Posted by
Prof David West on
Dec 24, 2020; 5:05pm
URL: http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/if-by-populism-he-meant-tp7599909p7599928.html
Glen,
This is not about populism per se, but about your formulations.
The very first post made we wonder how you would differentiate between a mass delusion and culture — other than put them on some kind of continuum or making the first a subset of the latter. None of your subsequent posts dealing with 'mechanisms/formulations' clarified this question.
An alternative mechanism/formulation you might consider: the vTAO or virtual Adaptive Topographic Organism.
You have never heard of this before because it was a model I proposed in my doctoral dissertation and I never had the chance to followup or operationalize the model because I was hired to teach software development.
My problem was how culture affected cognition. The model starts with the Hopfield metaphor of a neural net: raindrops (inputs) falling on a topography (established by connection weights) and being channeled to low points (outputs). The topography was shaped by learning and adjustment of the weights.
I extended this metaphor/model but making connection weights a function of the "constancy" of the inputs; with constancy being a combination of frequency and consistency. A feedback loop was established with the outputs altering the environment and altering the constancy of the inputs.
Trivial example: you paint the inside of your house red (output) and that increases the constancy of receiving 'red' inputs.
The metaphor/model was extended with seven 'layers' of topography: e.g. a core layer where the constancy is established simply by being carbon=based lifeforms, to culture shaping the gross geographic features, the penultimate layer of habit being akin to watershed, and the final layer being more or less intentional thought / free will / decision making etc.
In my mind's eye I can see how the vTAO is consistent with, supportive of, the mechanisms/formulations in your posts, but that might just be misplaced pride in authorship.
davew
On Thu, Dec 24, 2020, at 9:08 AM, ⛧ glen wrote:
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