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brendan_r's avatar

Seems likely that many features that predate industry changed the payoff to self control, too. For example, a population can be kept stable by food, disease, violence, or social stuff like late marriage and infanticide. Which constraint operates most strongly at a particular time and place affects the payoff to all sorts of human characteristics including self control. In violence ridden low pop density areas worker productivity has historically reached absurd proportions, like 60 lbs of banana per hour in parts of Peru in late 19th century (greg clark). China for much of the last 1,000 years has been the complete opposite.

The payoff to self-control must have varied regionally long before industry, which explains why, out in the real world, it sure looks like self-domestication is easier for some groups than others.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

I've sometimes thought that if Aristotle was shown the modern factory worker, he would not have thought, "Ah, so my thesis that slavery is necessary is wrong," but, "Ah, you've devised an ingenious new form of slavery."

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