The biology of our best and worst selves | Robert Sapolsky

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2017

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

How can humans be so compassionate and altruistic -- and also so brutal and violent? To understand why we do what we do, neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky looks at extreme context, examining actions on timescales from seconds to millions of years before they occurred. In this fascinating talk, he shares his cutting edge research into the biology that drives our worst and best behaviors.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features neuroscientist, primatologist, and writer Robert Sapolsky, recorded live at TED-2017.
0:18.4	The fantasy always runs something like this.
0:22.4	I've overpowered his elite guard, burst into a secret bunker with my machine gun ready.
0:28.4	He lunges for his luger.
0:30.3	I knock it out of his hand.
0:32.1	He lunges for his cyanide pill.
0:34.5	I knock that out of his hand.
0:36.2	He snarls, comes in me with otherworldly strength.
0:39.9	We grapple, we fight, I manage to pin him down and put on handcuffs. Adolf Hitler, I say,
0:47.9	I arrest you for crimes against humanity. Here's where the Medal of Honor version of the fantasy ends and the imagery darkens.
0:57.2	What would I do if I had Hitler? And it's not hard to imagine once I allow myself.
1:03.3	Sever his spine at the neck. Take out his eyes with a blunt instrument, puncture his ear or drums,
1:09.4	cut out his tongue, leave him alive on a respirator,
1:12.8	tube fed, not able to speak or move or see or hear just to feel. And then inject him with
1:19.7	something cancerous that's going to fester and postulate until every cell in his body is
1:26.2	screaming in agony until every second feels like body is screaming in agony,
1:30.6	until every second feels like an eternity in hell.
1:33.5	That's what I would do to Hitler.
1:39.6	I've had this fantasy since I was a kid, still do sometimes.
1:42.2	And when I do, my heart speeds up.
1:47.2	All these plans for the most evil, wicked soul in history.
1:52.9	But there's a problem, which is, I don't actually believe in souls or evil. And I think wicked belongs in a musical. But there's some people I would like to see killed, but I'm against
	...

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