The 10,000 Year Problem

5 Episodes

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I'm Just Sayin': There's Just Too Many People

2026-10-0225:15

What happened when human societies shifted from mobile hunter-gatherer communities to agriculture, cities, and increasingly complex systems of government? This episode examines competing explanations for the rise of modernity, beginning with the limitations of the archaeological record and the assumptions built into familiar stories about prehistory. It questions whether the transition to agriculture was simply an inevitable improvement—or whether growing dependence on cities introduced new s...

A Selection Argument for Symbolic Systems: Greg Elliot

2026-09-2501:30:56

What happens when human beings evolved for small, reciprocal tribal communities but now live inside enormous, abstract, highly complex symbolic systems? In this conversation, we explore the PSH and its proposed evolutionary explanation for how modern institutions, incentives, and information systems may select for certain behavioral strategies—including instrumental, manipulative, and psychopathic traits. The discussion connects evolutionary theory, behavioral game theory, neuroscience, psych...

I'm Just Sayin': Ways of Knowing

2026-09-1820:07

In this short biweekly monologue, I examine how humans decide what is true—and whether modern science is the only reliable way of knowing. Science is an extraordinary tool, but it can be misunderstood, misused, or treated as more definitive than the evidence allows. This episode explores the limits of reductionist science, the assumptions built into statistics and scientific methods, and the danger of mistaking incomplete evidence for complete knowledge. From Einstein’s work to the knowledge ...

The Inevitable Power Hierarchy: Andrew Schmookler and The Parable of the Tribes

2026-09-1101:02:53

Dr. Andrew Schmookler's ideas arose during the counterculture movement, sparked by a spontaneous vision in Golden Gate Park. That spark evolved into The Parable of the Tribes—a body of work that has crystallized over the last 50 years. The Core Idea: The Parable suggests that Modernity was inevitable for any organism in any universe, and that humans created a system that breaks all the rules of evolution. In this interview, Dr. Schmookler walks us through this vision and explains why this mes...

Trailer: The 10,000 Year Problem

2026-08-3001:10

The 10,000 Year Problem Ten thousand years ago, humans lived differently. Before the era of kings, borders, and ownership, we were cooperative and deeply connected. We had enough. Then, something changed. This podcast is an inquiry into that change. Was it inevitable? What was lost? And most importantly: can we get any of it back? I'm Chris Burcher. Through conversations with scientists, thinkers, and those doing the hard work of imagining a new way forward, I'm exploring who we were, who we ...

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