Energy and Evolution
Introduction
The aim of this wiki edit is to aid in answering the question;
"Is it possible for humanity to define, arrive at and sustain an ecological footprint that is within the Earth's carrying capacity and simultaneously improve people's quality of life in a way which is fair?"
To help answer this I am incorporating recent advancements in neuro-scientific and human evolutionary studies with the systemic imperatives of energy acquisition.
Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary Psychology is the study of human nature through the lens of our genetic heritage. Because it has in no small part developed from the field of Ethology, the study of animal behaviour, it has managed to avoid many of the political pitfalls found in conventional psychology and the social sciences in general (Buss, 2005). In the same way our physiology was shaped by life on the Savannah's of the Pleistocene, so to was our psychology. In fact, when it comes to the fundamentals, the acquisition of energy resources, evolution has been shaping our psychology because from localized famines to global extinction events, resource scarcity has occurred continuously since life first began.
The Evolved Brain
The brain is not a general purpose problem solving machine but has evolved to be domain specific (Buss, 2005) or modular in form and function. This modularity is so specific that when a study of people were asked to think about killing an animal and later asked on killing a human, two different areas of the brain showed activity on an fMRI scanner (Konnor, 2003). This functional specialization has evolved because the brain is an adaptation executor reacting to environmental cues (Buss, 2005). Moreover, the brain is for all intents and purposes a meat computer (Hanson 2010).
The Importance of Energy
To remain dynamic all systems, which includes all living organisms and the societies they create, must have an energy throughput (Daly, 2004). Moreover, they attempt to maximize this throughput. Firstly, by maximizing energy input and secondly by increasing the efficiency of their internal processing. This is known as the Maximum Power Principle (Odum, 2007). This can be seen throughout all human societies, past and present, who attempt to maximize growth by exploiting natural capital and increase efficient throughput of that capital by the division of labour and formation of social hierarchies.
Evolved Adaptation-Cooperation
Humans are social animals with an innate sense of cooperation and altruistic tendencies which go beyond that of just helping related kin. This is because people who cooperated survived and left more descendants than those who did not (Hanson, 2011). We can cooperate on one level while competing on another. For example we cooperate with each other in the formation of our societies while at the same time compete for status because of the greater access to resources it provides us. One example of how humans work together is warfare, an intensely cooperative venture where one group coordinates their aggressive actions against another.
Evolved Adaptation-Warfare
Aggression is a means of co-opting the resources of others and can occur at the individual or group level (Buss, 2009). Warfare is exclusively a male affair and observed across cultures and throughout recorded history (Buss, 2009). That it is so prevalent suggests it is a successful evolutionary adaptation for the acquisition of resources and a strategy that will most likely raise its ugly head when resource scarcity environmental cues are perceived, then acted upon by the subconscious mind.
Evolved Adaptation- Dispersal
Another way in which a group can deal with scarce resources is dispersal, an evolved strategy that has also been observed in other social primates. A divide is created within the group along cultural, religious, ethnic lines etc. The dominant group then forces the rest to leave the immediate environment freeing up more local resources for themselves now there are less mouths to feed. The refugees are invariably forced into a worse environment which is often dangerous for their survival. For example, the Polynesian tradition of voyages of discovery where islands at carrying capacity forced groups of people to take up journeys by boat to find new land.
Conclusion
The evolutionary influence on our psychology in relation to acquiring energy is very ancient. Because resource scarcity events are relatively common over time, this influence is reinforced on a regular basis. Human reaction to the perception of resource scarcity events such as the peaking in production of fossil fuels is highly likely to be subconscious/genetic rather than conscious/learned in response. Moreover, These innate responses are unlikely to be considered fair and in no way incorporate an abstract notion such as human rights, which is unique to our current society.
References
Buss D.M. (2005) The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, New Jersey, John Wiley & Sons
Buss D.M. (2009) Evolutionary Psychology, The New Science of the Mind, USA, Pearson Education, Inc
Daly H.E. (2004) Ecological Economics, Principles and Applications, USA, Island Press
Hanson J (2010)'The Brain is a Meat Computer'[online] http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/America2Point0/ message to America 2.0 forum
Hanson J (2011) From Capitalism to Democracy, [online] http://jayhanson.us/index.htm (Accessed 30, May 2011)
Konnor M (2003) The Tangled Wing, Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit, USA, Henry Holt & Company
Odum H.T. (2007) Environment, Power and Society, New York, Columbia University