainly influenced by exercise and nutrition. Give people what they pretend they want.

[@Monocerus90]

Dale it's hard to pursue health. It takes discipline.. we want to look good, but it's difficult

[@Bob-Maplethorpe]

Justin Schmitt exactly: look good. Exercise is hard until you get a lit of miles beneath you. Then it becomes like a perpetual motion machine.

[@Monocerus90]

Dale The guy has some interesting points. I do think medicine point is off the mark... of course there aren't high correlates with medicine and health (medicine implies poor health). We don't really 'pretend' to want good medicine. All of his other points resonate, I just don't understand what he is getting at with medicine

[@ukpoetry]

He's talking about the Ego and group consciousness, right?

[@maruchannuudle657]

Not exactly but also yes. Basically the motives behind “ why “ are never the motives we agree to out loud to others. An example is the reason why I am responding is because deep down it feels good to respond and feel like I know what I’m talking about (even if I MAYBE don’t) but I responded anyways in hopes the be right. The motive that everyone else sees is that “I am helping by explaining”. And the secret elephant in the brain motive is that maybe I don’t care at all about helping but rather just responding. Crazy.

[@oldoddjobs]

Signalling is not about signalling

[@williamduke7109]

We need to take this to the streets, STAT. WAKE FOLKS UP

[@adamromero]

This guy was on the Sam Harris podcast and I thought that weird nervous chuckle he was doing was an audio problem... until seeing this. Weird.

[@fisharepeopletoo9653]

"Actually only about 20% of laughs are caused by a joke" maybe for you, as 80% of your laughs seem to be spontaneous and erroneous, why are you laughing between every sentence?

[@z0uLess]

Numbzie try to broaden your perspective

[@fisharepeopletoo9653]

Its a legitimate question considering the subject of the talk.

[@MrKohlenstoff]

@@fisharepeopletoo9653 probably just an uncommon mannerism, not sure if there is anything more to it than that

[@jamesgclef4901]

mark of the beast is next

[@hitthelimithitthelimit3727]

First there was Sperry, who, in fact, discovered the effect of the "two hemispheres" and justly earned the Nobel Prize for it. Then there was his student Michael S. Gazzaniga, who not so much cut and watched but mostly badly philosophized in the book Who's in Charge? The epigraph to this book is worth a lot! However, starting from about page 86, he starts quickly forgetting what he claimed before. Then came Robin Hanson with his elephants, which are a pale reflection not only of Sperry, but of Gazzaniga as well. The question remains the same: how can professionals who discovered the left hemisphere interpreter, can so easily stop halfway, fall into such primitive traps and tell such nonsense? Mr. Robin Hanson, to remain polite with you, I will only note that everything you say is at least trivial. But you should have known the history of this issue.

[@jirikivaari]

This was not trivial at all at the time when it was discovered. Very few top intellectuals seem to understand the status games on intellectual level; if they did there would be less demonizing and less playing status games. Sure nothing is new in art and literature but these ideas were never said in such explicit form. Internet has changed all this because cultural evolution happens so fast.

[@toddbauer1996]

Years later, I would be curious to know if you read The Master and His Emissary, and if so, what you think of it in relation.

[@cloudcave]

Please don't let the republicans see this! There goes affordable health care. If someone gets sick, just give them a hug. It's just as good as neurosurgery.