Agreed that upgrtading humans is hard. Nick bostrom’s suggestion is another version of Algernon’s Principle (“every genetically easy change is a net evolutionary disadvantage in the EEA”). (Strangely, this principle does not show up on Google—am I spelling it wrong? Has the Algernon’s Principle meme failed to spread on the internet, for some odd reason?)
Tim’s “resource costs” is a general counter to this, since resources are much cheaper now than in the EEA, but it is unlikely to actually be the reason in all cases. And since aging seems to partly be caused by byproducts of metabolism, using more energy (the primary resource) is problematic, at least until mitoSENS.
Also agreed with Robin that upload and speed up sidesteps this...but at the cost of normal physical existence, which has its own problems. Personally I would much rather upgrade w/o uploading, at least at the beginning.
Anyway, my main reason for commenting is: I dunno if you were joking about how your thoughts on hunter gatherer mental illness were pure speculation, but in fact you are exactly right. Countries which eat more fish have much less mental illness (depression, bipolar, schizophrenia), the relationship is strong. So lack of robustness against insufficient omega 6 does indeed cause much mental illness. (One reason my son has been raised on lots of fish oil.)
Agreed that upgrtading humans is hard. Nick bostrom’s suggestion is another version of Algernon’s Principle (“every genetically easy change is a net evolutionary disadvantage in the EEA”). (Strangely, this principle does not show up on Google—am I spelling it wrong? Has the Algernon’s Principle meme failed to spread on the internet, for some odd reason?)
Tim’s “resource costs” is a general counter to this, since resources are much cheaper now than in the EEA, but it is unlikely to actually be the reason in all cases. And since aging seems to partly be caused by byproducts of metabolism, using more energy (the primary resource) is problematic, at least until mitoSENS.
Also agreed with Robin that upload and speed up sidesteps this...but at the cost of normal physical existence, which has its own problems. Personally I would much rather upgrade w/o uploading, at least at the beginning.
Anyway, my main reason for commenting is: I dunno if you were joking about how your thoughts on hunter gatherer mental illness were pure speculation, but in fact you are exactly right. Countries which eat more fish have much less mental illness (depression, bipolar, schizophrenia), the relationship is strong. So lack of robustness against insufficient omega 6 does indeed cause much mental illness. (One reason my son has been raised on lots of fish oil.)