(via Pharyngula)
Save 52 minutes of your life to listen to this thought-provoking, funny and -in overall- excellent lecture by Richard Dawkins on "The Purpose of Purpose". He makes an interesting point about our minds' great tendency to explain the purpose of things, both abstract and physical, to answer the question "why". Below is a short and partial summary of the lecture through my eyes but do watch the lecture yourself, it's definitely worth the loading.
I especially enjoyed the realisation of the nature of this aspect in our minds: its flexibility which within its own survival carries the possibility of its very own destruction; and this flexibility can be exploited, directed from the original reproduction of genes to other goals that may indirectly serve the genes' survival (e.g. clubs and other social in-groups), or may temporarily neglect the Darwinian basis of survival (e.g. bungee jumping), or to act completely against one's survival and replace it with genetic death (e.g. elibacy, obesity) or with an actual deathwish (e.g. the construction of nuclear and hydrogen bombs, suicide bombings). All this for the original goal being replaced by temporary or permanent goals that ctively work against the original goal.
There are numerous examples of this:
* Watch the film "Bridge on the River Kwai" in which a British war-prisoner replaces his original goal of destroying the Japanese by the goal of building a strategically important bridge for them.
* Ever seen a dog limping against a chair, or a bull trying to copulate with a bull statue? To paraphrase Dawkins, it may seem hilarious to us but it is not very different from human behaviour: just ask any twentysomething straight male whether they find Lara Croft sexy, or find out the percentage of adult males who have been aroused by a porn film or Hustler. The same goal -sex- can easily be abused for other goals. Do you think the number of Muslim men would be as high if the award for a martyr death was, instead of 72 virgins, 72 raisins? Doubt it.
* Obesity. The human brain is still in the Stone Ages when it comes to food but in the Western world the reality is not. This results in us eating when food is available -as in all the time- even when it causes overeating. The flexibility includes the seeds of its own destruction.
