The Robot's Rebellion Finding A Meaning In The Age Of Darwin

Evolutionary psychology is a theoretical approach to psychology. This allows it to explain the mental and psychological traits of psychology. These traits include; memory, perception or language. In the novel The Robot’ s Rebellion Finding a Meaning in the Age of Darwin, by Keith E. Stanovich explores interesting theories about evolutionary psychology, one being the way evolutionary psychology helps us understand the human mind and how that differs from an animal’s mind. Throughout this essay, we will be exploring the human mind with the use of different lecture topics from the course Mysteries of the Mind taught by Dr. Jim Davis. There are several lectures that can help us better understand the human mind, but the main lectures that aid us

For example, in the novel on page 13 Stanovich states that “the bee is characterized primarily by a so-called Darwinian mind”. This is due due to the fact that a bee will sacrifice itself for the greater good of the hive, or to help other living individuals. When the bee sacrifices itself it does so to save the the queen bee or to protect the hive. Compared to bees, humans usually have the flight aspect of the fight or flight response. When humans perceive a treat to their homes or loved ones they will sometimes protect them, but most often the think of themselves and how they can protect them self. This is much different than the bee who have the flight aspect. Another example to look at is the trolley example that we discussed in class. If a human were to have choose to save five people and kill one by pushing a button, or to save five people by pushing someone in front of a moving train, the human would choose the first option. This is due to the fact that the person is not physically killing another human, rather pushing a button to save five people. This would also be different if the person had someone they loved that was being killed to save the five people. This again relates to the fight or flight response. When the person has to kill the unknown human they are willing to due which relates to the fight aspect. However, when they are forced

While humans decide based on some of the same aspects, humans take much more into consideration. In the novel Stanovich explains that Hanuman langurs, a population of monkeys in India, where the strongest male has “exclusive sexual access to a group of females”. We this behavior in all animals, the females will find the strongest or most dominant mate to ensure that the offspring will grow up to survive and also produce strong offspring. Humans follow this trait as well, but they take many more aspects into consideration. While animals look for dominance and strength, humans look for both qualities, in addition to appearance, humor, personality, etc. Even though most animals choose their mates based on sexual selection, some are matted through artificial selection. This is where the humans choose who the animals mate with based on strength and appearance. This still helps with evolution, due to the fact that we are still creating new species that will then create new species when