# Ancient Brains Are Blind to Planetary Threats by Daniel Goleman > “Then there's the motivational problem. Evolution shaped the human brain to help our ancestors survive in an era when the salient threats were predators. Our perceptual system was not tuned to the macro and micro changes that signal threats to the planetary support system. When it comes to these threats we suffer from system blindness.” > **— Daniel Goleman**, *2014 Edge Annual Question, response passage* ## Sources and Context - **Original Edge response:** [Carbon Footprints — Daniel Goleman](https://www.edge.org/response-detail/25459) — a verbatim passage from Daniel Goleman's 2014 Annual Question response, expressing the author's position at the time. The linked response supplies its surrounding context. - **Local archival entry:** [[research/Edge 2014 Full Quotation Curation|Edge 2014 Full Quotation Curation]] (EDGE2014-073). ## Related Articles and Collections - **Collection:** [[collections/Edge|Edge]] - **Collection:** [[collections/MARS|MARS]] - **Article:** [[articles/We Were Never Going to Make It|We Were Never Going to Make It]] - **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]] - **Article:** [[articles/The End of the Anthropocentric Era|The End of the Anthropocentric Era]] ## Related Topics - [[wiki/Species-Level Maturation|Species-Level Maturation]] ## Share on Social Media ``` “Then there's the motivational problem. Evolution shaped the human brain to help our ancestors survive in an era when the salient threats were predators. Our perceptual system was not tuned to the macro and micro changes that signal threats to the planetary support system. When it comes to these threats we suffer from system blindness.” — Daniel Goleman, 2014 Edge Annual Question https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-daniel-goleman-ancient-brains-blind-planetary-threats ```