Ep. 96 - The Human Social Creature

Humans (Homo sapiens) are a species of highly intelligent primates. They are the only extant members of the subtribe Hominina and—together with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans—are part of the family Hominidae (the great apes, or hominids).

...Neontology is a part of biology that, in contrast to paleontology, deals with living organisms. It is the study of extant taxa : taxa with members still alive, as opposed to (all) being extinct. For example:

• The moose is an extant species, and the dodo is an extinct species.
• In the group of molluscs known as the cephalopods, as of 1987 there were approximately 600 extant species and 7,500 extinct species

Why?

Why talk about the human social creature?

I am actively building the life of my dreams through consistent goal setting utilizing (7) categories:

• financial
• physical
• personal development
• family
• spiritual
• social
• career

Last week, we covered financial and physical...

...Monday we talked personal development

...Tuesday we talked family 

...Wednesday we talked (Spirituality) 

Which brings us to the topic / category of "Social"

Humans uniquely use systems of symbolic communication such as language and art to express themselves and exchange ideas, as well as to organize themselves into purposeful groups. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families and kinship networks to political states.  (wikipedia)

Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships—relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.Wikipedia

These are the "social" groups that I am currently involved in:

• Independent Order of Odd Fellows
• United Church of Christ, Congregational
• Freedom Cell Network

Past Social Groups for Ideas:

• Colorado Mountain Club
• 12-Step / Support Groups
• MeetUp Groups   

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Transcript

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We are not solitary. Humans or Homo sapiens are a species of highly intelligent primates. They are the only accident members of the subtribe Hominia. And together with chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, are part of the family hominid dae, or the great apes, or hominids. And today, we're going to dig into the human animal, but from a social perspective. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to episode number 96 of the All-Around Growth Podcast. This is a show where we focus on building the lives of our dreams. My name is Rob Kaiser, and I am your host. Today is Thursday, February 11th, 2021, and you can hear the creaking in the background of my 24-year-old three-quarter ton truck on this chilly, chilly morning. Like I said, today is Thursday, February 11th, 2021, and the title of today's show is The Human Social Creature. For those of you who may be new to the show, this is a podcast coming straight from my truck, unedited and raw, just like me. And today we are going to talk about the human social creature. But why, you ask? Why? Because I'm actively building the life of my dreams through consistent goal setting, utilizing seven categories. Physical, uh financial, personal development, family, spiritual, social, and career. Now last week we covered financial and physical. Monday we talked family. Tuesday, we talked uh, I'm sorry, Monday we talked personal development. Tuesday we talked family. And Wednesday we talked spirituality. That brings us to the topic or the category of social today, and then we'll round out the week tomorrow with an episode on career and work life. Now looking back, I I tried to find an episode in the past of something that was kind of specific to or maybe could be considered falling under the social umbrella. And the thing is I didn't find anything specific. So I mean I've linked to all the episodes in the show notes, and you can find all the episodes in your podcast player as well. And while there's nothing specific, I've covered a bunch of various topics related to you know so aspects of the social nature that humans have. Alright. So anyways, I again I think this I think this pattern of rotating topics of the show within these seven categories is going to prove to be beneficial, and I think today's show should prove interesting with the notes that I've assembled. Now, humans uniquely use systems of symbolic communication, such as language and art, to express themselves and exchange ideas, as well as to organize themselves into purposeful groups. Humans create complex social structures composed of many cooperating and competing groups, from families and kinship networks to political states. And that is taken from Wikipedia, and I've linked to much of what I'm talking about in the show notes. The show notes are comprehensive and take up all of the room that I am allotted in this podcast host. Now, what's interesting when we read that and what we read previously in that we are the only extant species, we are the it indicates or implies that there were other species of the genus Homo historically, and there are some now who argue that we are taxonomically Homo sapiens sapiens, of one of which I may be. But nevertheless, uh I make that argument, especially as we are on the cusp of some rapid evolutionary change, but more on that later with regard to technology and evolution. But for now, let's drill down on some ideas that I think are interesting about humans as social creatures. So let's find out where my mind took me this morning as I thought this out. Alright, so we read previously just now that humans have evolved to communicate, and we do so through language and art, right? Why do we communicate in the first place? You know, what's our objective? Well, as humans, we we want to express ourselves and exchange ideas and ultimately organize into purposeful groups. Okay, that that makes sense. So why are we organizing into purposeful groups? What are we doing as humans? Okay, well, we we create these complex social structures that are comprised of groups. And these different groups cooperate with one another or compete with one another. And these groups are made up of families or extended family networks, and as the human social network grows larger, we grow into political states. Now, we're not going to talk politics, not here, not on this show, because oftentimes politics involves a misunderstanding of words and what that actually means. And I think perhaps we should discuss politics on another social episode in the future, and that might be interesting because, well, my friends, life is political, and we have a hard time discussing politics without going into a discussion of our favorite color of the state. Now, in life, sometimes we want to go out and be the loner. For me, I did so because it involved finding myself. For others, it might involve losing themselves. Maybe it's through addiction or video games or separating yourself from those people so you can identify with your people. Because no one understands you, right? But if you want to be understood, you must seek to understand. And we are a social animal, yet we so often refrain from socializing. And I think that this is becoming easier and easier to do because of the neurological satisfaction that we receive from social media. Just like artificial sweeteners tricking the brain into thinking that we are consuming something sweet when it is, but it's not a natural kind of sweet, and it's not good for us. It's like, you know, we s we see all these fat people walking around sucking down diet cokes. And we see all these people rooted into their phones, thinking that they're engaging with one another. It's false socialization behind the mask of a screen. And as humans, we need to acknowledge what's going on. And as humans, we need to actively participate in our community. And as humans, we need to think about concepts like Dunbar's number. What? Yeah, Dunbar's number. Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. Relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person. You can read more about that on Wikipedia. That'll give you some starting points for some information to follow up and learn about. But Dunbar's number is a fascinating concept. And as humans, I think we need to understand our limitations. And as humans, I think we need to use our damned brains. And instead of using social media as an avenue to feel like we're connecting with one another, we need to use social media to share ideas such as this. Ideas like the ones that are shared here on this podcast to share those throughout social media, to share ideas of other people utilizing their own language and their own art. To utilize social media to express yourself and to exchange ideas, and that's about it. We must return to the actual physical interaction with other humans to do more. And to do more, we must organize ourselves into purposeful groups. Again, to create complex social structures. And these structures and these groups compete and cooperate with one another. It's human nature. Now, again, you're not alone in this world. What groups can you get involved in? There's a myriad number of groups to get involved in. You gotta find it. I can't tell you what to do, but understand that we have to do something. If you want to be alone, you can be, you'll you'll you'll likely find yourself miserable because that's not human nature. And despite what you want to believe about what you think you are, you're probably wrong. Alright? So while I can't tell you what to do or what groups to get involved in, I can tell you what groups that I'm involved in. At the moment, currently, I'm a member of the Independent Order of Oddfellows. I am also a member of the United Church of Christ, Congregational Church here in town. I am also a member of the Freedom Cell Network. Now in the past, I've been involved in other groups such as the Colorado Mountain Club or 12-step groups, support groups, meetup groups, both as an end attendee and a member, and it's important to always take steps to connect with like-minded people. Because I think when we do that, we preserve the integrity of the human species for future generations, for your own sanity. In the age where we are the most connected, we are also the most disconnected. Homo sapiens sapiens. We are a social creature. Because it's important to live in this way as social creatures, because it truly is the manner in which we not only evolved to do, but it is also ultimately what we were designed to do. So hopefully this use, or hopefully this episode was a valuable use of your time. I'd like to think that it was, since now as we are approaching a hundred episodes, the show seems to feel like it's gaining some traction and some structure. And I feel like that is perhaps being represented accordingly in the show because I I may be feeling as though I'm gaining a little bit of traction in life with figuring out my purpose, my passion, my why. And if you keep listening to the show as time goes on, you too will learn more about how I'm doing that and specifically what I'm doing to advance myself in that arena. Now, if you like what you hear and you want to support this somehow, the best way to do that is go to the show notes, scroll to the bottom, and you will see a link in all capital letters that says click here to rate and review the podcast. That will take you to Apple Podcasts, and you can leave a five-star rating or a written review if you feel so inclined. And at this point in time, since we're getting most of the plays through Apple Podcasts, that's the best way to affect the algorithms. Now there's also a link at the bottom of the show notes where you can find a link to all of the episodes, like I previously said, and if you have any question, or if you have any questions or any feedback from me, the best way that you can reach out and get in touch is through the Telegram group. We have a group chat on Telegram Messenger, and you can access that through your internet browser on your desktop or laptop by going to t.me slash all around growth, or if you've already got the Telegram Messenger app on your phone, just go ahead and punch in All Around Growth in the groups, and you will find us there. We've got a small community, vibrant. We interact with each other on a daily basis, and a lot of the content from the show comes from you. So again, what we're doing right now is talking about all-around growth, life in seven categories: financial, physical, personal development, family, spiritual, social, and career. So if there's something that you want to hear about, again, like I said, join the Telegram group, let us know, join the conversation, and we'd we'd love to hear from you. As you grow, as we grow, as the podcast grows, so shall the community. All right, my friends. I appreciate you listening. This is Rob Kaiser.