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  1. Jul 2022
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    The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves
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    1. chrisaldrich 03 Jul 2022
      Speculation, herd exuberance, irrational optimism, rent-seekingand the temptation o f fraud drive asset markets to overshoot andplunge - which is why they need careful regulation, something Ialways supported. (M arkets in goods and services need lessregulation.)

      Link to: https://hypothes.is/a/HVN2uPsDEeye0HtWv8bS1w

      speculation markets rent seeking follow the herd asset markets assets regulation governmental regulation economics

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  3. Apr 2022
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    The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain
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    1. chrisaldrich 20 Apr 2022
      Humans’ tendency to“overimitate”—to reproduce even the gratuitous elements of another’s behavior—may operate on a copy now, understand later basis. After all, there might begood reasons for such steps that the novice does not yet grasp, especially sinceso many human tools and practices are “cognitively opaque”: not self-explanatory on their face. Even if there doesn’t turn out to be a functionalrationale for the actions taken, imitating the customs of one’s culture is a smartmove for a highly social species like our own.

      Is this responsible for some of the "group think" seen in the Republican party and the political right? Imitation of bad or counter-intuitive actions outweights scientifically proven better actions? Examples: anti-vaxxers and coronavirus no-masker behaviors? (Some of this may also be about or even entangled with George Lakoff's (?) tribal identity theories relating to "people like me".

      Explore this area more deeply.

      Another contributing factor for this effect may be the small-town effect as most Republican party members are in the countryside (as opposed to the larger cities which tend to be more Democratic). City dwellers are more likely to be more insular in their interpersonal relations whereas country dwellers may have more social ties to other people and groups and therefor make them more tribal in their social interrelationships. Can I find data to back up this claim?

      How does link to the thesis put forward by Joseph Henrich in The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous? Does Henrich have data about city dwellers to back up my claim above?

      What does this tension have to do with the increasing (and potentially evolutionary) propensity of humans to live in ever-increasingly larger and more dense cities versus maintaining their smaller historic numbers prior to the pre-agricultural timeperiod?

      What are the biological effects on human evolution as a result of these cultural pressures? Certainly our cultural evolution is effecting our biological evolution?

      What about the effects of communication media on our cultural and biological evolution? Memes, orality versus literacy, film, radio, television, etc.? Can we tease out these effects within the socio-politico-cultural sphere on the greater span of humanity? Can we find breaks, signs, or symptoms at the border of mass agriculture?

      total aside, though related to evolution: link hypercycles to evolution spirals?

      anti-science anti-intellectualism group think follow the herd imitation imitation > innovation relationships spatial relationships city vs. town urban vs. rural human evolution evolution anti-vaccines identity Joseph Henrich WEIRD Big History culture anthropology comparative anthropology hypercycle evolution spirals

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