Marcus wrote:
Just go the other way a smidge or ten. Just experiencing such a parameter sweep would probably make people change the way they think about the core of their identity. It can't be that people do hormone replacement like this because they want to be more `natural'.
On some accounts, depression is not a disease but an adaptation to subordinatation in a highly structured society that must, by its extremely hierarchical nature, have many, many subordinate people. (Think about a tennis tournament as a social institution, a device for creating a situation in which only one person wins!) If you are going to lose anyway, bad policy to try. Better to wait your chance. But then, in a highly structured society, most people die waiting their chance.
So, enter prozac. Shakes people out of their defensive adaptation.
In short, if this account is correct, we are already feeding Prozac in at the bottom of the hierarchy. I wonder what happens to the social dynamics of an exective group when some of the members start taking Prozac
Nick
Nicholas S. Thompson
Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology
Clark University
http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/
-----Original Message-----
From: Friam [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Marcus G. Daniels
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2014 1:29 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Openness amplifies Inequality?
On Fri, 2014-04-11 at 11:49 -0700, glen wrote:
> That's overshooting just a bit... too easy of a target to knock down
> because too few people would volunteer.
There are Sunday morning advertisements on TV for roll-on testosterone!
And of course it is very common for women to take hormone replacement.
Both are to some extent done out of vanity. Just go the other way a smidge or ten. Just experiencing such a parameter sweep would probably make people change the way they think about the core of their identity.
It can't be that people do hormone replacement like this because they want to be more `natural'.
In a way biochemical interventions would be easier to do than context changing -- don't have to find a new job, move away from friends and family, etc.
As for the openness thing, it seems to me what matters is whether not-completely-open systems with membranes or formal interfaces like city councils or criminal trials can be navigated given a reasonable amount of energy. Do the interfaces promote orderly communication or just consolidation of power?
Marcus
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