Shay D.

Gods, Jackboots, And Rule 34: How Pornography Could Save The World
by Peter Watts

[aside: I really hope they get the video for this one up soon, because the talk was amazingly entertaining.
ETA: Video! Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.
As always, " " indicates direct quotes, and any misattributions or misunderstandings are mine.]

Peter alleged to write "hard character SF" (hcSF) - he prefers/coins term: "neuropunk"
(examples of hcSF = Battlestar Galactica, Dexter)

neuropunk - started with socio-biology
"we are chemicals and electricity"
brains are survival engines
"free will is incompatible with physics"
"the brain lies" -> fitness trumps truth
we are not thinking machines, we are feeling machines
real science informs personality

hcSF - explores why we are the way we are, and understanding it, can therefore "hack" human nature

natural selection favours the paranoid - those who see agency where none exists
(did something move in the grass, or was it just the wind? the paranoid lived)
- those who are powerless are more likely to see patterns
- belief in god/astrology increases in times of stress

[case in point: Discovery News, Nov 9, 2010: Belief in God Increases with Government Instability ]

the *idea* of surveillance triggers a response (picture of eyes on wall in exam hall enough to deter cheating)
- authoritarian religions have observable advantage in terms of survival
- USA the worst of developed nations on successful socities scale

success - for propogation - depends on self-delusion

throwing rocks at moving targets necessitated time series analysis (invention of time in order to understand world)
- positive feedback loop reinforces black and white thinking

example: climate change
- our species has chosen catastrophe because we don't believe in it

how to short-circuit this behavior?
- you can't reason someone out of a position they didn't arrive at through reason
- have to hack our brains to make our instincts part of the solution

Rule 34: If it exists, there is porn of it. - The Internet

Therefore: to save the world, we need to make change pleasurable - use whatever turns people on.