Whirled Happiness
Posted by
Steve Smith on
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/pluralism-in-science-tp7582640p7582662.html
Ron/Merle -
When I went to the WHM, the three things that struck me were: 1)
This is not a blind measure... it seems like you should have to
state your level of happiness before you find out what the current
"average" level is; 2) It looks a lot like the "Current Fire
Danger" meter in our forests (Smoky Bear attending with his
shovel, jeans and hat); 3) I suspect "happiness" to be culturally
sensitive (both in meaning and in scaling?)
Is there a model of sorts for "contagious happiness"? I also
assume some of those here who use models of contagious disease
might have some meta-models to offer (Doug, show your hand)? Are
there reservoir populations? What are the non-human vectors
(pets?). Is cynicism a prophylactic? Does happiness (and
cynicism) act like quorum sensing/quenching (as with biology
and/or hive populations?) Are there memetic equivalents to the
modes of gene/protein expression?
I would expect contemporary models of this might be registered on
a network (scale-free, small world, power-law connected).
The Maharishi effect has been offered to me many times without
explanation for it's presumed mechanism. Back in the day, the
Maharishi claimed that "world peace" (or some other unspecified
collective good) would be achieved as soon as the square root of
1% of the population (that would be .0001 fraction?) achieved
Sidhi status. Anecdotally, the number started out at a high mark
of 10%, then dropped to a less onerous one of 1%, I don't know
when or why the square root (.0001was added. I assumed it implied
some kind of model for the phenomenon, but nobody seemed to know
where that part came from or why the numbers kept getting
downgraded.
I recently watched the movie Kumare' (at the suggestion of our own
Glen Ropella) and enjoyed it a great deal. A documentary film
maker sets out to look into the world of Guru's and in the process
becomes one...
The best line of the movie was "My job is to be happy!", reducing
his role as a (faux) Guru to a single, simple and effective
concept. The documentary seemed to be completely authentic (as
opposed to being some kind of mockumentary) and a conclusion
(related to our earlier discussion about placebo/nocebo) might be
that by embracing the role of a Guru(tm), Kumare' (the character)
managed to have the effect of a genuine Guru(tm).
10 of his 14 acolytes remained true to him after he exposed
himself as a documentary film maker studying the phenomena rather
than a "real" guru. 4 have refused/avoided further contact with
him. All 14 seemed to be enjoying huge benefits from their
participation with him in his "practice". The 10, in followups
seemed to have persistent positive effects, the other 4 we don't
know but might have lost what they gained?
- Steve
Merle,
I'm the developer of
www.WorldHappinessMeter.com
(WHM). How can I be involved in the Happiness Santa Fe launch
on Saturday? I notice from your site that an in-depth survey is
part of the festivities. One planned addition to WHM is a
survey in order to gather data worldwide to save the need for
boots on the ground.
On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 3:12 PM, Merle
Lefkoff
<[hidden email]>
wrote:
Roger,
Righto! We launch "Happiness Santa Fe" on Saturday (
go to our website, the Center for Emergent Diplomacy, or
just go to Happiness Santa Fe for a calendar of events).
We've had many recent conversations about how to
encourage conditions for a shift in our mental models
from consumerism and inequality toward compassion and
generosity.
When I teach Complexity at Upaya in the Buddhist
chaplaincy program I usually suggest that compassion is
an emergent property of the biggest system of all--our
brains. So I say, hey guys, just meditate more! We
have hard neuroscience on how that works. But how do we
change the initial conditions for a collective response?
Perhaps one way is to measure human happiness and
well-being differently by expanding GDP to include
ecological and social indicators as the Bhutanese have
been trying to do for decades. We tend to value what we
measure.
You know, dear Roger, that I follow the research
carefully. Thanks for this link. You guys study--we
act and put it on the ground!!
Merle
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