Paul Zak: Trust, morality - and oxytocin

http://www.ted.com Where does morality come from -- physically, in the brain? In this talk neuroeconomist Paul Zak shows why he believes oxytocin (he calls it "the moral molecule") is responsible for trust, empathy, and other feelings that help build a stable society.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. Featured speakers have included Al Gore on climate change, Philippe Starck on design, Jill Bolte Taylor on observing her own stroke, Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, Jane Goodall on chimpanzees, Bill Gates on malaria and mosquitoes, Pattie Maes on the "Sixth Sense" wearable tech, and "Lost" producer JJ Abrams on the allure of mystery. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design, and TEDTalks cover these topics as well as science, business, development and the arts. Closed captions and translated subtitles in a variety of languages are now available on TED.com, at http://www.ted.com/translate.

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  Science & Technology

[ThirdEyeToby]

Religion is perverted over the ages..

But saying God is not real, is simply selfish and ignorant.. There is no scientific proof yet but hey, the world being flat in the 1500's was a scientific fact as well! There is more to discover!

Experiencing god is actually quite possible my friend.. :)

I'm not talking about the God known to most of the people as the angry, judgemental figure in the sky.. I'm talking about life force. The driving thing behind everything! The very fabric of consciousness!

[CORACUPCAKE]

I found this from SpiritScience :)

[Ron van Middendorp]

Neuroeconomist? Please...

[RatherBeWatchingPorn]

I've been somewhat 'psychoanalyzing' you, which is rude. But also, I think utlitarianism is just a pretty lousy philosophy to begin with (even aside from your misconception of it--try Nietzche to find out what amoral actually is), especially unmodified. Surely you've encountered the 'organ transplant' scenario. Perhaps you can offer your reconciliation of that. It seems outdated, untenable, but it is most certainly a moral philosophy.

[RatherBeWatchingPorn]

Ok just to be frank, your not helping the case for you being "self-invovled", but yes, charity is good. You managed to bring that up unprovoked (that added no context).

What's really doing it though is that is your positing as if its your unique theory. First, its clearly not because you couldn't have gotten it more wrong--it's a moral philosophy. No pompous amoral stuff. But second, it's like me solving a calculus problem and then saying, yes I call /my/ method "a-calculus". Grand Delusion?

[gulllars]

Yes, it's mostly utilitarian, but i've arrived at it through analysis and reflection, and actually use it in practice.

I also do some charitable work because i can, by donating some of my computers idle processing power to science (Folding@Home) and some money to other causes (currently SOS Children's Villages). I don't advertise this, but confronted with your comment it gives context.

I'm quite cynical and emotionally reserved, but if you ask people who know me i'm a "nice and helpful guy".

[RatherBeWatchingPorn]

Proverbial facepalm... that's just utilitarianism.... (maybe some pleasure principle mixed in, but that's arguably inherent anyways), so that makes everything else you posted seem self-involved / delusions of granduer

[RatherBeWatchingPorn]

Oh and 'the man' does in a way

[RatherBeWatchingPorn]

Or you could shoot dope, it's faster. Maybe we can just start shooting up oxytocin and [reference to brave new world]...

[RatherBeWatchingPorn]

Thank you! This eviscerates anything sacred or pure about a notion of higher truth. I don't disagree with research (in fact, I myself am part of oxytocin research and aging) but I at least someone recognizes the gravity of this

[RatherBeWatchingPorn]

While that's all nice and full of daisies, I think you miss the serious threat that the ideas in this video poses against this whimsical thinking. If all this feel-goodness is only because of a (bio)chemical, then this "god" is just a delusion--a meth head could make the same argument (replacing oxytocin with amphetamines; being exogenous is a trivial distinction). I am all for the fanciful thought of higher truth, but you totally overlooked the implication of the video you commented on