- May 2023
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docdrop.org docdrop.org
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it is as if man had been suddenly appointed managing director of the biggest business of all the business of evolution appointed without being asked if he wanted it and without proper warning and preparation what is more he 00:05:49 can't refuse the job whether he wants to or not whether he is conscious of what he is doing or not he is in point of fact determining the future direction of evolution on this earth that is his 00:06:02 inescapable Destiny and the sooner he realizes it and starts believing in it the better for all concerns
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quote
- "it is as if man had been suddenly appointed managing director of the biggest business of all the business of evolution appointed without being asked if he wanted it and without proper warning and preparation what is more he can't refuse the job whether he wants to or not whether he is conscious of what he is doing or not he is in point of fact determining the future direction of evolution on this earth that is his inescapable Destiny and the sooner he realizes it and starts believing in it the better for all concerns"
- Julian Huxley
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Comment
- Huxley was prescient in making this observation,
- as our species
- cumulative cultural evolution, and
- the impact of our niche construction
- https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&tag=cumulative+cultural+evolution
- does now indeed more or less determine the entire course of evolution of life on earth
- as our species
- Huxley was prescient in making this observation,
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with their new different and perhaps bigger brains the AIS of the future may prove themselves to be better adapted to 00:19:05 life in this transhuman world that we're in now
- comment
- Is this not a category error in classifying inert technology as life?
- When does an abiotic human cultural artefact become a living form?
- comment
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- transhumanism debate between
- Marry Harrington
- contributing editor and writer for Unherd
- Elise Bohan,
- Evolutionary Macrohistory researcher at Oxford University's Future of Humanity Institute
- Author of
- Future Superhuman: Our transhuman lives in a make or break century
- https://unsw.press/books/future-superhuman/
- Future Superhuman: Our transhuman lives in a make or break century
- Marry Harrington
- transhumanism debate between
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www.smithsonianmag.com www.smithsonianmag.com
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This is how wealthy individuals or corporations translate their economic power into political and cultural power
- This is how wealthy individuals or corporations
- translate their economic power
- into political and cultural power
- quote
- This is how wealthy individuals or corporations
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Climate Denialism funding
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www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
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At the 'Library of Things' in Sachsenhausen Library Centre, people can borrow objects they might otherwise need to buy
- Comment
- Question
- How much material would be freed up if it was SHARED instead of hoarded by one person?
- related questions
- what kind of behavioral change is required to reach an impactful level of sharing?
- in a sense, public-instead-of-private
- transportation
- etc
- is the ultimate expression of private converted to public
- Question
- Comment
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"It is clear that individuals in their variety of social roles can contribute significantly in emissions reduction," says Joyashree Roy, professor of economics at Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India. But unless they are supported by the right infrastruture, technology and policy incentives, she says, this cannot achieve its full potential.
- Comment
- this statement epitomizes the crux of the matter
- that demonstrates the entanglement between
- a collective of (bottom-up) individuals and
- top-down, system level actors
- This is why the often-repeated mantra "individual actions don't matter" is not accurate
- the contribution of individual actions DO matter, but only if it is supported by:
- policy
- ubiquitous 1.5C infrastructure
- affordable 1.5C technologies and services
- There is a MASS of people wanting to make the change
- but that cannot happen unless it is
- behaviorally and
- economically pragmatic to do so
- but that cannot happen unless it is
- the contribution of individual actions DO matter, but only if it is supported by:
- the real question to ask
- in order to mobilize a bottom-up 1.5C lifestyle shift is
- where are the leverage points for bottom-up actors (we individuals) to impact the top-down actors?
- Comment
-
- Title: What a 1.5C lifestyle actually looks like
- Summary
- Many people want to participate in the transition
- to a regenerative, low carbon future
- but the existing high carbon infrastructure
- makes it very challenging to do so
- This article features interviews with activists who are trying to live a lifestyle
- that is consistent with a 1.5C world
- WITHIN infrastructure that is not yet consistent with a 1.5C world.
- It is challenging, to say the least!
- and demonstrates the lock-in feedbacks,
- a chicken-and-egg situation
- that creates the challenge holding the masses back
- From a Stop Reset Go (SRG) perspective
- this illustrates the entangled relationship between
- the individual and
- the collective
- and how each has an important role to play
- to influence the other.
- As an organization working on helping accelerate a bottom-up movement, this brings up the question:
- what are the leverage points for citizens to accelerate top down actors such as
- government to establish new policies and
- manufacturers to create affordable regenerative products aligned with a 1.5C world?
- what are the leverage points for citizens to accelerate top down actors such as
- this illustrates the entangled relationship between
- Interviewee:
- Carys mainprize
- Rosalind Readhead
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by 2040, per capita lifestyle emissions need to be 1.4 tonnes of CO2e and by 2050, just 0.7 tonnes CO2e.
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1.5C individual carbon footprint targets:
- 1.4 tonnes CO2e/year by 2040
- 0.7 tonnes CO2e/year by 2050
- what about 2030?
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Comment
- From the perspective of mobilizing a bottom-up movement, the critical questions are:
- what are the critical changes required for all of us to achieve around 1 tonne CO2e/year?
- what are the leverage points for a bottom-up movement?
- From the perspective of mobilizing a bottom-up movement, the critical questions are:
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leanurbanism.org leanurbanism.org
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- Summary
- Detroit's renaissance demonstrates
- leverage points of repurposing
- idling built environment resources
- Cities with underutilized resources can take advantage of lean urbanism
- via creating pink zones
- where red tape is relaxed
- Detroit's renaissance demonstrates
- backlinked to
- Summary
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andrewmalone.blogspot.com andrewmalone.blogspot.com
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- Summary
- Interesting built environment sustainable design
- based on ancient Roman residential design technique
- leveraging and adapting this ancient rain water harvesting to accomplish multiple functions in a modern context::
- potable water
- evaporative cooling
- irrigation
- sanitation
- personal hygiene
- Interesting built environment sustainable design
- Summary
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human beings need to learn how to die and that in refusing to do so we have become so dislocated so isolated from ourselves from our environment we are causing our own death and the death of 00:02:38 the very many species we share this planet with
- This is a very broad and sweeping statement.
- While I agree with it,
- what does "learning how to die" exactly mean?
- unless we know in details, we won't have an actionable strategy
- While I agree with it,
- This is a very broad and sweeping statement.
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Sheldon Solomon on the connection between the denial of death and the Anthropocene
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www.quantamagazine.org www.quantamagazine.org
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It’s one thing to say that an object is possible according to the laws of physics; it’s another to say there’s an actual pathway for making it from its component parts. “Assembly theory was developed to capture my intuition that complex molecules can’t just emerge into existence because the combinatorial space is too vast,” Cronin said.
- Quote
- "Assembly theory was developed to capture my intuition that complex molecules can’t just emerge into existence because the combinatorial space is too vast,"
- Author
- Lee Cronin
- Quote
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offers a way to discover the contingent histories of objects — an issue ignored by most theories of complexity, which tend to focus on the way things are but not how they got to be that way.
- in other words
- we could make a claim that we could extrapolate (intrapolate?) evolution to apply to abiotic, physical phenomena.
- in other words
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it seeks that explanation not, in the usual manner of physics, in timeless physical laws, but in a process that imbues objects with histories and memories of what came before them.
- In Other Words
- it factors in time and history a key variables in explaining how biota emerges from abiota
- In Other Words
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Assembly theory
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www.quantamagazine.org www.quantamagazine.org
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Summary - a growing body of research suggests that - the reasons we sleep is far more fundamental than simply neurological - and far more widespread - experiments with a wide range of neurologically primitive organisms did that they possess behavioural characteristics of sleep - this suggests that sleep may have evolved fire reasons of cellular metabolism
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- Apr 2023
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www.news24.com www.news24.com
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David Robert Lewis, the founder of the Muizenberg Electricity Crisis Committee
David Robert Lewis - founder of the Muizenberg Electricity Crisis Committee
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Dr Senthil Krishnamurthy,
Contact at CPUT - expertise in microgrids, etc.
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Title: Proposed electricity co-op in Muizenberg as residents are 'fed up' with load shedding
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www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
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“It’s a very rural area with dirt roads. It’s easy to get lost. They drove up this driveway for a very short time, realized their mistake and were leaving, when Mr. Monahan came out and fired two shots,” the sheriff said, adding that the area has poor cell phone service.
- When everyone has a right to bear arms
- and so many citizens feel they have a right to use them to defend themselves,
- situations arise in life which are perceived as life-and-death,
- and the decision to use deadly force is made
- based on a false narrative playing out in the mind of the gun-owner.
- When everyone has a right to bear arms
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wiki.p2pfoundation.net wiki.p2pfoundation.net
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the right 'default' setting
- The claim is that the default narrative is critical to the way society organizes itself
- capitalism and classic leberalism assumes competition (seflishness) is the default and collaboration secondary
- Bauwens argues that collaboration (commons) needs to be the default going forward and competition secondary
- The claim is that the default narrative is critical to the way society organizes itself
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I reject both pure Rousseau-ism, i.e. humans would be good and equal if not for unequal structures, and Hobbesian-ism, i.e. people are bad and are only kept good by forceful institutions. What matters most I believe, is the right balance between cooperation and competition, both are real, at the individual and collective level, and we as humans are a mixed and complex bag.
- Michel begins the essay by doing away with simple, absolute assumptions about society.
- We are each and collectively a mixture of
- cooperative and
- competitive tendencies
- We are each and collectively a mixture of
- This echoes the evolutionary description of an individual as a distinct living system that is demarcated from its environment so is
- in competition with other individuals for resources in order to survive as an individual organism
- at the same time that it cooperates with other types of individuals that can enhance its individual and collective (species) survival
- In other words
- competition and collaboration are often entangled phenotypes necessary for evolutionary fitness
- Michel begins the essay by doing away with simple, absolute assumptions about society.
-
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Michel Bauwens provides a summary and theoretical analysis of
- the current stagnant, polarized and highly charged political environment, as well as
- a proposed third commons-based option that could mitigate the problem.
-
In this analysis, he introduces new terminology to describe the three categories of salient actors:
- somewheres
- nowheres
- everywheres
-
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www.linkedin.com www.linkedin.com
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"The transition to renewable energy, it is based on a longstanding ideology. And the longstanding ideology is that human ingenuity can solve our problems." Lisi Krall explains the downsides of renenwable energy, arguing that it isn't the answer to our problems.
Where there is a problem to be solved, there is a focus of attention Where there is a focus of attention, there is simplification of a complex system Where there is simplification of a complex system, there is a vast amount of knowledge relationships that is ignored Where this is a vast amount of ignored knowledge relationships, there is the potential for a progress trap
The systemic problem is the way our form of progress formulates problems and the inherent (over) simplification that comes with.that.
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theconversation.com theconversation.com
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The question now is, will we high-consuming few make (voluntarily or by force) the fundamental changes needed for decarbonisation in a timely and organised manner? Or will we fight to maintain our privileges and let the rapidly changing climate do it, chaotically and brutally, for us
Question - Those is the big question!
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Given deep inequalities, this, and deploying zero-carbon infrastructure, is only possible by re-allocating society’s productive capacity away from enabling the private luxury of a few and austerity for everyone else, and towards wider public prosperity and private sufficiency.
In Other Words - our present economic distribution must be flipped going forward - That minority of elites that enjoy high wealth/high carbon emissions - must now dramatically reduce emissions - so that the disenfranchised people of the world have to a chance - of building up their lives towards acceptable levels of well-being
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Three decades of complacency has meant technology on its own cannot now cut emissions fast enough. A second, accompanying phase, must be the rapid reduction of energy and material consumption
Key observation
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Most IAM models ignore and often even exacerbate the obscene inequality in energy use and emissions, both within nations and between individuals.
In Other Words - These recommendations, if we followed continue the existing inequality, Indeed can exasperate it. - Wealthy countries and individuals cannot be allowed to continue emitting high levels of carbon if we are to honour the principle of climate justice andequity written into the climate agreements
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The specialist modelling groups (referred to as Integrated Assessment Modelling, or IAMs) have successfully crowded out competing voices, reducing the task of mitigation to price-induced shifts in technology – some of the most important of which, like so-called “negative emissions technologies”, are barely out of the laboratory.
Question - Who is controlling and advocating - the dominant techno-based NET narrative? - This narrative creates many scenarios that carry strong colonialist assumptions that perserve existing inequalities - Whilst IAM scientists strive to work with integrity, the fundamental framing narrative constrains their work to support ethically questionable recommendations - reference the work of Kanitkar et al.https://theprint.in/environment/why-indian-scientists-are-critiquing-ipcc-report-unfair-burden-on-developing-countries/1298871/
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The new report evokes a mild sense of urgency, calling on governments to mobilise finance to accelerate the uptake of green technology. But its conclusions are far removed from a direct interpretation of the IPCC’s own carbon budgets (the total amount of CO₂ scientists estimate
- The report claims that
- to reach target of 50/50 chance of staying within 1.5 deg C,
- we must reach meet zero by 2050
- Yet, updating the IPCC’s estimate of the 1.5°C carbon budget,
- from 2020 to 2023, and then drawing a straight line down from today’s total emissions to the point where all carbon emissions must cease, and without exceeding this budget,
- gives a zero CO₂ date of 2040.
- Furthermore, adding policy delays to set things up, it is more likely a date closer to mid 2030's.
- Yet, updating the IPCC’s estimate of the 1.5°C carbon budget,
- The report claims that
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Title IPCC’s conservative nature masks true scale of action needed to avert catastrophic climate change Author Kevin Anderson
Summary The influential 2023 IPCC Synthesis report for policy makers is quite misleading and can steer policy makers in the wrong, and disastrous direction.
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blog.geographydirections.com blog.geographydirections.com
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Title IPCC’s conservative nature masks true scale of action needed to avert catastrophic climate change Author Kevin Anderson
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beiner.substack.com beiner.substack.com
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Iain McGilchrist for my book, he shared that he views matter as ‘a phase of consciousness’ in a similar way to how ice is a phase of water
Quote - matter is a phase of consciousness
Author - Iain McGilchrist
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Our strategies for changing the world are often inspired by a culture created by a physicalist metaphysics. That’s why I propose that metaphysics eats culture for breakfast. What we believe to be real and relevant is the most significant factor in the formation of culture, which in turn influences our thoughts and emotions, which in turn influence our values, which influence our institutions and political policies. The change has to happen at the deepest level if it’s going to have any significant impact on an issue as important as whether or not we go extinct.
// Metaphysics eats culture for breakfast - a takeoff of a well-known business meme - culture eats strategy for breakfast - Beiner goes one level deeper and claims - metaphysics eats culture for breakfast - He justifies this via this argument - Our strategies for changing the world - are often inspired by - a culture created by a physicalist metaphysics. - That’s why I propose that metaphysics eats culture for breakfast. - What we believe to be real and relevant - is the most significant factor - in the formation of culture, - which in turn influences our thoughts and emotions, - which in turn influence our values, - which influence our institutions and political policies. - The change has to happen at the deepest level - if it’s going to have any significant impact - on an issue as important as whether or not we go extinct.
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So what does a conscious universe have to do with AI and existential risk? It all comes back to whether our primary orientation is around quantity, or around quality. An understanding of reality that recognises consciousness as fundamental views the quality of your experience as equal to, or greater than, what can be quantified.Orienting toward quality, toward the experience of being alive, can radically change how we build technology, how we approach complex problems, and how we treat one another.
Key finding Paraphrase - So what does a conscious universe have to do with AI and existential risk? - It all comes back to whether our primary orientation is around - quantity, or around - quality. - An understanding of reality - that recognises consciousness as fundamental - views the quality of your experience as - equal to, - or greater than, - what can be quantified.
- Orienting toward quality,
- toward the experience of being alive,
- can radically change
- how we build technology,
- how we approach complex problems,
- and how we treat one another.
Quote - metaphysics of quality - would open the door for ways of knowing made secondary by physicalism
Author - Robert Persig - Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance // - When we elevate the quality of each our experience - we elevate the life of each individual - and recognize each individual life as sacred - we each matter - The measurable is also the limited - whilst the immeasurable and directly felt is the infinite - Our finite world that all technology is built upon - is itself built on the raw material of the infinite
//
- Orienting toward quality,
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Let us remember that our knowledge of the world begins not with matter but with perceptions. I know for sure that my pain exists, my ‘green’ exists, and my ‘sweet’ exists… everything else is a theory. Later we find out that our perceptions obey some laws, which can be most conveniently formulated if we assume that there is some underlying reality beyond our perceptions. This model of the material world obeying laws of physics is so successful that soon we forget about our starting point and say that matter is the only reality, and perceptions are only helpful for its description.
Quote - Let us remember that - our knowledge of the world begins - not with matter - but with perceptions. - I know for sure that - my pain exists, - my ‘green’ exists, - and my ‘sweet’ exists - … everything else is a theory. - Later we find out that our perceptions obey some laws, <br /> - which can be most conveniently formulated - if we assume that there is some underlying reality - beyond our perceptions. - This model of the material world obeying laws of physics - is so successful - that soon we forget about our starting point and say - that matter is the only reality, - and perceptions are only helpful for its description.
Author Andrei Linde - https://www.scienceandnonduality.com/article/universe-life-consciousness-by-andrei-linde
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Our argument for a mental world does not entail or imply that the world is merely one’s own personal hallucination or act of imagination. Our view is entirely naturalistic: the mind that underlies the world is a transpersonal mind behaving according to natural laws. It comprises but far transcends any individual psyche…. The claim is thus that the dynamics of all inanimate matter in the universe correspond to transpersonal mentation, just as an individual’s brain activity – which is also made of matter – corresponds to personal mentation.
Quote - Our argument for a mental world does not entail or imply - that the world is merely one’s own personal hallucination or act of imagination. - Our view is entirely naturalistic: - the mind that underlies the world - is a transpersonal mind behaving according to natural laws. - It comprises but far transcends any individual psyche…. - The claim is thus that the dynamics of all inanimate matter in the universe - correspond to transpersonal mentation, - just as an individual’s brain activity - which is also made of matter - corresponds to personal mentation.
Author - Henry Stapp - Bernardo Kastrup - Menas C. Kafatos - https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/coming-to-grips-with-the-implications-of-quantum-mechanics/
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‘philosophical idealism.’
Definition - philosophical Idealism - the view that reality is fundamentally a mental process (consciousness) rather than a physical thing
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Daniel Schmachtenberger has spoken at length about the ‘generator functions’ of existential risk, in essence the deeper driving causes.
Definition - generator function of existential risk - the deeper driving cause of existential risk - two examples of deep causes - rivalrous dynamics - complicated systems consuming their complex substrate
Claim - Alexander Beiner claims that - the generator function of these generator functions is physicalism
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If the metaphysical foundations of our society tell us we have no soul, how on earth are we going to imbue soul into AI? Four hundred years after Descartes and Hobbs, our scientific methods and cultural stories are still heavily influenced by their ideas.
Key observation - If the metaphysical foundations of our society tell us we have no soul, - how are we going to imbue soul into AI? - Four hundred years after Descartes and Hobbs, - our scientific methods and cultural stories are still heavily influenced by their ideas.
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He began a process that would move past merely separating mind and matter, and toward a worldview that saw only matter as real. A contemporary of Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, went further and suggested that thinking arose from small mechanical processes happening in the brain. In doing so, Vervaeke points out, he was laying the ground for artificial intelligence:…what Hobbes is doing is killing the human soul! And of course that’s going to exacerbate the cultural narcissism, because if we no longer have souls, then finding our uniqueness and our true self, the self that we’re going to be true to, becomes extremely paradoxical and problematic. If you don’t have a soul, what is it to be true to your true self? And what is it that makes you utterly unique and special from the rest of the purposeless, meaningless cosmos?
Quote - Descartes created the mind / body dualism - Thomas Hobbes reduced consciousness to physicalism - by claiming that thinking was an epi-phenomena of atomic interactions
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Values, in the way C.S Lewis and theologians might define them, come from an alignment with true reality. They are not commodities for us to trade in a narcissistic quest for self-fulfillment, or things we can make up, choose from a pile and build into our technology.From this perspective, real values come from beyond humans. From the divine. They are not something that can be quantified into ones and zeroes, but something that can be felt. Something that has quality.
Key finding - Values cannot be quantified - but are something felt, - and which has a quality (qualia)
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Suppose we have an AI whose only goal is to make as many paper clips as possible. The AI will realize quickly that it would be much better if there were no humans because humans might decide to switch it off. Because if humans do so, there would be fewer paper clips. Also, human bodies contain a lot of atoms that could be made into paper clips. The future that the AI would be trying to gear towards would be one in which there were a lot of paper clips but no humans.
Quote - AI Gedanken - AI risk - The Paperclip Maximizer
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The issue at play in the AI question, or the question of tempering our growth in general, isn’t just that our technology is built without higher values that can mitigate its excesses. It’s that culturally we lack a story as to why values even matter to begin with. It’s futile to appeal to ethics in this context, because the ethics aren’t embedded at a deep enough level to counter powerful incentive structures. They aren’t worth dying for, because the system doesn’t value them, it only values quantity.
Key observation - Quantity is all modernity values - Quality is thrown out the window - Later, the author connects - quantity to the Cartesian world view, - that seeks to measure everything - and quality to the Idealist worldview - that elevates consciousness over physicalism and materialism - (Destructive) growth - is an outcome of the cartesian worldview
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“what could we appeal to that is so strong, so compelling that it spurs the kind of collective action and coordination needed to tackle the dangers of exponential technology?”
// - To find a God that can kill Moloch - requires an understanding of the nature of progress as well - Relationship to progress traps - Exponential technologies - are technologies, and all suffer the same fundamental flaw - Progress is an expression of our cumulative cultural evolution - https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=cumulative+cultural+evolution - which grows exponentially faster than genetic evolution - The problem of which is that - the shadow side of progress, the progress trap - - https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=progress%2Btrap - is growing even faster, due to our misunderstanding of it, - allowing it to fester like an untreated wound - turning a minor condition, into a life-threatening disease - Human progress has always been a bungling two step forwards, one step backwards dance - the imperfections of progress are inherent - and baked into the innovation process itself - For we develop technologies based on what we know, or what is visible - but what we know is like the tip of the latent knowledge iceberg - and is always accompanied by a much larger hidden component of what we don't know - In other words, - finite and visible knowledge - is always accompanied by infinite and invisible ignorance - Design is based on intent, - a one dimensional, inherently myopic imagination - of a multi-dimensional reality - A problem is a one dimensional focus - on a small sliver of reality - A solution to the problem is necessarily - myopic and - one dimensional as well - Both problems and their (designed) solutions - are extreme simplifications of a complex system - Language itself is a way - to direct and focus our attention - to this aspect of reality - then that aspect - Thinking is reduced to parts, and never experiences the whole, undivided gestalt of reality - Out of this process - Progress traps are born //
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AI researchers are calling on one another to find a higher value than growth and technological advancement, but they are not usually drawing those values from the very same humanistic perspectives that built the tech to begin with. It is of limited effectiveness to appeal to ethics in a socio-economic system that values growth over all things. Deep down we probably know this, which is why our nightmarish fantasies about the future of AI look very much like a manifestation of Moloch. A new god that cares nothing for us. A gnostic demon that has no connection to anything higher than domination of all life. A mad deity, that much like late stage capitalism, can see nothing beyond consumption.
In Other Words - AI researchers are calling on one another to find a higher value than growth and technological advancement, - but these values are absent from the humanistic perspectives that built the tech to begin with. - Therefore, it is of limited effectiveness - to appeal to ethics in the socio-economic growth framework that values growth above all things - that motivates AI research. - Deep down we probably know this, - which is why our nightmarish fantasies about the future of AI look very much like - a manifestation of Moloch, - a new god that cares nothing for us. - AI as Moloch is a mad deity, - that much like late stage capitalism, - can see nothing beyond consumption.
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‘only another God can kill Moloch’.
Quote - Only another God can kill Moloch - Author - Scott Alexander - Source - Meditations on Moloch - https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/
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In the cultural story of secular, technologically advanced democracies, human life is valued from a humanistic standpoint. That is, from a belief that we don’t need a higher power to be ethical. We have the capability, and the responsibility, to lead ethical lives of personal fulfilment that aspire to the greater good. This is a prevalent view in the scientific and tech worlds.
Question - What is meant by "higher power"? - a belief in God, religion?
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To see why a humanistic stance isn’t enough to create ethical technology, let’s imagine for a moment that Moloch is more than just a metaphor. Instead, it’s an unseen force, an emergent property of the complex system we create between all our interactions as human beings. Those interactions are driven by behaviors, memes, ideas and cultural values which are all based on what we think is real and what we feel is important.
Paraphrase - why is a humanistic stance enough to create ethical technology? - imagine that Moloch is an unseen force, - an emergent property of the complex system we create between - all our interactions as human beings. - Those interactions are driven by: - behaviors, - memes, - ideas and - cultural values which are all based on<br /> - what we think is real and - what we feel is important.
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Google and Microsoft are in an arms race to create something that could not only destroy the information commons, but potentially all of humanity. Both they and the fish farmers are caught in what’s called a multi-polar trap. A race-to-the bottom situation in which, even though individual actors might have the best of intentions, the incentive structures mean that everyone ends up worse off, and the commons is damaged or destroyed in the process.
Multi-polar trap
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We might call on a halt to research, or ask for coordination around ethics, but it’s a tall order. It just takes one actor not to play (to not turn off their metaphorical fish filter), and everyone else is forced into the multi-polar trap.
AI is a multi-polar trap
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If there’s a force that’s driving us toward greater complexity, there seems to be an opposing force, a force of destruction that uses competition for ill. The way I see it, Moloch is the god of unhealthy competition, of negative sum games.
Quotation - If there's a force that's driving us toward greater complexity - there seems to be an opposing force, - a force of destruction that uses competition for ill. - The way I see it, - Moloch is the god of unhealthy competition, of negative sum games
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You own a fish farm
- A good story
- about how myopic, self-interested short-termism behavior
- can lead to temporary success
- and long term failure
- A good story
-
Title Reality Eats Culture For Breakfast: AI, Existential Risk and Ethical Tech Why calls for ethical technology are missing something crucial Author Alexander Beiner
Summary - Beiner unpacks the existential risk posed by AI - reflecting on recent calls by tech and AI thought leaders - to stop AI research and hold a moratorium.
-
Beiner unpacks the risk from a philosophical perspective
- that gets right to the deepest cultural assumptions that subsume modernity,
- ideas that are deeply acculturated into the citizens of modernity.
-
He argues convincingly that
- the quandry we are in requires this level of re-assessment
- of what it means to be human,
- and that a change in our fundamental cultural story is needed to derisk AI.
- the quandry we are in requires this level of re-assessment
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Tags
- multi-polar trap
- fish farm story
- Andrei Linde
- negative sum game
- metaphysics eats culture for breakfast
- quote - idealism
- Daniel Schmachtenberger
- Moloch
- philosophical Idealism
- physicalism
- quote - philosophical idealism
- rivalrous dynamics
- Alexander Beiner
- no soul
- short-termism
- cartesian world view
- Robert Persign
- gedanken - paperclip
- Thomas Hobbes
- generator function
- gedanken
- consciousness reduced to physicalism
- Iain McGilchrist
- culture eats strategy for breakfast
- quote - Andrei Linde
- quote - Nick Bolstrom
- quote
- value as qualia
- gedanken - Nick Bolstrom
- matter is a phase of consciousness
- quote - paperclip maximizer
- moloch antidote
- cumulative cultural evolution
- AI risk
- Scott Alexander
- unhealthy competition
- competition
- materialism
- Cartesian dualism
- complex system cannibalism
- quote - Bernardo Kastrup
- Descartes
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
- quality vs quantity
- CCE
- progress trap
- idealism
- humanism
- Paperclip Maximizer
Annotators
URL
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ageoftransformation.org ageoftransformation.org
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The cases examined here thus point to a global process of civilizational transition. As a complex adaptive system, human civilization in the twenty-first century finds itself at the early stages of a systemic phase-shift which is already manifesting in local sub-system failures in every major region of the periphery of the global system... In this context, it is precisely the acceleration of global system failure that paves the way for the possibility of fundamental systemic transformation, and the emergence of a new phase-shift in the global system… Human civilization is in the midst of a global transition to a completely new system which is being forged from the ashes of the old. Yet the contours of this new system remain very much subject to our choices today…. there remains a capacity for agents within the global system to generate adaptive responses that, through the power of transnational information flows, hold the potential to enhance collective consciousness. The very breakdown of the prevailing system heralds the potential for long-term post-breakdown systemic transformation.
Definition - Global Phase Shift - A global process of civilizational transition in which - Human civilization - a complex adaptive system, - in the twenty-first century finds itself - at the early stages of a systemic phase-shift - which is already manifesting in local sub-system failures - in every major region of the periphery of the global system. - In this context, it is precisely the acceleration of global system failure - that paves the way for the possibility of - fundamental systemic transformation, - and the emergence of a new phase-shift in the global system - Human civilization is in the midst - of a global transition - to a completely new system - which is being forged from the ashes of the old. - Yet the contours of this new system remain very much subject to our choices today - there remains a capacity for agents - within the global system - to generate adaptive responses that, - through the power of transnational information flows, - hold the potential to enhance collective consciousness. - The very breakdown of the prevailing system - heralds the potential for long-term post-breakdown systemic transformation.
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ageoftransformation.org ageoftransformation.org
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due to the critical role of information in phase-transitions, the primary pathway to global systemic transformation will depend on our ability to process information on our current predicament coherently in order to translate this into adaptive action.
Key observation - due to the critical role of information in phase-transitions, - the primary pathway to global systemic transformation - will depend on our ability to process information on our current predicament coherently - in order to translate this into adaptive action.
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the overarching paradigm that underlies the global system, however useful it might have been, is not only obsolete, but actively pushing us toward self-annihilation. This paradigm reduces human existence to competition between disconnected, materially-defined units whose primary imperative is individual material self-maximisation and accumulation. Yet it is precisely this way of being that is eroding our mental health and destroying planetary life-support systems. Our inherently relational nature, the fact that our well-being is tied up with our connections to others – that we are fundamentally interconnected – is obfuscated.Moving through the global phase-shift, then, requires us to completely reorient ourselves into a new way of being in the world, rooted in new ways of understanding our relationship with the world that actually connect with reality.
In Other Words The human INTERbeing - our relational nature - our Dunbar number past - is denied by modernity
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And that process does not start ‘out there’. It starts right here, right now, within. We cannot change the world if we have still not mastered our own selves. Self-mastery entails training ourselves to undo the conventional internal neurophysiological wiring conditioned from our personal history and social experiences that determines our emotional triggers and cognitive horizons, to uproot incoherent belief systems, release ourselves of private judgments, free ourselves from thought-patterns rooted in banal ideological polarities, and develop the tools necessary to be in a constant state of evolution and committed action. Having awakened ourselves internally, newly empowered, we will be equipped to move to immediate social contextual action.
this is Donella Meadows top leverage point to intervene in a system - change in paradigm, worldview and narratives of the individual - https://jonudell.info/h/facet/?max=100&expanded=true&user=stopresetgo&exactTagSearch=true&any=leverage+points
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We are facing a poverty crisis, a political crisis, crises of education and health, crises of culture and infrastructure. And within and encompassing all of these, we are facing a crisis of meaning, because in a world that feels like it’s crumbling around us, we are sometimes overwhelmed by feelings of emptiness and futility.Professor John Vervaeke, a cognitive scientist at the University of Toronto, calls this “the meaning crisis”. Our conventional sense-making concepts and categories are broken.
Meaning crisis
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Another major finding is that mental health challenges are increasingly concentrated in some of the wealthiest and most industrialised countries which adopt the more extreme neoliberal economic policies.
Interesting to observe that South Africa has the worst indicator of all.
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people with poor family relationships and no close friends “are ten times more likely to suffer from significant mental health challenges” compared to those with many close family bonds and friendships.
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The report refers to a metric called the ‘Social Self’, which measures how “we see ourselves and our ability to form and maintain relationships with others”. It finds that this metric displays the “most dramatic decline from older to younger generations”.
In Other Words - the degradation of the indvidual/collective entanglement
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“young adults age 18-24 were five times more likely to have mental health challenges compared to their grandparents' generation.
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Mental Health State of the World report published by Sapien Labs’ Mental Health Million Project suggests that over recent years we appear to be crossing a global tipping point.
Annotate this report
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Our gaze is often focused on the crisis ‘out there’ and what we must do to ‘fix it’. Sometimes we neglect or overlook the crisis within. Other times, that inner crisis might consume us and distract us from what’s going on ‘out there’.
What is important is the inner/outer entanglement
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We are simultaneously facing major crises across our systems of production in energy, the economy and food. These crises encompassing our material social relations are paralleled by deep and overlapping inner crises.
The inner / outer crisis relationship. This is one of the major relationships identified by Stop Reset Go and Deep Humanity.
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The Planetary Emergency is a Crisis of Spirituality The collapse of reductionist materialism is a defining feature of the global phase-shift. The question is, what comes next, and what are we going to do about it?
Title: The Planetary Emergency is a Crisis of Spirituality - The collapse of reductionist materialism is a defining feature of the global phase-shift. The question is, what comes next, and what are we going to do about it?
Author - Nafeez Ahmed
Tags
- statistics
- Nafeez Ahmed
- human interbeing
- eco-anxiety
- Mental Health Million
- ecoanxiety
- Mental Health of the World
- inner / outer crisis
- key observation
- inner / outer entanglement
- key observation - information in phase transition
- separation
- inner / outer transformation
- alienation
- John Varvaeke
- Sapien Labs
- statistics - ecoanxiety
- Donella Meadows
- meaning crisis
- dumbar number
- quote
- quote - ecoanxiety
- leverage point
Annotators
URL
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insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org
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Restoring fish, bison, gray wolves and other animals in key regions is possible without risking food supplies, and could remove nearly 500 gigatons of CO2 from the atmosphere by 2100.
- Rewilding large terrestrial and marine animals can sequester 500 gigatons co2 by 2100
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Title: Rewilding’ Parts of the Planet Could Have Big Climate Benefits
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www.nature.com www.nature.com
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Title: Trophic rewilding can expand natural climate solutions
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- Mar 2023
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The effect of Antarctic meltwater on ocean currents has not yet been factored in to IPCC models on climate change, but it is going to be "considerable", Prof England said.
Another unknown not yet included in IPCC report
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The study, published in the journal Nature, also warns the slowdown could reduce ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere
AMOC slowdown may reduce my efficacy of co2 absorption.
Tags
Annotators
URL
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climateuncensored.com climateuncensored.com
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In this first part of a two-part article on the relevance of 1.5°C, we unpick the policy gulf that exists between the Paris Agreement climate goals and our real-world emissions trajectory. Part two, forthcoming, will ask whether it is still tenable to claim that 1.5°C is in any meaningful sense ‘alive’.
Part One of two-part article - on the relevance of 1.5°C, - unpack the policy gulf that exists between - the Paris Agreement climate goals and - real-world emissions trajectory. - Part one challenges - the techno-optimistic position, - embodied by international leaders and the COP process - as being wilfully ignorant of reality.
Part two, forthcoming - question - is still tenable to claim that 1.5°C is in any meaningful sense ‘alive’. - Question recent suggestions that, - because a 50% chance has all but slipped beyond reach, - 1.5°C is now effectively dead in the water. - Exploration of the dangers of disregarding societal transformations - that could yet deliver an outside chance of 1.5°C.
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Title: How Alive Is 1.5? Part One – A Small Budget, Shrinking Fast
Author: - Kevin Anderson - Dan Calverley
Key Messages - For a 50:50 chance of staying below 1.5°C, we’re using up the remaining carbon budget at around 1% every month. - Following current national emissions pledges (NDCs) to 2030 puts the temperature commitments within the Paris Agreement beyond reach. - Claims that 1.5°C is now inevitable also assign “well below 2°C” to the scrapheap. - An ‘outside chance’ of not exceeding 1.5°C remains viable, but ongoing fossil fuel use is rapidly undermining it. - The few credible pathways for an outside chance of 1.5°C are not being discussed. This is an active choice by policymakers and experts, who have largely dismissed equity-based social change.
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www.frontiersin.org www.frontiersin.org
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In order to ensure that water, energy and food systems are secure and sustainable there is need for resources that enable decision managers to acknowledge and accommodate system complexity, recognizing the likelihood of diffuse and non-linear impacts within and beyond system boundaries.
- acknowledging and working with complexity
- means implementing strategies
- to deal with the changing landscape of knowns and unknowns
- We are always working with limited knowledge
- we need to explicitly recognize that
- and develop pragmatic strategies
- to integrate the unknown into decision-making processes
- acknowledging and working with complexity
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we propose five cornerstones that help deal with the highlighted issues and categorize unintended consequences.
5 principles for mitigating progress traps - 1) - a priori assessments of potential unintended consequences of policies - should be conducted by - multidisciplinary teams - with as broad a range of expertise as possible. - This would require decision-making - to flex around specific policy challenges - to ensure that decision-makers reflect the problem space in question. - 2) - policy plans made in light of the assessment should be iterative, - with scheduled re-assessments in the future. - As has been discussed above, - knowledge and circumstances change. - New consequences might have since - become manifest or new knowledge developed. - By planning and implementing reviews, - organizational reflexivity and - humility - needs to be built into decision-making systems (e.g., Treasury, 2020).
- 3)
- given the scale of systems
- such as the water-energy-food nexus
- and the potential for infinite variety and nuance of unintended consequences,
- pragmatism necessitates specification of boundaries
- within which assessments are made.
- pragmatism necessitates specification of boundaries
- It should be noted that this can in itself give rise to unintended consequences
- through potential omission of relevant areas.
- Hence, boundary decisions regarding
- where the boundaries lie
- should be regularly revisited (as per 2) above.
- where the boundaries lie
- given the scale of systems
- 4)
- unintended consequences identified
- should be placed in the framework
- with as much consensus among decision-makers as possible.
- should be placed in the framework
- The positioning does not need to be limited to a single point,
- but could be of the form of a distribution of opinions of range
- of knowability and
- avoidability;
- the distribution will be indicative of
- the perspectives and
- opinions of the stakeholders.
- but could be of the form of a distribution of opinions of range
- If a lack of consensus exists on the exact position,
- this can highlight a need to
- seek more diverse expertise, or
- for further research in order to improve consensus, or
- for fragmenting of the issue into
- smaller,
- more readily assessable pieces.
- this can highlight a need to
- unintended consequences identified
- 5)
- there is a need for more active learning
- by decision-makers
- about how to avoid repeating past unintended consequences.
- by decision-makers
- To support this,
- assessment process and
- outcomes should be
- documented and
- used
- to appraise the effectiveness of policy mechanisms,
- with specific attention on outcomes
- beyond those defined by policy objectives and the
- assumptions and
- decisions
- which led to these outcomes.
- beyond those defined by policy objectives and the
- with specific attention on outcomes
- Such appraisals could reflect on
- the scope of the assessment, and
- the effectiveness of specific groups of stakeholders
- in being able to identify potential negative outcomes,
- highlighting gaps in knowledge and limitations in the overall approach.
- in being able to identify potential negative outcomes,
- Additional records of the level of agreement of participants
- would allow for re-evaluation with new learning.
- there is a need for more active learning
- 3)
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in this example, use of insects for animal feed and food for humans presents a Knowable and Avoidable unintended consequence.
- Example
- insect for animal feed
- as a example of knowable and avoidable unintended consequence
- insect for animal feed
- Example
-
The unintended consequence was both Unknowable due to the lack of foresight regarding the potential for insects as feed, and Avoidable had more specific wording been used.
- Example of unknowable and avoidable
- The same insect problem above
- can also be classified as
- unknowable and
- avoidable
- in EU regulation (EC) No 999/2001
- that does not distinguish between
- ruminants and
- insects,
- in effect banning the use of insects in
- aquaculture,
- poultry and
- pig feed
- that does not distinguish between
- can also be classified as
-
Title: Unintended Consequences: Unknowable and Unavoidable, or Knowable and Unforgivable?
Abstract - Paraphrase - there are multiple environmental limits within which humanity can safely operate, - potential negative outcomes of seemingly positive actions need to accounted for. - “nexus” research is consistent with the above - it recognizes the integrated and interactive nature of water, energy and food systems, - and aims to understand the broader implications of developments in any one of these systems. - This article presents a novel framework for categorizing such detrimental unintended consequences, based upon: - how much is known about the system in question - and the scope for avoiding any such unintended consequences. - The framework comprises four categories: - Knowable and Avoidable - Knowable and Unavoidable - Unknowable and Avoidable - Unknowable and Unavoidable - The categories are explored with reference to examples in both: - the water-energy-food nexus and - planetary boundary frameworks. - The examples: - highlight the potential for the unexpected to happen and - explore dynamic nature of the situations that give rise to the unexpected. - The article concludes with guidance on how the framework can be used - to increase confidence that best efforts have been made to navigate our way toward - secure and sustainable water, energy and food systems, - avoiding and/or managing unintended consequences along the way.
// - This paper is principally about - progress traps, - how they emerge, - their characteristics - as they morph through the knowability / avoidability matrix - and how we might predict and mitigate them in the future
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This example illustrates the potential for an unintended consequence to move between categories and demonstrates that there are times when it is necessary to review and reflect. What is considered known and knowable changes over time: has the state of knowledge developed or an unintended consequence been identified?
// - This is the critical question - Looking at history, can we see predictive patterns - when it makes sense to stop and take questions of the unknown seriously - rather than steaming ahead into uncharted territory? - We might find that society did not follow science's call - for applying the precautionary principle - because profits were just too great - the profit bias at play - profit overrides safety, health and wellbeing
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Figure 2. Transitions of climate change throughout time.
// - This is a good basic framing - for future basic research - on progress traps - Future paper would explore details in a much more granular way //
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As the United States Secretary of Defense once asserted “there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don't know we don't know” (Rumsfeld, 2002)
Johari Window states the same thing
Tags
- progress trap - complexity
- unintended consequences
- progress trap - climate change
- 5 principles to avoid unintended consequences
- progress trap - fossil fuel energy
- future citation - scientometric study of progress traps
- precautionary principle
- Johari Window
- food water energy nexus
- progress trap - insects as animal feed
- progress trap
- knowable and avoidable
- 5 principles to avoid progress traps
- profit bias
- planetary boundaries
Annotators
URL
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royalsocietypublishing.org royalsocietypublishing.org
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- genetic and cultural evolution
- as well as individual and collective learning are deeply enmeshed
- The distinction between
- genetic and cultural evolution and
- individual and cultural learning
- are ambiguous at best
-
‘socially biased individual learning’
Definition - socially based individual learning - an individual learns by interacting with the embedded environment - but the environment is itself biased - so that certain learning outcomes - are more easily learned - than they would otherwise be
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the problems inherent in assuming any simple individual/social learning distinction are already well understood by some researchers working on cultural evolution.
moss sponging by chmpanzees - is a phenomena observed by researchers - in which the distinction between<br /> - individual and - collective learning - is fuzzy - Sponging is a technique of wild chimpanzees - in which they use chewed up plant material - as a sponge to soak up water - One individual wild chimpanzee - named by the researchers as KW - picked up a discarded sponge used by another wild chimpanzee - which happened to have moss in it - and so developed a sponge for water specifically from moss - KW did not learn it socially from another chimpanzee - yet if it weren't for - the behavior of other chimpanzees in the group - cultural artefacts they left behind - niche construction that resulted to changes in the environment - the individual learning of KW would never have produced moss sponging
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We have already seen that thinkers from the humanities and social sciences have expressed doubt about the nature/culture distinction. They have also expressed doubt about the related distinction between that which is social and that which is individual. Christina Toren [27], again, remarks that the very distinction between individual and social learning is one that social anthropologists have long regarded as problematic.
individual and social are deeply entangled
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The problem with this way of defining things is that we ignore the fact that, even when acting in a manner that appears to involve no direct interaction with other creatures, organisms nonetheless develop and learn in environments that have been affected by the prior actions of their conspecifics (and not just their conspecifics). This is precisely the sort of phenomenon stressed by the proponents of the niche-construction approach to evolution, and it is also stressed by developmental systems theorists [40,41]. Organisms grow in environments that have been constructed by the actions of previous generations: in that way, what an organism learns can be profoundly affected and enhanced by the collective activities of individuals it may never meet. In other words, we should not assume that there is any good distinction between individual learning and what we might call ‘social transmission’. The latter can be achieved via the former.
- This primate example demonstrates an ambiguity between individual and social learning.
- The problem with this way of defining things exclusively as either
- individual or
- social
- is that we ignore the fact that,
- even when acting in a manner
- that appears to involve no direct interaction with other creatures,
- organisms nonetheless develop and learn in environments
- that have been affected by the prior actions of their conspecifics (and not just their conspecifics).
- This is precisely the sort of phenomenon
- stressed by the proponents of the niche-construction approach to evolution,
- and it is also stressed by developmental systems theorists [40,41].
- Organisms grow in environments that have been constructed
- by the actions of previous generations:
- in that way, what an organism learns
- can be profoundly affected and enhanced
- by the collective activities of individuals it may never meet.
- by the actions of previous generations:
- In other words, we should not assume
- that there is any good distinction
- between
- individual learning and
- what we might call ‘social transmission’.
- The latter can be achieved via the former.
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the best known example of this type of research concerns the co-evolution of pastoralism and lactose tolerance [30]. In rough terms, the basic hypothesis—which is widely accepted and well confirmed—is that the adoption of dairying set up a modified niche in which the ability to digest lactose into adulthood was at an advantage.
Best known example of gene-culture coevolution - co-evolution of pastoralism and lactose intolerance - the adoption of dairying set up a modified niche - in which the ability to digest lactose into adulthood was an advantage. - ancestors who were lactose tolerant could take advantage of a new source of calories. - Hence it is the learned acquisition of dairying which explains the natural selection of genes favoring lactase persistence, - the continued production of the enzyme lactase beyond weaning - Dual inheritance theory (Gene-culture coevolution) typically uses this example to explain - Dairying is inherited via a cultural channel - lactase persistence is inherited via a genetic channel - Recent supporters of this also make recent claims that it is not possible to distinguish between - what is biological from what is cultural
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Tim Ingold [29] characterizes humans as ‘biosocial becomings’: once again in an effort to reject any separation of what is biological or genetic from what is cultural or social.
The eintangled human - bio-social human interBEcomING
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royalsocietypublishing.org royalsocietypublishing.org
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Our core criteria follow the definition of CCE provided in Tomasello's quotation above. We suggest that the minimum requirements for a population to exhibit CCE are (i) a change in behaviour (or product of behaviour, such as an artefact), typically due to asocial learning, followed by (ii) the transfer via social learning of that novel or modified behaviour to other individuals or groups, where (iii) the learned behaviour causes an improvement in performance, which is a proxy of genetic and/or cultural fitness, with (iv) the previous three steps repeated in a manner that generates sequential improvement over time.
Definition - Cumulative Cultural Evolution - The core criteria follow the definition of CCE provided in Tomasello's quotation above - A population exhibits CCE iff - (i) a change in behaviour (or product of behaviour, such as an artefact), typically due to asocial learning, followed by - (ii) the transfer via social learning of that novel or modified behaviour to other individuals or groups, where - (iii) the learned behaviour causes an improvement in performance, - which is a proxy of genetic and/or cultural fitness, with - (iv) the previous three steps repeated in a manner that generates sequential improvement over time.
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In contrast [to non-human species' cultural traditions], human cultures do accumulate changes over many generations, resulting in culturally transmitted behaviors that no single human individual could invent on their own.
- Boyd & Richerson give a nice explanation of CCE
- In contrast [to non-human species' cultural traditions],
- human cultures do accumulate changes over many generations,
- resulting in culturally transmitted behaviors that no single human individual could invent on their own.
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Why have we, alone in the animal kingdom, created art and literature, socio-political systems that permit large-scale cooperation, and the scientific and technological knowledge to colonize the whole planet and explore space?
- Cumulative cultural evolution has emerged as the front runner to explain human "success"
- CCE was popularized by Boyd & Richarerson and Tomasello.
- Tomasello argued that only humans could "accumulate modifications over time"
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‘the ratchet effect’
New term for me - the Ratchet effect! - equivalent to CCE - A ratchet is a device with angled teeth that allows a bar or cog to move in one direction only. Here, it is a metaphor for the accumulation of increasingly effective modifications without reverting back to prior, less effective states.
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In recent years, the phenomenon of cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) has become the focus of major research interest in biology, psychology and anthropology. Some researchers argue that CCE is unique to humans and underlies our extraordinary evolutionary success as a species. Others claim to have found CCE in non-human species. Yet others remain sceptical that CCE is even important for explaining human behavioural diversity and complexity. These debates are hampered by multiple and often ambiguous definitions of CCE. Here, we review how researchers define, use and test CCE. We identify a core set of criteria for CCE which are both necessary and sufficient, and may be found in non-human species. We also identify a set of extended criteria that are observed in human CCE but not, to date, in other species. Different socio-cognitive mechanisms may underlie these different criteria. We reinterpret previous theoretical models and observational and experimental studies of both human and non-human species in light of these more fine-grained criteria. Finally, we discuss key issues surrounding information, fitness and cognition. We recommend that researchers are more explicit about what components of CCE they are testing and claiming to demonstrate.
Title: What is cumulative cultural evolution (CCE)?
Authors: - Alex Mesoudi - Alex Thornton
Abstract - In recent years, cumulative cultural evolution (CCE) has become the focus of major research interest in - biology, - psychology and - anthropology. - There is a range of opinions on CCE - some argue that CCE is unique to humans - and underlies our extraordinary evolutionary success as a species. - Others claim to have found CCE in non-human species. - Yet others remain sceptical that CCE is even important for explaining - human behavioural diversity and - complexity. - These debates are hampered by multiple and often ambiguous definitions of CCE. - Here, we review how researchers define, use and test CCE. - We identify a core set of criteria for CCE - which are both necessary and sufficient, and - may be found in non-human species. - We also identify a set of extended criteria - that are observed in human CCE - but not, to date, in other species. - Different socio-cognitive mechanisms may underlie these different criteria. - We reinterpret - previous theoretical models and - observational and - experimental studies of both - human and - non-human species - in light of these more fine-grained criteria. - Finally, we discuss key issues surrounding information, fitness and cognition. - We recommend that researchers are more explicit about what components of CCE they are testing and claiming to demonstrate.
-
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www.sciencedirect.com www.sciencedirect.com
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While policies limiting the high emitters are thus unavoidable, such as progressive taxes on emissions, they are hampered by three consecutive barriers.
Three obstacles to policies limiting elite carbon emissions - First is the realization of connection between wealth and carbon emissions - Second is polarized politics making it difficult to pass or implement policies to limit dangerous consumption - Third is focused policy on the oversized contributions of elites
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Our findings raise the issue of global policy choices, with this research confirming that targeting the high emitters will be key. Staying within temperature limits of 1.5 °C or 2.0 °C is difficult without addressing the consequences of wealth growth.
key finding - staying within 1.5 or even 2 deg C will be difficult without addressing wealth growth - a significant share of the remaining carbon budget risks being depleted by a very small group of human beings
-
command-and-control policies are required to ban energy-intense premium class and private flights.
// - if millionaire consumptive behavior - threatens the survival of civilization, - then laws can be created to ban the dangerous consumptive behavior - if they cannot self-regulate
-
Fig. 3. Remaining carbon budget and millionaire emission growth, 2022–2050*.
Graph - millionaire emission growth vs remaining carbon budget - Note the year 2037 on this graph - This is when millionaire emissions exceeds remaining carbon budget
-
In this estimate, US$2020 millionaires will deplete 72% of the 1.5 °C carbon budget (400 Gt CO2, 67% chance of staying within temperature range), or 25% of the 2 °C budget (1150 Gt CO2, 67% chance) over the next 30 years.
key finding - Elite consumption has the potential to make 1.5 Deg C target unreachable - US$2020 millionaires will deplete 72% of the 1.5 °C carbon budget (400 Gt CO2, 67% chance of staying within temperature range), - or 25% of the 2 °C budget (1150 Gt CO2, 67% chance) - over the next 30 years.
-
Fig. 4. Millionaire numbers (nominal) by region: 1990, 2020, 2050
graph - millionaire numbers by region - 1990 - 2020 - 2050
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1% of the world's population is responsible for an estimated 50% of emissions from commercial air transport, most of this associated with premium class air travel of affluent frequent fliers
- Quote
- carbon inequality stat
- 1% of the world's population is responsible for 50% of emissions from commercial air transport
- carbon inequality stat
- Quote
-
5245 superyachts with lengths of 30–180 m in 2021, a five-fold increase from 1090 yachts in 1990
yacht stats - 2021: 5245 superyachts of lengths 30-180m - 1990: 1090 superyachts of lengths 30-180m - stats - yachts - quote - yachts
-
power law in emission inequality
carbon inequality follows a power law
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Table 1. Interrelationship of wealth and emissions per capita.
- Table
- Interrelationship of wealth and emissions per capita. //
- It is clear that we have an urgent need
- to bend the curve of emissions of elites
- Table
-
Historical geometric growth revealed by this data suggests an average growth rate of 7.9% per year, which we extrapolate to 2050.
Quinn Slobodian's Crack-Up Capitalism may be a new form of disaster capitalism that will emerge as the polycrisis continues - https://hyp.is/go?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdocdrop.org%2Fvideo%2Fr8k0r3dZsog%2F&group=world - as the growth of elites attest, we can count on capitalism to capitalize on disaster.
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the top 1% now being responsible for 17% of total emissions, the top 10% for 48%, and the bottom half of the world population for only 12% (in 2019).
Quotable carbon inequality stats: - the top 1% responsible for 17% of total emissions, - the top 10% for 48%, - the bottom 50% for12% - stats carbon inequality - quote carbon inequality - 2019
// A key question is also this: - what are individuals using those carbon emissions for? - is it being used just for luxury consumption - or is it being used to develop and actionize scalable low carbon strategies? - if it is the later, it could be seen as a de-carbon investment
-
They also highlighted that high emitters live in all countries, but were concentrated in the USA (3.16 million), causing an average 318 t CO2-e per person, Luxemburg (10,000 individuals emitting 287 t CO2-e/year each), Singapore (50,000, 251 t CO2-e/year), Saudi Arabia (290,000, 247 t CO2-e/year), and Canada (350,000, 204 t CO2-e/year)
Noteworthy countries with the most high carbon net worth individuals (HCNW): - USA - 3.16 million individuals emitting an average 318 t CO2-e/year/person, - Luxemburg: 10,000 individuals emitting an average 287 t CO2-e/year/person, - Singapore: 50,000 individuals emitting 251 t CO2-e/year/person, - Saudi Arabia: 290,000 individuals emitting 247 t CO2-e/year/person, - Canada: 350,000 individuals emitting 204 t CO2-e/year/person
-
Key drivers of individual emissions include energy-intense transportation, especially private aircraft and yachts, and multiple real estate ownership, often in different continents
Biggest source of emissions of the elite: - yachts - private air transportation - multiple homes in different countries
// - luxury industries of: - private jets - luxury home real estate - yachts - are unsustainable - this irresponsible, unsustainable consumption is imperiling civilization itself
-
close to two thirds of the overall carbon footprint of those billionaires owning yachts is caused by yacht-ownership. This implies a contribution to climate change that is up to 6500 times greater for these individuals than the global average of 4.5 t CO2 per capita and year, or up to 300,000 times greater than the contribution of the poorest, at 0.1 t CO2 per person and year
Yacht stats: - close to two thirds of the overall carbon footprint of those billionaires owning yachts is caused by yacht-ownership. - Carbon footprint is - 6500 times greater than the global average of 4.5 t CO2 per person per year, - 300,000 times greater than the poorest, at 0.1 t CO2 per person and year - stats - carbon inequality - quote - carbon inequality
-
the top 0.01% emitting in excess of 2300 t CO2-e per capita in 2019, compared to 6 t CO2-e on global average.
Quotable carbon inequality stats: - top 0.01% emit more than 2300 t CO2-e per capita in 2019, - global average is 6 t CO2-e - therefore, the top 0.01% emit 2300/6 = 383x more than the global average. - quote - carbon inequality - stats - carbon inequality
-
The wealthy thus have a significant influence on remaining carbon budgets.
key observation
-
Title: Millionaire spending incompatible with 1.5 °C ambitions Authors: - Stefan Gossling - Andreas Humpe
-
Abstract
-
Research question
- Growing evidence suggests that the wealthiest individuals contribute disproportionally to climate change.
- This study considers the implications of a continued growth in the number of millionaires for emissions,
- and its impact on the depletion of the remaining carbon budget to limit global warming to 1.5 °C (about 400 Gt CO2).
- The study presents a model that extrapolates observed growth in millionaire numbers (1990–2020)
- and associated changes in emissions to 2050.
-
Results
- The share of US$2020-millionaires in the world population will grow from 0.7% today to 3.3% in 2050,
- and cause accumulated emissions of 286 Gt CO2.
- This is equivalent to 72% of the remaining carbon budget,
- and significantly reduces the chance of stabilizing climate change at 1.5 °C.
- Continued growth in emissions at the top
- makes a low-carbon transition less likely,
- as the acceleration of energy consumption by the wealthiest
- is likely beyond the system's capacity to decarbonize.
- To this end, we question whether policy designs
- such as progressive taxes targeting the high emitters
- will be sufficient.
- The share of US$2020-millionaires in the world population will grow from 0.7% today to 3.3% in 2050,
-
// and if it is not sufficient, then what?
-
Tags
- table - wealth and emissions
- quote - yacht
- ban on private flights
- air travel emissions
- irresponsible consumption
- key finding - carbon inequality
- graphite
- graph - millionaire numbers
- graph - millionaire emission growth
- disaster capitalism
- immoral consumption
- stats - yacht
- dangerous consumption
- stats - carbon inequality
- carbon inequality
- key observation
- quote - carbon inequality
- yacht growth
- quote - air travel emissions
- carbon inequality - power law
- elite - largest footprint
- quote
- crack-up capitalism
- flight emissions
- carbon inequality - by country
- table
- high carbon net worth individual
- key finding
- stats - air travel
- HcNW
- stats
- bend the curve - of elites
- millionaire spending
- key findings
- carbon inequality - policy obstacles
- de-carbon investment
Annotators
URL
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www.euronews.com www.euronews.com
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Millionaires will burn through two-thirds of the world’s carbon budget by 2050, scientists warn
Taxing? No, they have enough wealth to just keep going. - if we people don't act on their own, legal regulation is required - unless they can transform themselves and the global luxury industry also undergoes a huge transformation
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docdrop.org docdrop.org
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introduce professor quinn 00:01:13 sabodian he's the author of the book globalists the end of empire and the birth of neoliberalism where he traces ideas unusual lesser examined ideas about the origins 00:01:26 of neoliberalism right back to the breakup of the austro-hungarian empire and to strands of thought that um maybe are slightly unexpected was published by 00:01:38 harvard university press in 2018 and offers an enormous amount of insight into the variety of ideas that we call neoliberalism in our current era
Quinn Slobodian - in his book "Globalists" traces roots of neoliberalism - back to the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian empire
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crack up capitalism that is a form of economic activity 00:04:47 propagated by people whose profit model and their kind of a normative vision of change and the social future relies on an idea of an accelerating process of social dissolution and an accelerating process of political 00:05:00 fragmentation this is a form of this is sort of a profit model and a kind of a political vision that sees an acceleration in the near future and the medium-term future 00:05:14 of processes of political crack-up
- Definition
- Crack-Up Capitalism is defined as
- a form of economic activity
- propagated by people
- whose profit model and
- their kind of a normative vision of
- change and
- the social future
- relies on an idea
- of an accelerating process of
- social dissolution and
- an accelerating process of political
fragmentation
- in the near future and
- the medium-term future
- Crack-Up Capitalism is defined as
- Definition
-
-
-
Book review of historian Quinn Slobodian's new book: Crack-up Capitalism
-
“A hundred years ago, the robber barons built libraries. Today, they build spaceships.”
- Quote
- A hundred years ago, the robber barons built libraries. Today they build spaceships.
- Author Quinn Slobodian
- Quote
-
-
jacobin.com jacobin.com
-
This will not be the last terrifying scientific report on climate change. But the only path out of the dull repetitiveness of increasingly dire headlines is a politics that acknowledges that science and truth won’t automatically lead to change. The struggle for the planet is a struggle for political power.
or more directly, people power.
-
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its “synthesis” report summarizing the findings of its sixth assessment (the last occurred in 2014). The findings are painfully familiar: the world is falling far short of its emission goals, and without rapid reductions this decade, the planet is likely to shoot to beyond 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius of warming this century (we are at 1.1 degrees now). We seem to be stuck in a doom-loop news cycle where scientific reports create headlines, and earnest climate commentators insist the new report represents a true “wake-up call” for action, and then . . . emission keep rising. They hit a record once again in 2022. The world of climate politics appears to exist in two completely different worlds. There is a largely liberal and idealist world of climate technocrats where science informs policy, and there is the real, material capitalist world of power.
- A good observation
- about the cognitive dissonance of the situation
- A good observation
-
“I think we’re on the cusp of a massive transformation . . . ultimately, the market is going to make the decisions, not the government.”
Indeed, - and the market could very well make the decision - that will exceed planetary boundaries - after all, the highest priorities are the lowest cost goods - those already well established in the market place by reliance on fossil fuels, - that can maintain an individual's life
-
Yet we shouldn’t act as if there is zero reason for Biden’s turnabout. He understands, like every president before him, that surging gasoline prices are an enormous political liability in a society where the vast majority of workers still require the dirty fuel to get to work. As long as Biden acts as if his administration is helpless in the face of fossil fuel price volatility — and only increased supply will bring the price down — political viability will continue to hinge on cheap fossil fuel prices.
- The hands of politicians are always bound.
- by the fossil fuel interests that power the ordinary person's lives
- The current dependency of the ordinary person on fossil fuels
- is still the greatest barrier to system change.
- The hands of politicians are always bound.
-
-
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He said he and Arkush “went through every possible objection” and found no legal barrier for prosecutors to raise criminal charges against companies that he said have lied about their knowledge of the danger of burning fossil fuels. “What’s really probably stopping them is that no one has done it before,” Braman said. “The level of culpability and the extent of the harm is so massive that it’s not the kind of thing that prosecutors are used to prosecuting.”
- Quote
-
-
www.desmog.com www.desmog.com
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In addition, at least two justices have ties to the oil industry writ large. Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s father was a Shell attorney for nearly three decades and served in leadership positions with the American Petroleum Institute, and Justice Samuel Alito owns stock in ConocoPhillips and Phillips 66 (Alito recused himself from the Baltimore case but Barrett did not).
- The supreme court is tilted in favor of the fossil fuel industry through these appointments.
- The battle to keep fossil fuel litigation away from state courts and in federal court is big oil's attempt to leverage their conservative allies
-
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deliverypdf.ssrn.com deliverypdf.ssrn.com
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Title: Climate Homicide: Prosecuting Big Oil for Climate Deaths
-
Author:
- David Arkush
- Donald Braman
-
Abstract
- Paraphrase
- Prosecutors regularly bring homicide charges against individuals and
corporations
- whose reckless or negligent acts or omissions
- cause unintentional deaths,
- as well as those whose misdemeanors or felonies cause unintentional deaths.
- Fossil fuel companies learned decades ago that
- what they
- produced,
- marketed, and
- sold
- would generate “globally catastrophic” climate change.
- what they
- Rather than alert the public and curtail their
operations,
- they worked to
- deceive the public about these harms and
- to prevent regulation of their lethal conduct.
- they worked to
- They funded efforts to
- call sound science into doubt and
- to confuse their
- shareholders,
- consumers, and
- regulators.
- poured money into political campaigns to elect or
install
- judges,
- legislators, and
- executive officials hostile to any
- litigation,
- regulation, or
- competition
- that might limit their profits.
- Today, the climate change that they forecast
- has already killed thousands of people in the United States,
- and it is expected to become increasingly lethal for the foreseeable future.
- Given the
- extreme lethality of the conduct and
- the awareness of the catastrophic risk
- on the part of fossil fuel companies,
- should they be charged with homicide?
- Could they be convicted?
- In answering these questions,
- this Article makes several contributions to
- our understanding of criminal law and
- the role it could play in combating crimes committed at a massive scale.
- this Article makes several contributions to
- It describes
- the doctrinal and
- social predicates of homicide prosecutions
- where corporate conduct endangers much or all of the public.
- It also identifies important advantages of
- homicide prosecutions
- relative to
- civil and
- regulatory remedies,
- and it details
- how and
- why
- prosecution for homicide may be the most effective legal remedy available in cases like this.
- Finally, it argues that,
- if our criminal legal system cannot focus more intently on climate crimes soon
- we may leave future generations with significantly less for the law to protect.
- Prosecutors regularly bring homicide charges against individuals and
corporations
-
-
-
www.zen-occidental.net www.zen-occidental.net
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If the ego is mentally constituted by this dualistic way of thinking, the ego should be able to die without physical death.
-In Other Words - Die before you die -Paraphrase - If the ego is mentally constituted by this dualistic way of thinking, - the ego should be able to die without physical death. - That is precisely the claim of Buddhism: - the sense of self can disappear, - but there remains something else - that cannot die, - because it was never born. - Anatma is the "middle way" - between - the extremes of eternalism (the self survives death) and - annihilationism (the self is destroyed at death). - Buddhism resolves the problem of life-and-death - by deconstructing it. - The evaporation of it is dualistic way of thinking - reveals what is prior to it, - which has many names, - the most common being "the unborn."
-
- Title: Buddhism and Money: The Repression of Emptiness Today
- Author: David Loy
David Loy explains how - the denial of ego-self, also known as anatma - becomes the root of a persistent sense of lack - as self-consciousness continues to try to ground itself, reify itself and make itself real - while all the meanwhile it is a compelling mental construction
A good paper on the role (non-rational) relational ritual can play to help us out of the current polycrisis is given here: https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbrill.com%2Fview%2Fjournals%2Fwo%2F25%2F2%2Farticle-p113_1.xml%3Flanguage%3Den&group=world
-
it is a mental construct
Good explanation of what self-consciousness attempts to do:
Self-consciousness is not something obviously "self-existing" it is a fiction, - it is ungrounded because it is - a mental construct.
Rather than being selfsufficient, - consciousness is like the surface of the sea: dependent on unknown depths ("conditions," as the Buddha called them) that it cannot grasp - because it is a manifestation of them.
The problem arises because this conditioned, and therefore unstable, consciousness wants to - ground itself, to make itself real.
But to real-ize itself is to objectify itself - meaning to grasp itself, since an object is that-which-is-grasped.
The ego-self is this continuing attempt to objectify oneself by grasping oneself, something we can no more do than a hand can grasp itself.
-
The child wants to conquer death by becoming the creator and sustainer of its own life. To be one's own father is to be one's own origin. In Buddhist terms, we could say that the Oedipal project is the attempt of the developing sense of self to become autonomous. It is the quest to deny one's groundlessness by becoming one's own ground: the ground (socially conditioned and approved but nonetheless illusory) of being an independent person, a self-sufficient Cartesian ego.
Quote - becoming ones own ground and not recognizing groundlessness (tantamount to our nature as evolutionary beings)
-
the major sin is the sin of being born, as Samuel Beckett put it. It is the worm in the heart of the human condition, apparently an inescapable consequence of self-consciousness itself.
Quote - the sin of being born. - the worm in the heart of the human condition - an inescapable consequence of self-consciousness itself
-
For Becker this is literally true: what we regard as normality is our collective, protective madness, in which we repress the grim truth about the human condition.
Quote - normality is our collective, protective madness in which we repress the grim truth of the human condition.
-
do our fears cause us to perceive the world the way we do, and might someone experience the world differently if they were brave enough to face the thing we avoid most?
Quote - do our fears cause us to perceive the world the way we do, and might someone experience the world differently if they were brave enough to face the thing we avoid most? key question - could we imagine a world where we are free of these fears?
-
the fundamental insight of anatma, the denial of ego-self.
- definition
- anatma: the denial of the ego-self
-
repressed intuition "returns to consciousness in distorted form" as the symbolic ways we compulsively try to ground ourselves and make ourselves real in the world: such as power, fame, and of course money.
//* Loy is stating... - Those engaging compulsively in money, fame, power, materialism - are actually deeply repressing - the fact that the ego-self, and therefore self-consciousness is a construction - To continually reify the ego-self, we engage in these activities - and of course, this is fueling the polycrisis we now find ourselves in
-
The Buddhist doctrine of no-self implies that our fundamental repression is not sex (as Freud thought), nor even death (as existential psychologists think), but the intuition that the ego-self does not exist, that our self consciousness is a mental construction.
// SELF CONSCIOUSNESS IS A MENTAL CONSTRUCTION
-
the value-system of money is supplanting traditional religions, as part of a profound secular conversion we only dimly understand
//In Other Words - Money is the new secular reiigion
-
Buddhism and Money: The Repression of Emptiness Today
- Title: Buddhism and Money: The Repression of Emptiness Today
- Author: David Loy
Tags
- materialism and emptiness
- self does not exist
- becoming our own ground
- definition
- quote - mortality salience
- definition - anatma
- David Loy
- normality
- self consciousness
- key question
- Samuel Beckett
- emptiness
- die before you die
- evolution of polycrisis
- ego-self
- polycrisis
- constructing our reality
- sin of being born
- evolution of our polycrisis
- groundlessness
- constructing reality
- religion of money
- evolution of the anthropocene
- ritual practice
- quote
Annotators
URL
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docdrop.org docdrop.org
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The evolution of a human being
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docdrop.org docdrop.org
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our practical faith in 00:09:05 progress has ramified and hardened into an ideology a secular religion which like the religions that progress has challenged is blind to certain flaws in its credentials 00:09:18 progress therefore has become myth in the anthropological sense and by this i don't mean a belief that is flimsy or untrue successful myths are powerful and often partly true
- Quote
-
gaga's third question where are we going is what i want to address in these talks 00:05:26 it may seem unanswerable who can foretell the human course through time but i think we can answer it in broad strokes by answering the other two questions first 00:05:40 if we see clearly what we are and what we've done we can recognize human behaviors that persist through many times and cultures and knowing these can tell us what we 00:05:52 are likely to do and where we are likely to go from here
- Wright points out that answering the first two questions
- is the key to answering the third one
- Wright points out that answering the first two questions
-
the artist managed to harness his grief to produce a vast painting more a mural in conception than a canvas in which like the victorian age itself he demanded 00:04:31 new answers to the riddle of existence he wrote the title boldly on the image three childlike questions simple yet profound where do we come from 00:04:46 what are we where are we going the work is a sprawling panorama of enigmatic figures amid scenery
Paul Gauguin's painting: - Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Do_We_Come_From%3F_What_Are_We%3F_Where_Are_We_Going%3F#:~:text=Que%20sommes%2Dnous%20%3F,the%20themes%20of%20the%20Gospels%22. - Wright uses this painting as a appropriate introduction to his work tracing human progress because to answer the third question - where are we going? - requires answering the first two - where do we come from? - what are we?
-
- Ronald Wright gives his famous Massey talk on = progress traps
- The book
- A Short History of Progress
- is based on a series of 5 talks he gave at the Massey Lectures
- All five talks are recorded here
-
-
www.google.com www.google.com
-
google search for "Ronald Wright surviving progress"
Tags
Annotators
URL
-
-
irishtechnews.ie irishtechnews.ie
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The Unintended Consequences of Technology: Solutions, Breakthroughs, and the Restart We Need
Title: THE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF TECHNOLOGY: SOLUTIONS, BREAKTHROUGHS, AND THE RESTART WE NEED
-
-
www.scu.edu www.scu.edu
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The Unanticipated Consequences of Technology
Title: The Unanticipated Consequences of Technology - progress traps
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www.weforum.org www.weforum.org
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Micro-credentials may be the future of education
Longtail experience
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-
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Representative democracy is a good example. It was set up in a time of bad roads and no telecommunication. So, find someone with a horse who was willing to ride to the capital to represent the local views. The roads were so bad that these riders returned only at lengthy intervals to check on local opinion. Over time, the riders became known as “politicians” and their return visits as “elections.” Today, we have perfect roads and high-tech communications — yet, the same centuries-old procedure.
The origins of politicians! - politicians had their roots in an earlier age when there was no communication or transportation technology - settlers lived in small communities and had to send a horse rider to represent them at the capital city. - now, communication technology has made them obsolete but too late, the antiquated politician is here to stay!
-
-
www.history.com www.history.com
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pictures of early 1900 child labor in the United States
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www.wallmakers.org www.wallmakers.org
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The idea was to make a subterranean home that would originate from the rock bed, forming multiple whirls around the tree and adjoining to create a secure private space below for the residents and a space around the trees above that ensures that the thick vegetation and ecosystem continues to thrive undisturbed
built right into the rocky landscape, leaving all the trees undisturbed and building a swirling roof of beams and glass that accept the trees
-
Chuzhi as the meaning suggests in Malayalam, ”whirlpool” are swirls of precast poured debris earth composite bottle beams, fashioned from 4000 discarded plastic bottles designed around the three large Tamarind trees on site.
- picture of Chuzhi house
- sustainable house built with combination of natural and waste materials
- picture of Chuzhi house
-
-
www.wallmakers.org www.wallmakers.org
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Finding huge quantities of small loose stones during the excavation process for the foundation led to an improvisation in the SHOBRI wall (Shuttered Debris Wall). These stones were utilised in the walls by inserting them into the Debris mix in the shutters as alternating bands.
shuttered debri wall - beautiful wall using rocks found on site
-
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www.wallmakers.org www.wallmakers.org
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Wallmakers updates ancient building techniques for the 21st century, building beautiful architectural buildings using mud, waste and creativity as the main components
-
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www.cnn.com www.cnn.com
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Title: Fox News producer files explosive lawsuits against the network, alleging she was coerced into providing misleading Dominion testimony
// - This is an example of how big media corporations can deceive the public and compromise the truth - It helps create a nation of misinformed people which destabilizes political governance - the workspace sounds toxic - the undertone of this story: the pathological transformation of media brought about by capitalism - it is the need for ratings, which is the indicator for profit in the marketing world, that has corrupted the responsibility to report truthfully - making money becomes the consumerist dream at the expense of all else of intrinsic value within a culture - knowledge is what enables culture to exist, modernity is based on cumulative cultural evolution - this is an example of NON-conscious cumulative cultural evolution or pathological cumulaitve cultural evolution
-
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donellameadows.org donellameadows.org
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The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, power structure, rules, its culture — arises
The most impactful system change is the mindset
-
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royalsocietypublishing.org royalsocietypublishing.org
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It has been suggested that - the human species may be undergoing an evolutionary transition in individuality (ETI).
there is disagreement about - how to apply the ETI framework to our species - and whether culture is implicated - as either cause or consequence.
Long-term gene–culture coevolution (GCC) i- s - also poorly understood.
argued that - culture steers human evolution,
Others proposed - genes hold culture on a leash.
After review of the literature and evidence on long-term GCC in humans - emerge a set of common themes. - First, culture appears to hold greater adaptive potential than genetic inheritance - and is probably driving human evolution. - The evolutionary impact of culture occurs - mainly through culturally organized groups, - which have come to dominate human affairs in recent millennia. - Second, the role of culture appears to be growing, - increasingly bypassing genetic evolution and weakening genetic adaptive potential. -Taken together, these findings suggest that human long-term GCC is characterized by - an evolutionary transition in inheritance - from genes to culture - which entails a transition in individuality (from genetic individual to cultural group). Research on GCC should focus on the possibility of - an ongoing transition in the human inheritance system.
-
patterns thought to be characteristic of an ETI, including the scale of our cooperation with non-kin, the prominence of human language and our complex, full-time division of labour.
Summary
Human Patterns of ETI - non-kin scale of cooperation - prominence of human language - complex and full-time division of labor
-
The human species may be undergoing an evolutionary transition in individuality (ETI) [1–6]. The evolutionary transitions framework explains how new levels of biological organization (such as multicellularity, or eusociality) emerge from subsidiary units (such as cells or individuals) through the formation of cooperative groups [6–10]. First proposed by Maynard Smith & Szathmáry [3], evolutionary transitions are thought to unfold via a shift in the dominant level of selection from competitive individuals to well-integrated functional groups [8,11]. These transitions exhibit a common set of patterns, including new divisions of labour, the loss of full individual autonomy and reproductive control, and the rise of new routes of information transmission [6,7,10].
Definition : Evolutionary Transition in Individuality - This is a very good definition of ETI - A new individual is a new level of biological organization - The new individual emerges out of an integration of subsiduary units as competitive individuals synergize and form well-integrated functional groups
-
Long-term gene–culture coevolution and the human evolutionary transition
- Title: Long-term gene–culture coevolution and the human evolutionary transition
-
Authors:
- Timothy M. Waring
- Zachary T. Wood
-
Abstract
- Paraphrase
Tags
- major evolutionary transition
- evolution of polycrisis
- ETI
- Human ETI
- cultural evolution overtaking genetic evolution
- Maynard Smith
- evolutionary transition framework
- Evolutionary Transition in Individuality
- gene-culture coevolution
- evolution of our polycrisis
- evolution of the anthropocene
- human niche construction
- Szathmary
Annotators
URL
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link.springer.com link.springer.com
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we hypothesize that selection or cultural evolution will act to increase carrying capacity. Furthermore, if this evolution of carrying capacity occurs faster than the biotic components of the ecological system can respond via their own evolution, then we hypothesize that unsustainable ecological changes will result.
- key observation // In Other Words
- when cultural evolution overtakes genetic evolution,
- it makes socio-ecological collapse much more likely
- This makes sense because in modernity,
- cultural evolution may happen in a matter of days,
- especially in a globalized society where
- information can be broadcast globally in a few seconds, and
- goods and services can be sent anywhere by air travel in a day
- the recent pandemics were spread globally and rapidly due to air travel. Without that, such viruses would likely have been restricted to one locality of the planet
- our encroachment onto nature also serves to expose us to more viruses
- genetic evolution takes place on much longer time scales than cultural evolution
- this large time lag difference means that genetic evolution doesn't have time to adapt to quick-moving cultural changes
-
Sustainability and a continuum of human unsustainability
-
simple diagram showing trend towards collapse
-
spectrum from sustainable to collapse:
- sustainable
- unsustainable
- socio-ecological crisis
- socio-ecological collapse
-
-
human systems may have expanded beyond their ability to absorb energy and materials from the environment, and these resource constraints interacted with socio-political conflict to generate socio-ecological collapse.
- key observation
-
Civilizations that may have experienced socio-ecological collapse in whole or part due to their over-extraction of resources include
- Historical societies that have experience ecological collapse:
- Mayan
- Roman
- Greek
- Easter Islands
- Pitcairn Islands
- Norse colony in Greenland
- Cahokia in American Midwest
- Anasazi
- Historical societies that have experience ecological collapse:
-
-
www.livescience.com www.livescience.com
-
"In the very long term, we suggest that humans are evolving from individual genetic organisms to cultural groups which function as superorganisms, similar to ant colonies and beehives,"
- Quote
- In the very long term, we suggest that humans are evolving from individual genetic organisms to cultural groups which function as superorganisms, similar to ant colonies and beehives,
- Tim Waring
- Quote
-
It’s possible, the researchers suggest, that the appearance of human culture represents a key evolutionary milestone.
- key observation
- human culture may represent a key evolutionary milestone
- culture may be the next evolutionary transition state
- pre-single self organisms like mitochondria increased fitness by sharing the environment with other life forms and formed the single cell
- then multi-cellular organisms set the stage for the next big evolutionary paradigm
- splitting into plants and animals
- sexual reproduction
- transition to land
- we are possibly undergoing the next major evolutionary transition
- in which we will still evolve genetically,
- but genetics may not determine human survival as much as culture does
- key observation
-
Here's why: Culture is group-oriented, and people in those groups talk to, learn from and imitate one another. These group behaviors allow people to pass on adaptations they learned through culture faster than genes can transmit similar survival benefits. An individual can learn skills and information from a nearly unlimited number of people in a small amount of time and, in turn, spread that information to many others. And the more people available to learn from, the better. Large groups solve problems faster than smaller groups, and intergroup competition stimulates adaptations that might help those groups survive. As ideas spread, cultures develop new traits.In contrast, a person only inherits genetic information from two parents and racks up relatively few random mutations in their eggs or sperm, which takes about 20 years to be passed on to their small handful of children. That's just a much slower pace of change.
- key observation
- paraphrase
-
why cultural evolution is too fast for genetic evolution
- Culture is group-oriented, and people in those groups talk to, learn from and imitate one another.
- These group behaviors allow people to pass on adaptations they learned through culture faster than genes can transmit similar survival benefits.
- An individual can learn skills and information from a nearly unlimited number of people in a small amount of time
- and, in turn, spread that information to many others.
- And the more people available to learn from, the better.
- Large groups solve problems faster than smaller groups,
- and intergroup competition stimulates adaptations that might help those groups survive.
-
As ideas spread, cultures develop new traits.
-
In contrast, a person only inherits genetic information from two parents
- and racks up relatively few random mutations in their eggs or sperm, which takes about 20 years to be passed on to their small handful of children.
- That's just a much slower pace of change.
-
human culture may be driving evolution faster than genetic mutations can work.
!- key finding - human culture may be driving evolution faster than genetic mutation can work - the major delay, measured in many orders of magnitude - does not allow genetic evolution to adapt quickly enough - to harmful environmental changes brought about through cultural evolution
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Humans might be making genetic evolution obsolete
- TItle: Humans might be making genetic evolution obsolete
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library.oapen.org library.oapen.org
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Figure 3.2 Consumption corridors changing over time
- diagram
- consumption domain diagram
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Figure 3.1 Why consumption minima and maxima are necessary.
- diagram
- living in a sustainable consumption corridor
- bound by minima and maxima consumption
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- Title: Consumption Corridors: Living a Good Life within Sustainable Limits
- This book explores how to enhance peoples’ chances to live a good life in a world of ecological and social limits.
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extendedevolutionarysynthesis.com extendedevolutionarysynthesis.com
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As a consequence of sociocultural niche construction, humans have become a global force of nature – for better and for worse. It is only by embracing these sociocultural realities that we might shape better futures for both humans and non-human species alike.
// In Other Words
- we must undo the myopic cultural evolution that has already taken place with a more collectively conscious form of cultural evolution //
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brill.com brill.com
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// - This article provides an intersectional study of: - climate change, - collective action research - terror management theory / mortality salience - it explains the beneficial impacts of non-rational relational ontology and recommends the use of ritual practices based on this as a way to promote pro-environmental behavior
//
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There is reason to think that the effects of mortality salience are different in relational ontology. Contemporary Heathens are a particular sort of hybrid in living in modern society and emerging out of individualized ontologies, but forming incipient gift economies and expressing what I term a “gift ethic,” with an appreciation for what we receive from others, and desire to give in turn, sustaining social ecological systems as distributed networks of adaptive relations.
- key observation
- key insight
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we also share an overarching and dominant individualized ontology that operates primarily in a logic of economization and consumerism. Economic metaphors and language dominate, and keep shifting our frame of reference back to economy. It is consumerism that is most often and consistently enacted in worldview defense when confronted with mortality salience in modern society.
- key observation
- key insight
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“increased knowledge tends to strengthen our position on climate change, regardless of what that position is” (Hoffman 2015:5)
- Quote
- increased knowledge tends to strengthen our position on climate change, regardless of what that position is
- (Hoffman 2015:5).
- Quote
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unconscious motivations have not been eradicated by rational analysis.
- key observation
- key insight
- quuotable
- quote
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Ritual practice embeds tacit knowledge. Its bodily actions enact meaning and operationalize values. The bodily motions of ritual actions, such as physically sharing drinks and food, and giving gifts, matters because of the reciprocal ideomotor effects of unconscious priming (Kahneman 2011:53). As Lakoff explains, there are connections between metaphoric meanings and bodily actions such that metaphoric associations are embedded in the structures of our brains. Compartmentalism, or “biconceptualism” in his terms, is physical in our brains, and frame shifts can be triggered through bodily movement with priming effects. “Going through the motions” of ritual will have some effects even for those who start off feeling silly for doing it.
// - this is the mechanism by which ritual practice can bring about interpretive shift unconsciously -because bodily movements have a priming effect - Lakoff points to the concept of "biconceptualism, a compartmentalism in our physical brain
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interpretive drift is largely unconscious, not articulated, but brought on through practice (Luhrmann 1989:316). It involves more than a shift in the language people use (Luhrmann 1989:315, 321). It is not just cognitive, not just a new interpretive framework, but a shift in ontology and habitus, though Luhrmann uses the term “interpretive” drift. It is an acculturative process of change, but not an entirely passive internalization of culture. It is an interactive, though not necessarily conscious ongoing collaboration. We do this partly through imitation, but also growing skills in ourselves, as Michael Polanyi describes of tacit learning of personal knowledge.
// in other words, - interpretive shift is unconscious and brought about through practice. It is a shift in ontology, habitus and many things happening at once and is also Polyani's tacit learning
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Participation in ritual can change habitus and ontology through tacit learning. Luhrmann describes how “perception of [the practitioners’] world—what they noticed and experienced—altered, and the way they interpreted these perceptions altered …. They acquired the basic knowledge—common knowledge—and basic assumptions, sometimes explicitly articulated, other times implied, which affected the way they noticed and could observe the events around them” (Luhrmann 1989:11). Changes in practice generate changes in what people notice, pay attention to, their perception, sense of patterns, how they interpret events, and rationalize what they are doing. She observed that “Intellectual and experiential changes shift in tandem, a ragged co-evolution of intellectual habits and phenomenological involvement” (Luhrmann 1989:315). Interpretation and rationalization, through practice becomes personal knowledge, embodied knowledge acquired through tacit learning.
- Key Observation
- The interpretive shift occurs when:
- perception of the world (what they notice and experience is altered
- how they interpret their perceptions is also altered
// - new cognitive patterns imposed upon the same sensory information - bring about attentional shift - resulting in the noticing of new patterns
//
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When entering an unfamiliar field we lack the knowledge of how to get along in it, but over time our perspective shifts to fit new parameters, recognizing new patterns, and we fit ourselves to the norms we find and begin to share in the shaping of them. Luhrmann describes this process as “interpretive drift,” and explains how the process can be initiated through ritual practice.
- Key Definition
- Interpretative Shift (Luhrmann)
- can be initiated through ritual practice // We can build interventions based upon encouraging ritual practice that causes interpretative shifts
- Key Definition
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Sociologist Kari Norgaard, in her ethnographic study of climate change denial in Norway, indicates that people have “separate mental categories” (Norgaard 2011: loc 795)
- separate mental categories
//summary - This sounds like compartmentalization, although frame shifting would be another way to look at it - when people know about the problem in an abstract way that is not “integrated into the sense of immediate reality” - (Norgaard 2011: loc 800). She found that knowledge about climate change is socially organized such that it is perceived as a “distant” problem that is “outside the sphere of everyday reality” - (Norgaard 2011: loc 917).
Tags
- climate change
- Quuotable
- unconscious motivations
- Key insight
- George Lakoff
- collective action
- Key observation
- definition
- Norgaard
- knowledge deficit model
- terror management theory
- Hoffman
- consumerism
- bioconceptualism
- relational ontology
- Polyani
- tacit learning
- Quote
- individualized ontology
- pro-environmental behavior
- interpretive shift
- mortality salience
- Ernest Becker
- Luhrmann
- ritual practice
- frame shifting
- non-rational
- Information deficit model
- tacit awareness
- separate mental categories
Annotators
URL
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www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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Gene–culture coevolution and the nature of human sociality
- Title: Gene–culture coevolution and the nature of human sociality
- Author: Herbert Gintis
//Abstract - Summary - Human characteristics are the product of gene–culture coevolution, - which is an evolutionary dynamic involving the interaction of genes and culture - over long time periods. - Gene–culture coevolution is a special case of niche construction. - Gene–culture coevolution is responsible for: - human other-regarding preferences, - a taste for fairness, - the capacity to empathize and - salience of morality and character virtues.
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www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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- Title: Human niche construction in interdisciplinary focus
- Author:
- Jeremy Kendal
- Jamshid J. Tehrani
- John Oding-Smee
- Abstract
- summary
- Niche construction is an endogenous causal process in evolution,
- reciprocal to the causal process of natural selection.
- It works by adding ecological inheritance,
- comprising the inheritance of natural selection pressures previously modified by niche construction,
- to genetic inheritance in evolution.
- Human niche construction modifies selection pressures in environments in ways that affect both human evolution, and the evolution of other species.
- Human ecological inheritance is exceptionally potent
- because it includes the social transmission and inheritance
- of cultural knowledge, and material culture.
- Human genetic inheritance
- in combination with human cultural inheritance
- thus provides a basis for gene–culture coevolution,
- and multivariate dynamics in cultural evolution.
- Niche construction theory potentially integrates the biological and social aspects of the human sciences.
- We elaborate on these processes,
- and provide brief introductions to each of the papers published in this theme issue.
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iiraorg.com iiraorg.com
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The central question of the Anthropocene, why did behaviorally modern humans gain the unprecedented capacity to change an entire planet, cannot be answered by genetic changes in human behavior. To explain why human societies scaled up to become a global force capable of changing the Earth and why there are so many different forms of human societies and ecologies shaped by them, explanations must be sought beyond the theories of biology, chemistry or physics. Here I introduce a new evolutionary theory, sociocultural niche construction, aimed at explaining the origins of human capacity to transform the Earth 3. As will be seen, this theory also explains why behaviorally modern human societies came to transform ecology in so many different ways over the past 50,000 years as they expanded across the Earth.
//Summary* - The central question of the Anthropocene: - why did behaviorally modern humans gain the unprecedented capacity to change an entire planet? - cannot be answered by genetic changes in human behavior. - To explain why human societies scaled up to become a global force capable of changing the Earth and why there are so many different forms of human societies and ecologies shaped by them, - explanations must be sought beyond the theories of - biology, - chemistry or - physics. - Here I introduce a new evolutionary theory, sociocultural niche construction, - aimed at explaining the origins of human capacity to transform the Earth . - As will be seen, this theory also explains why - behaviorally modern human societies came to - transform ecology in so many different ways over the past 50,000 years as they expanded across the Earth. //
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www.pnas.org www.pnas.org
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Abstract
- Abstract
- summary
- The exhibition of increasingly intensive and complex niche construction behaviors through time
- is a key feature of human evolution,
- culminating in the advanced capacity for ecosystem engineering exhibited by Homo sapiens.
- A crucial outcome of such behaviors has been the dramatic reshaping of the global biosphere,
- a transformation whose early origins are increasingly apparent
- from cumulative archaeological and paleoecological datasets.
- Such data suggest that, by the Late Pleistocene,
- humans had begun to engage in activities
- that have led to alterations in the distributions of a vast array of species
- across most, if not all, taxonomic groups.
- Changes to biodiversity have included
- extinctions,
- extirpations, and
- shifts in species
- composition,
- diversity, and
- community structure.
- We outline key examples of these changes,
- highlighting findings from the study of new datasets, like
- ancient DNA (aDNA),
- stable isotopes, and
- microfossils, as well as
- the application of new statistical and computational methods to datasets that have accumulated significantly in recent decades.
- We focus on four major phases that witnessed broad anthropogenic alterations to biodiversity:
- the Late Pleistocene global human expansion,
- the Neolithic spread of agriculture,
- the era of island colonization, and
- the emergence of early urbanized societies and commercial networks.
- Archaeological evidence documents millennia of anthropogenic transformations
- that have created novel ecosystems around the world.
- This record has implications for:
- ecological and evolutionary research,
- conservation strategies, and
- the maintenance of ecosystem services,
- pointing to a significant need for broader cross-disciplinary engagement between:
- archaeology
- the biological sciences and
- the environmental sciences.
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Ecological consequences of human niche construction: Examining long-term anthropogenic shaping of global species distributions
- Title: Ecological consequences of human niche construction: Examining long-term anthropogenic shaping of global species distributions
- Author:
- Nicole L. Bolvin
- Melinda A. Zeder
- Dorian O. Fuller
- Michael D. Petraglia
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www.gndmedia.co.uk www.gndmedia.co.uk
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Ads, Andrew and James discuss where the the climate movement is right now, how deep time plays into the effects we are having on the planet, when good people do bad things because of poor systems and what happens next if 1.5C fails.
- 21:52 Carbon credits, carbon markets
- it's a scam designed to perpetuate fossil fuel use, in a phoney war against the climate crisis
- Offsets were designed to allow polluters to pay others to create schemes that would compensate or "offset" that pollution. The classic example WAS afforestation, the planting of trees that can sequester that carbon.
- Carbon neutrality comes from this idea that you can keep polluting if you offset it and become "carbon neutral"
- A company may decarbonize a lot of their supply chain but may struggle to get rid of airflights around the world. In that case, they use offsets. When companies analyze the very difficult choices, they take the easy way out and use carbon offsets
- However, there is so much offsets for afforestation now that there isn't enough land on earth
- Carbon markets are a recipe for grifting and fraud or zero impacts
- This is the current state of offsets
31:00 Shell oil carbon offset greenwashing scam - the sky zero proposal - Shell claims they can offset all the O+G emissions out of the ground - it is preposterous - there's not enough land on earth when you tally up all the carbon offset afforestation schemes
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32:30 Neo-colonialism
- rich white man can offset his emissions by buying land from a developing nation. Now the indigenous people cannot use that land for any reason.
- also, will require huge amount of water to grow those trees
- we don't have enough land and we don't have 100 years, only 5 years.
- nature-based solutions are an industrial, myopic approach
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37:00 Deferred Emission Reduction
- a lot of carbon credits are called deferred emission reduction credits.
- this is avoided emissions - ie. trees in a forest with 100 ton of sequestering potential
- this is promise to not destroy the biosphere any further so it's not removing any existing carbon
- maybe multiple people might own the same forest, or someone might come along and burn it down
- Trees are vulnerable to climate impacts - ie. Microsoft bought a large forest in California that later burned down in a climate change intensified wildfire
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40:00 can we do anything within the extractive capitalist system?
- some people claim that as long as extractivist capitalism still persists, we cannot have system change
- also a neocolonialist element - global north exploited the global south to create most of the emissions in the atmospheric commons
- a number of people are beginning to see that an extractivist capitalist system is not in line with effectively addressing the climate crisis
- wind, solar, etc has displaced electricity generation in a number of countries like in the UK. However, these are only a few countries.Renewables are helping increase overall energy production
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44:22: Stop burning fossil fuels
- t doesn't matter if investments in renewables triple. It won't make a difference if we don't significantly stop burning fossil fuels at the same time.
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47:00 economic growth prevents real change
- Insisting on 1, 2 or 3% growth, will limit the response to the climate threat to render it irrelevant
- Climate change is still mostly an optimization problem. They are more concerned with economic damage.
- Economists believe that anything that threatens economic growth cannot be accepted
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51:00 Degrowth making headway
- Degrowth scholars are getting more attention on the need to decouple economic grwoth from climate policies
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52:10 Is there a positive future scenario - The role of solidarity
- Solidarity is the greatest strength we can harness.
- The success of Doughnut Economics gives me hope
- The richest 1% must reign in their impacts and redistribute to allow the impoverished to live humane lives
- We can all have good lives and we don't have to manufacture that wonder
- This is what it is to be human
- 21:52 Carbon credits, carbon markets
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// Good source to illustrate how we construct our perceptual realities
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faculty.washington.edu faculty.washington.edu
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Although Virgil, MM and others like them certainly possess a rudimentary form of vision, decades of visual deprivation may never be completely redeemable. The human brain has an amazing capacity for plasticity, but there are some things that it cannot do. MM will likely never see the way that we see.
// Gradients of perceptual experiences of reality - The sense impaired teach us something fundamental about human nature. - The majority of non-sense-impaired people create the cultural norms of reality - but this reality can be very different for the sense impaired - Our reality is, to a large extent constructed from by our brain and depends on critical sensory inputs - But what is the brain itself, this magical organ that makes sense of reality? - The answer is going to vary depending on the subject experiencing it as well
-
MM's visual capacities continue to improve, but he also remains somewhat uncomfortable with his new sense. As a blind person, MM became extremely proficient at skiing, with the help of a guide to give him oral directions. After his eyesight was restored, skiing frightened him. The trees, snow, slopes, people -- everything whizzed by him, chaotic and uninterpretable. After much practice, he is now a moderate sighted skiier -- but when he really wants to go fast and feel confident, he closes his eyes.
// In Other Words - when sensory organs fail while we are young - we may construct different interpretations, and therefor experiences of our perceived realities - and adapt to them effortlessly. - If not for social stigma from the normative population, they would not know the difference - once we've adapted to sensory abnormalities, - a return to the normative way of experiencing reality via some medical intervention - that corrects a deficient sensory modality - is not guarantied to create the normative perceptual experience ordinary people have
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There is a window of opportunity in youth, often called a critical period, during which the brain can best form neural connections that correspond both to retinal images and to practical experience. During the critical period for the visual cortex, normal visual input is required to wire everything correctly. If input is missing during this period, the brain's links will probably not be built correctly. In fact, brain tissue ordinarily used in visual processing might even be taken over by other systems, perhaps tactile or olfactory systems. Some of MM's visual abilities lend further support to the theory that he missed a critical period of visual development. He is quite good at visual tasks that involve motion. Tasks that stumped him at first often became solvable if motion was incorporated into them. He became able to detect the circular patterns in random noise if the patterns were moving. And he began to see the "square with lines" as a cube if the lines moved, and the cube appeared to be rotating. At the end of their evaluations, the researchers saw some patterns emerging in MM's visual abilities and deficiencies. His ability to detect and identify simple form, color, and motion is essentially normal. His ability to detect and identify complex, three-dimensional forms, objects, and faces is severely impaired. The researchers have a tentative explanation for these variations in visual skill. Motion processing develops very early in infancy compared with form processing. By the time MM lost his eyesight in the accident, the motion centers in his brain were probably nearly complete. So when he regained some eyesight in his forties, those connections in the brain were ready to go. The parts of the brain that process complex shapes, however, do not develop until later in childhood, so MM's brain likely missed its chance to establish those particular brain connections. The authors also propose that our brains may retain the ability to modify and refine complex form identifications throughout life, not just throughout childhood. New objects and faces are continually encountered throughout life, and our visual processing centers must be able to adapt and learn to see new shapes and forms. MM's brain never had the chance to learn.
// summary - MM could perform better if motion was involved - It is known that motion processing develops very early in infancy, whilst form processing occurs much later - the researchers hypothesized that when MM had his accident, he had already experienced enough motion processing to be familiar with it, but had not had any opportunity to perform form processing yet. - He missed the early opportunity and other brain functions took over those plastic areas, crowding out the normally reserved functional development
//
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his problems didn't seem to be vision deficiencies so much as visual interpretation deficiencies. And deficiencies of this sort lie not with the retina's ability to perceive light and color, but with the brain's ability to process the retina's signals correctly. We usually do not think of the above problems as involving interpretation, because we have performed these interpretations so many times, and from such a young age. But since MM lost his sight at an early stage of development, since he had no visual input into his brain after age three, the researchers suspect that the visual centers in his brain did not develop normally -- and now, they likely never will.
// Interpretation, rather than sensory deficiency - paraphrase - summary - This loss of normative vision is due not to anything physiological, - but to the way the brain has been starved of real-life training experiences since childhood - the early years of our childhood are critical - to train the brain how to interpret the sensory signals - in order to form the normative perceptions we experience as adults
//
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Scientists and surgeons are slowly learning how to remove constraints on the eye's ability to see; unleashing the brain's ability to see is another story.
// The brain plays a critical role in sight, without it, we can't see. There's more to it than the eye sees!
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By far the most difficult tasks for MM involve three-dimensional interpretation of his environment. When an image is projected onto the retina, it is two dimensional, because the retina is essentially flat. When we are very young, our brains learn to use depth cues, such as shadows and line perspective, to see the three-dimensional world. Eventually, incorporating these cues into a coherent picture of the world becomes involuntary. Our ability to judge size correctly is one example of the brain's reinterpretation of two-dimensonal images. When a person walks away from us, the image of her becomes smaller and smaller on our retina. We know that people do not actually shrink as they move away, however. The brain combines the shrinking retinal image with perspective and depth cues from the surroundings, and we "decide" that the person is moving away. When MM lost his sight when he was three years old, his brain probably had not yet constructed the connections that incorporate separate perceptions into one combined perception. When a person walks away from MM, he has to remind himself that the person is not actually shrinking in size!
// Constructing 3D interpretation of visual information - most adults take for granted that an "object" has a fixed "size" - this depends on learning how to synchronize depth cues and shrinking retinal image size.at an early age - when we lose that ability, it dramatically impacts our perceptual construction of vision
//
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constructing our perceptual reality
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blog.jonudell.net blog.jonudell.net
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solve infoglut/FOMO, nothing could, but for a while, for me,
//@Gyuri Your "net dashboard" link doesn't work for me
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Fear of missing out (FOMO) is the flip side of infoglut. We expect that we should be able to sanely monitor more than we actually can
- new idea
- new term
- FOMO
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Information overload, once called infoglut, remains a challenge. We’re all flooded with more channels than we can handle, more conversations happening in more places than we can keep track of.
- new idea 4me
- infoglut
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insightmaker.com insightmaker.com
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// Insight Maker is used to model system dynamics and create agent based models by creating causal loop diagrams and allowing users to run simulations on those
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