The Elephant in the Brain | Robin Hanson | TEDxAsburyPark

We humans are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to get ahead socially, often by devious means.

Understanding hidden motives in everyday life can dramatically change how we view social familiar institutions such as education, medicine, politics and religion.

Dr. Hanson is an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University, and a research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. He has a doctorate in social science from California Institute of Technology, master's degrees in physics and philosophy from the University of Chicago, and nine years experience as a research programmer at Lockheed and NASA.

He says that we need social institutions to pretend to give us what we pretend we want, while giving us what we need.

He is the author of "The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth" and co-author of "The Elephant in the Brain."

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx