People under the influence of cults is similar to that we observe in addicts. Typical behaviour for both includes draining bank accounts, neglecting children, destroying relations with family and losing interest in anything except the drug or cult. – Keith Henson
People repeat behaviour that leads to flooding their brains with pleasurable chemicals. The short-term reward loop acts over hours to years, and the long-term reproductive success loop over generations. – Keith Henson
Lie detection is like language there is a learning window. Telling whoppers to small children seems to be a family tradition in many families. – Keith Henson
Evolution acts slowly. Our psychological characteristics today are those that promoted reproductive success in the ancestral environmen. – Keith Henson
It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label. – Barack Obama
Todays preoccupation with physical theories of everything takes a wrong turn from the purpose of science – to question all things relentlessly. Modern physics has become like Swifts kingdom of Laputa, flying absurdly on an island above the earth and indifferent to what is beneath. – Robert Lanza