4. Each human is an
integrated community
of symbiotic organisms
5. Gaia Hypothesis
Gaia –the Earth’s biome is
an integrated community of
symbiotic organisms
Gaia –primordial Greek
Earth Goddess
6. Humans and the Earth’s Biome
–both integrated communities
of symbiotic organisms
7. Mismatch Theory
• Any organism (or integrated
community of symbiotic organisms)
functions best when operating amid
circumstances similar to those which
determined its original development.
• Significantly altered circumstances
create a design-function mismatch
and impair health.
8. Mismatches and Human
Physical Health
Mismatches between contemporary
circumstances and the genes affecting our
bodies harm our physical health.
10. Mismatches: Humans and Gaia
The mismatch between contemporary
circumstances and the ancient genes
underpinning our minds impairs our psychic
health and, by doing so, threatens the whole
Earth’s biome.
11. Mismatches: Humans and Gaia
• Overpopulation
• Environmental Degradation
• Women’s Inferior Status
• Ethnic, Religious &Racial Antipathy
• Socioeconomic Inequality
12. Humans and Earth’s Biome
-both integrated communities
of symbiotic organisms
-both subject to mismatch disorders
Lung Cancer Deforestation
14. Redress might be
achieved by
reinstituting the
social, ecological,
and demographic
conditions of our
ancestral “Eden.”
Mismatches
Affecting Gaia
Health
15. Reclaiming Eden
• Goal: Addressing contemporary megaproblems:
-Overpopulation
-Environmental Degradation
-Socioeconomic Inequality
-Racial, Ethnic, Religious Antipathy
-Women’s Inferior Status
• Key Concept: The genes which form our minds
preserve categorical expectations, mental
reference standards, of how life should be. The
relevant genes were selected during the Stone
Age.
• Approach: Deploy refocused spirituality,
i.e. comprehensive religious reorientation
and coalescence.
16. Reclaiming Eden
• Goal: Addressing contemporary megaproblems:
-Overpopulation
-Environmental Degradation
-Socioeconomic Inequality
-Racial, Ethnic, Religious Antipathy
-Women’s Inferior Status
• Key Concept: The genes which form our minds
preserve categorical expectations, mental
reference standards, of how life should be.
The relevant genes were selected during
the Stone Age.
• Approach: Deploy refocused spirituality,
i.e. comprehensive religious reorientation
and coalescence.
17. Mind Genes
Our psychology is
constrained by genetic
selection that occurred
far in our ancestral past.
These “psycho-genes”
help shape our minds;
they are relevant to
addressing the health of
Earth’s biome.
18. We are not behavioral
“prisoners” of these genes,
but we do have a genetically-
determined psychological
infrastructure which constitutes
the neuro-architectural
foundation of our minds .
Our minds are based
on ancient genes.
19. Mental Reference Standards
These are neural networks that are genetically
inherited mental representations of situations or
circumstances that seem “right” or “wrong.”
They provide categorical expectations.
27. European pigeons were
brought to New Zealand
n the 1860’s.
New Zealand has no
native snakes.
Hence pigeon “snake-fear”
modules have been retained
through 150 generations
during which there were no
snake sightings at all.
28. Reclaiming Eden
• Goal: Addressing contemporary megaproblems:
-Overpopulation
-Environmental Degradation
-Socioeconomic Inequality
-Racial, Ethnic, Religious Antipathy
-Women’s Inferior Status
• Key Concept: The genes which form our minds
preserve categorical expectations, mental
reference standards, of how life should be. The
relevant genes were selected during the Stone
Age.
• Approach: Deploy refocused spirituality,
i.e. comprehensive religious reorientation
and coalescence.
29. World Population
Growth
It took all human history
for population to reach
one billion and well over
a century to reach two
billion. Going from six to
seven billion took only
eleven years.
31. Some of Overpopulation’s
Ecological Downsides
• Unsustainable energy demand
-consumption now 142% that in 1990
• Shortages of water and arable land
-arable land per capita now
only 40% that in 1961
• Increased greenhouse gases
- CO2
up 48% and methane up 195% compared
with preagricultural levels (10,000 BCE)
• Deforestation, desertification, urbanization
-almost half Earth’s original forest cover has been
cleared
• Species loss
-similar to a mass extinction event
36. Population
Mental Reference Standard
At the emergence of
Behaviorly modern humans
there were ~10,000 adults;
no crowding
At the end of the Stone
Age, total human
population was ~10 million;
still no crowding
37. Population Contraction –Goal
The lowest number consistent with
economic sufficiency; the smallest
population necessary to assure a lifestyle
for all the world’s people at least
comparable to that now enjoyed by
middle class Westerners.
38. Population Contraction
• Popularize one child per family –accelerating
the existing trend.
• Goal: Reduce
population to the
lowest level
consistent with
sustainable economic
self-sufficiency.
39. Population Contraction
–One Child per Family
Year World Population
2025 8,000,000,000
2125 2,000,000,000
2250 125,000,000
John Maynard Keynes estimated that 50
million was the number needed for national
self-sufficiency.
40. Population Contraction –Pros
• Reduced depletion of natural
resources
• Opens broad areas for rewilding
- Species regeneration
- Habitat restoration
• Decreased emission of greenhouse
gases
• More arable land per capita
41. Population Contraction –Cons
• Elderquake: Increasing demands on
health care, social security, and
welfare systems due to increasing
proportion of older people.
• Declining Tax Base: Ever-diminishing
work force. Example: Japan had 12
workers per retiree in 1950; 2.3
workers per retiree are projected for
2020.
42. Population Contraction:
Assume One Child per Family
Beginning in 2050
Year Workers per Retiree
2050 3.4 (current U.N. projection)
2100 2.4
2125 1.2 (remains constant thereafter)
i.e. Requires that per capita productivity
increase 2.8 fold between 2050 and 2125
43. Population Contraction –Countering
Elderquake
• Increase per capita productivity.
i.e. greater investment in human
capital (peoples’ knowledge, skills,
competences, and health.)
• Extend working careers –to age 70 and
beyond.
• Reduced child care expenditures.
44. Mismatch Disorders Affecting
Human Psychology and Gaia
• Overpopulation
• Environmental Degradation
• Women’s Inferior Status
• Ethnic, Religious &Racial Antipathy
• Socioeconomic Inequality
These are contemporary megaproblems.
Conventional responses to these threats
are failing.
45. Authoritative Recommendations
• Al Gore: Massive changes in human behavior and
thinking. (Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate
Crisis)
• Dieter Helm & Cameron Hepburn: A fundamental
rethink. (The Economics and Politics of Climate
Change)
• Paul Collier: A shift in our thinking. (The Bottom
Billion)
• Christiana Figueres: Nothing short of the most
compelling energy, industrial, behavioral revolution
that humanity has ever seen. (Chair, UN Climate
Secretariat)
46. Reclaiming Eden
• Goal: Addressing contemporary megaproblems:
-Overpopulation
-Environmental Degradation
-Socioeconomic Inequality
-Racial, Ethnic, Religious Antipathy
-Women’s Inferior Status
• Key Concept: The genes which form our minds
preserve categorical expectations, mental
reference standards, of how life should be. The
relevant genes were selected during the Stone
Age.
• Approach: Deploy refocused spirituality,
i.e. comprehensive religious reorientation
and coalescence.
48. Human spirituality is a genetically
determined constant –an intrinsic
component of our minds. However,
its expression varies in accord with
ambient existential circumstances.
Humans Are Innately Spiritual
49. Spirituality’s Expression
“Whenever they enter a new
era of history, people change
their ideas of both humanity
and divinity.”
Karen Armstrong:
A Short History of Myth, p.63.
50. Spiritual Mega-Transformations
• 100,000 to 50,000 BP -Nature
(Humans become behaviorly modern)
• 10,000 BP -Fertility
(Agriculture supplants foraging)
• 3,500 BP -Allegiance
(Nation States emerge)
• 750-250 BP -Salvation
(Axial Age social conditions)
53. Religious Mega-Transformations
The transition from one phase of religious
expression to its successor is not a total
make-over; in nearly all instances elements of the
older belief system are incorporated into the new
faith.
54. Nature Worship:
Small group psychodynamics
foster behavioral standards
Promote:
Sharing Individual autonomy
Cooperation Humility
Generosity Non-violent conflict
resolution
Oppose:
Bullying Intra-group murder
Cheating Despotic behavior
Selfishness Theft
Incest Pride
64. • Heavy, unfair taxation
• Grinding monotonous poverty
• Political oppression
• Brutal work loads
• Wide-spread disease
• Hunger
• Crowded, depressing living conditions
Underclass Life During the
Axial Age
65. Axial Age Existence
For the many, the destitute majority living in
the Axial Age, life must have seemed
pointless, painful and unfulfilling –devoid of
truth, goodness, and beauty –and especially
it must have been seen as unfair.. Hence
the concept of salvation, a new beginning
on a level playing field, meant more than
just material comforts in heaven. It offered
validation, justification, and celebration of
existence’s potential. At the subconscious
level it offered a return to the Edenic ideal.
68. Reclaiming Eden
• Goal: Address contemporary megaproblems:
• Key Concept: Our minds preserve categorical
expectations, of how life should be.
The genes involved date from the Stone Age.
• Approach: Deploy reconceived religion. Reorient
and unify expression of our innate spirituality.
69. Spiritual Mega-Transformations
• 100,000 to 50,000 BP -Nature
(Humans become behaviorly modern)
• 10,000 BP -Fertility
(Agriculture supplants foraging)
• 3,500 BP -Allegiance
(Nation states emerge)
• 750-250 BP –Salvation
(Axial Age social conditions)
• 2000’s CE –Edenism
(World-wide megaproblems)
71. Edenism
• Behavioral standards similar to the precepts
of existing religions –ultimately derived from
Stone Age small group social dynamics.
• Deist doctrine regarding:
-the nature of God
-divine intervention
-afterlife
• New “commandments” –responses to
contemporary megaproblems.
72. New “Commandments”
• Family Planning: single child families
• Gender Equity: women’s rights
• Cultural Amalgamation: linguistic, educational,
social
• Panmixia: mixed marriages
• Socioeconomic near equality: reduce the
gap between “haves and “have-nots”
• Environmentalism: ecological restoration and
species preservation/regeneration.
73. • Modern economic growth has been based on
market capitalism in the context of salvation theology.
• For many humans the benefits have been
unprecedented.
• However, unavoidable associated mismatches now
threaten Gaia –Earth’s biome.
• Our existing paradigm has proved unable to deal
with these existential megaproblems.
• We need a paradigm shift.
Paradigms and Mismatches
