Tonight's talk is talk I like to give every year a version of it and it's on how the evolutionarily installed traits, which are myriad in the human behavioral array, how very old evolutionarily installed behavioral traits are no longer adaptive to our environments, how they can cause us trouble and what we can do about them.

I do give a lot of talk every year

on attachment and early childhood experiences and trauma and how they can,

how they influence our adult behavior.

But I don't give that many talks on genetic predispositions that are

due to our evolution, and yet they're very important.

So this talk will be a small effort to redress that imbalance. Now understanding

how evolution works is offers a profound insight into the human mind and behavior.

It offers answers to some of the most fundamental questions we have about what is the nature of human beings,

the true nature.

And there's a lot of conflicting views, let's face it. The Christian view is that we are

fallen beings tainted by some original sin. I never really quite understood that view, but it is a popular view that somehow human beings are tainted. We've done something wrong even before we were born.

Then of course there's the Hindu Brahmin view that our lives are determined by

karma from previous lives, previous incarnations, and that we are playing out simply largely

the results of actions that were done in previous lives.

And then there's the Hobbesian view.

Hobbes was a very important philosopher.

That we are selfish creatures that rely on laws and civilization to be tamed.

But on the other hand, there was Rousseau

who said the exact opposite, that we are kind creatures corrupted by civilization.

And Freud said that we are conflicted driven by all these unconscious urges, aggression and sexual,

and also we are wildly influenced by the early childhood relationships.

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