Dambrot S M
selectively modify phenotypic expression in the developing human brain of neural tissue and connectivity between the neocortex and the more primitive brain areas where emotion, motivation, habituation, and other functions occur. One salient example can be seen in recent neuroscience research 4 showing strong evidence that interpersonal differences in a specific area of the human brain are associated with different prosocial behavior. In another relevant study, 5 neuroscientists at MIT identified the brain circuit in laboratory mice that controls how memories become linked with positive or negative emotions, and as a result were able to modify the emotional associations of specific memories using optogenetics – a method for controlling brain cells with light. More recently the technique has been used 6 in mice to dramatically reduce stress-related depression-like behavior by activating positive memories. The question might well be raised of why we cannot rely on widely-promoted sociocultural measures as a way to create a different conception of human nature, and thereby to change, abandon or transcend our biologically-determined behaviors by which we practice various degrees of inhumanity. While science, technology, medicine, knowledge, and other endeavors continue to advance at an accelerating rate, our basic behavioral patterns( in Einstein’ s words,“ biological constitution” and“ natural urges”) have not. In fact, despite protests and legislation, other factors such as air and water quality have globally declined due to capitalism-motivated processes, with air itself now being carcinogenic 7( causing lung cancer and contributing to bladder cancer) and water becoming increasingly both polluted 8 and scarce. 9 For these reasons, the assertion that sociocultural programs and legislation( given the role of corporate and individual wealth in politics) will address our species’ destructive behaviors seems somewhat naïve. Rather, a solution based on a medical model in which dysfunctional individual and group behaviors are seen not as causative but as symptoms of a deeper cause – our evolutionary neurobiology. The transformation of human society via optimizing human