Part 10/12:
However, I contest many of their foundational assumptions:
Humans are not perfect goal-optimizers. Instead, we learned heuristics over millennia based on signals, not explicit goals.
Goals like survival, reproduction, and societal coherence emerge from complex, largely subconscious processes, not explicit objective functions.
Our biological reward systems, such as the craving for hyperpalatable foods, are arbitrary in an evolutionary sense and often lead to maladaptive behaviors like obesity—not aligned with the species’ overall wellbeing.