Reddit reviews The Social Conquest of Earth

• This is an interesting read: The cultural contradictions of capitalism
  
• If you want to go in a different direction, EOW has some pretty interesting things to say about tension between individual & group: The Social Conquest of Earth

Yeah man, I think your onto some stuff.

>My question for you, is that during ones life, does our actions alone influence gene expression, and therefor, does our everyday actions influence gene expression that has to do with the 'activities (both physical and mental (ie. thoughts))' they do most?

Yes, I think this is true. For example, there's the example that is often associated with epigenetics that the children of people who experienced starvation at some point in their life would have epigenetic changes that made their body hold onto calories and store much more fat, even though they themselves had never experienced starvation. I'm sure this happens with all sorts of different environemtnal stimuli, like drugs, diet, if they've experienced trauma, etc. You might see this in a way of environmental and cultural stimuli causing physical genetic changes in unborn future generations.

>Ive came up with the idea, which is something about the evolution of beliefs, and how that in turn influences actions.

I think humans primary mode of evolution is cultural. We dictate the structure of our societies by the beleifs of our culture. And the structure of our society is quite literally the survival strategy of our species. It is our Ecological Niche. And just as coming out of trees and choosing to hunt and forage on the ground has had physical evolutionary changes on our species, so does any survival strategy alter our evolutionary course.

Our culture is how we pass down our survival strategies and the beleifs that shape how we act. So culture has very real evolutionary implications, and IS how our species primarily evolves, imo.

>here is then sub cultures, and linkages of sub cultures, for which all thought (semantics) is connected. What is this 'source' that integrates all semantics (meaning), and how does it influence our actions? Do we have the power to choose what we feed this source, and therefor spread good karma, which would then make our actions, and generally our world a better place?

I don't know if your familiar with the idea, but you should look into the concept of memetics which is a concept for how ideas and behaviors spread through a population, and looks at it in evolutionary terms. Seems really relevant to all the ideas you put forward here.

I think I agree with the idea that religion has evolutionary implications, and also the idea that your own mindset, thoughts, and behaviors, can influence the people around you, the culture, and even our evolutionary course.

Some more scientific books that are in line with what you're saying here that you might want to check out:

Evolution in Four Dimensions which seeks to show that evolution isn't just about genes, but also things like behaviors, culture, and also epigenetics.

The Social Conquest of Earth by the great biologist E.O. Wilson. This guy also developed the concept and field of study of sociobiology which looks at how organisms in a society (whether human or ant) interact and how their social systems evolve. Here he goes really deep into the biological foundations of human culture and society.

The Evolving Self; a psychology for the third millenium. I just mention this one because the way you talk about these things makes me think you'd enjoy this book. This is kind of a book that tries to get at the ethics that a modern person could adopt, and the conclusion is along the lines of doing what you can to contribute to the larger evolutionary process that we are all a part of. He goes into a lot of thinking about genes, memetics, and what impact a person could have in it all.

https://www.ynharari.com/book/sapiens/ read this or this https://www.amazon.com/Social-Conquest-Earth-Edward-Wilson/dp/0871403633 if you want some cool facts about bugs on the way

I'm sorry you are so unable to envision a situation wherein humans can be virtuous without the threat of hell or some big brother in the sky. This way of thinking is severely flawed but thats just one mans opinion. I'm confident this is a waste of my time to bother with but I would recommend this book to you as a non-religious explanation of why and how biology encourages cooperation.
https://www.amazon.com/Social-Conquest-Earth-Edward-Wilson/dp/0871403633