I was looking up another book when I came across this title and immediately requested it from the library. I just finished it the other day and I'm glad I discovered it.
This is Justin Gregg's description of the book:
He's arguing that humans are often too intelligent for our own good--and that makes us stupid. He uses many examples to illustrate what he means throughout the book. One that will stick with me for a long time is that of the bungee jumper. He spent some time investigating one particular jump from a railroad trestle onto a concrete surface below. It was 70 feet, so he did his (mis)calculations, taped together (!!!) several bungee cords to get one that was 70 feet in length. You see the problem here. He tied the cord to his ankles, took a leap, and a jogger found his body a short time later. His grandmother reportedly commented that he was smart in school. Gregg points out that his jump required a great deal of cognitive skill. In order to even want to make this leap, he would have anticipated the rush he would feel during and after completion. He had to be able to plan in advance, measure, and more. Gregg compares these cognitive processes to our close relatives, chimpanzees. Chimps would not have the intelligence to do the things required to envision, prepare, and complete the jump. Since chimps lack the necessary cognitive processes to do this, they wouldn't. A chimp, he says, '...for the record, would never tie a rope around his ankles and fling himself off a railroad trestle in pursuit of an endorphin rush.' (p. 226) It was the jumper's intelligence that led to his death.
Gregg turns his focus to 6 different broad categories and discusses his arguments as related to each one. I'll just briefly state what they are, but he goes into greater detail with plenty of examples throughout each chapter.
First, he labels humans 'why specialists.' We ask why looking for answers to questions about cause and effect. Is this a biological advantage for us? Gregg thinks it probably isn't. He points out that this isn't something that humans did for most of our evolutionary history. We often THINK we understand causes and effects, but we're often wrong, which leads us into trouble quite often.
His chapter on lying was fascinating as he discussed the fact that humans are hard-wired to both lie and believe others. These are both evolutionary advantages, apparently. He explained the Truth Default Theory. A friend and I had an email conversation about this. She said it explained some things about herself. I felt it was not at all my experience. My default is to believe nothing anyone says until I experience the truth of it. It would be easier to just believe things, perhaps, but I never have and probably won't start at this late date!
Next, he writes about 'death wisdom.' Animals have concepts of death to varying degrees, but humans have a deep understanding of death, the ability to foresee the future (and our own deaths), and the desire to want some kind of immortality. This can lead to bad biological outcomes, like religious wars, but also a desire to achieve some sort of lasting acclaim, which can lead to exploitation in pursuit of power. He describes some fascinating bird studies and their results in this chapter.
He includes a chapter on morality, correctly pointing out that definitions of what is moral are culturally determined. Misunderstandings between cultures in this regard lead to harmful behavior.
Gregg does love his bees and they take center stage in his chapter on consciousness, which is connected to emotion. Obviously, emotions can lead to all sorts of disadvantageous action.
Finally, he explains prognostic myopia, which is the human capability to understand a future problem and then pretend not to see it. Climate change is a big example in this chapter. He uses himself to illustrate this. He knows climate change will affect himself to some degree, his children more, and their children even more. He knows the activities he engages in today will contribute to making life hell for his great-granddaughter, but he still drives places, flies, and buys bananas from afar (he lives in Canada).
Gregg's argument is not that various animals are smarter because they're making better decisions than humans. Rather he's saying that with all of our brainpower, we create more problems for ourselves. His chickens, he says, have perfectly happy chicken lives as they peck around from day to day. They're not thinking about tomorrow, asking why, ignoring future catastrophic problems, or engaging in wars about what happens after they die. They're just being chickens. We're just being humans. But because we have brains that allow us to do different kinds of thinking, we create messes. Our intelligence makes us stupid.
I loved this book. It was extremely interesting, very informative, provided much food for thought, and it was funny, too. I'm glad I found it!
