When the environment undergoes rapid change within the space of a generation or two, as it has been for the last couple of millennia, if not more, then evolution can’t happen because nature can’t determine which traits to select and which to eliminate. So they remain at a
standstill. Our brain (and the rest of our body) are essentially frozen in time — stuck in the Stone Age.One example of this is that when we watch a scary movie, we get scared, and when we watch porn we get turned on. We cry when someone dies in a movie. Our brain cannot tell the difference between what’s simulated and what’s real, because this distinction didn’t exist in
the Stone Age. ^
As Chris Yeats was fond of saying during all-night shifts at the computer center, the problem with college is that as long as you don’t lose your meal card, you can survive. We’ve lost the wilderness that Jim Morrison so loved, not just for its exhilarating challenge and wide spaces, but for its challenge to our survival. To that I’d add one more thing, which is that if you can spend your time isolated in a place where nothing cares if you die, you will truly conquer your existential doubt and grow massively from the experience. Everyone should go hiking in the desolation and see how long they last in that silence, that total lack of feedback from gods or world. Like milk builds strong bodies, it builds strong souls.