Description
With more people on the planet than ever before – with most having constant digital access to one another – there is an abundance of potential relationships available to us. Despite this, there is also an increasing loneliness crisis across global society. What can evolutionary psychology teach us about this lack of meaningful relationships at a time of hyper-connectivity?
In this week’s Frankly, Nate reflects on the effects of technology on modern relationships, and how Dunbar’s number infers a ceiling on the number of people we can meaningfully interact with. He emphasizes the rare value of full attention in close relationships, and the implications of our current social dynamics as we face more turbulent times and a smaller world ahead.
What are the negative effects of overextending our social networks and how does that shape the way we build community? How can we foster and strengthen connections with the people who are most important to us? Finally, what will our networks look like when the economic music speeds up or stops, and those who are closest to us become our most important support systems?
(Recorded May 6, 2025)
Show Notes
02:40 – Epigamic Traits
02:48 – Sexual Selection
03:19 – Agricultural Revolution
03:34 – Evolutionary Psychology
03:36 – Dunbar’s Number
03:46 – Neocortex
03:49 – Robin Dunbar
05:54 – Iain McGilchrist, TGS Episode
06:29 – Left Brain
06:43 – Ian McGilchrist – The Master and His Emissary
07:29 – Ayahuasca and other psychedelics
07:41 – MDMA “Ecstasy”
09:18 – Mahamudra Meditation
10:57 – The Great Simplification – Full Movie
11:48 – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young
13:15 – Carbon Pulse
Teaser image credit: Cueva de las Manos, Perito Moreno, Argentina. The art in the cave is dated between 7,300 BC and 700 AD;[a] stenciled, mostly left hands are shown. By Mariano – Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=265811
Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens is the Director of The Institute for the Study of Energy & Our Future (ISEOF) an organization focused on educating and preparing society for the coming cultural transition. Allied with leading ecologists, energy experts, politicians and systems thinkers ISEOF assembles road-maps and off-ramps for how human societies can adapt to lower throughput lifestyles.
Nate holds a Masters Degree in Finance with Honors from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont. He teaches an Honors course, Reality 101, at the University of Minnesota.