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Your brain was never designed for this much bad news (www.sciencedaily.com)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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Humans evolved to pay close attention to danger, but today that instinct is being overwhelmed by an endless supply of bad news from around the world. Researchers say the answer isn’t to stop following current events—it’s to build healthier habits around how, when, and where we get our news.

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[–] 4 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Is it? I’d guess 'to evolve to do smth' doesn’t necessarily need to be teleological. IIRC the verb 'evolve' means the fittest getting randomly selected, no?

I think I understand where you’re coming from but I think it’s fundamentally different to 'being designed with a specific goal in mind'

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  • [–] 4 points 2 months ago

    Evolved into or evolved with may reduce the implication of an intention.

    • Our brains evolved into structures capable of supporting complex language.
    • Our brains evolved with the capacity for complex language.
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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago (1 child)

    Don't mind me, I had a prof who was uptight about it. I am sure it would only matter for formal or technical writing, like a scientific paper.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago

    Oh I don’t mind. I just thought it an interesting question. I would like to know your prof’s reasoning for his insistence.

    Because that would mean that 'evolve' can also be used teleologically, imho.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 months ago

    Since we’re all being pedantic about words here, we wouldn’t say our brains evolved to X because it’s our ancestors’ evolutionary precursor brains that evolved into ours.

    I’d suggest we just back off the pedantry in general. The headline could have said “your brain isn’t suited to…” if they wanted to avoid the possible implication of a deity but I think we know what they were trying to say.

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