My point was theoretical, not empirical. If you say that foragers often seem remarkably uninterested in making sacrifices for the future I'll believe you. But I'm questioning how well we understand that data, by noting that there are some aspects of their lives where they seem to make long term investments. Maybe they just don't have a consistent time preference, maybe it varies by type of behavior; for some areas like learning an art they evolved behaviors that respect future consequences, and for other areas like food storage they did not.
Yes, of course, I will give you that. You are suggesting that "time preference" is way too global and vague a concept and I can't disagree.
HCH
Edit: Q&A is now closed. Thanks to everyone for participating, and thanks very much to Harpending and Cochran for their responses.
In response to Kaj's review, Henry Harpending and Gregory Cochran, the authors of the The 10,000 Year Explosion, have agreed to a Q&A session with the Less Wrong community.
If you have any questions for either Harpending or Cochran, please reply to this post with a question addressed to one or both of them. Material for questions might be derived from their blog for the book which includes stories about hunting animals in Africa with an eye towards evolutionary implications (which rose to Jennifer's attention based on Steve Sailer's prior attention).
Please do not kibitz in this Q&A... instead go to the kibitzing area to talk about the Q&A session itself. Eventually, this post will be edited to note that the process has been closed, at which time there should be no new questions.