Episode 1

human minds are awfully malleable
Symmetry of power increase in Evolution (except in humans)
- Cheetahs and deers get faster together. Slower ones die behind
  - Nature stays in balance
- Humans power increases asymetrically from all other species
Propagative memes propagate more than true memes
- Protector memes help memes last longer
  - They make us defer thinking to others
Malthus was wrong

Episode 2 (War on Sense-Making 4)

Pandemic Considerations
- Is it possible that the US slow response was simply incompetence?
- Or is it possible for some interests to have contributed to such a slow response?
  - Hedge Funds selling stocks at a high in February and shorting stuff
- We don’t know but it’s something to think about
Getting comfortable with uncertainty, but also seeking more and more certainty
- Some laws of physics we can be pretty certain of, until they are disproved.

Almost no consensus among people on some of the most consequential issues in the world (climate change, covid, wars)
- each side of the US presidental election see it as existential (end of the world if the other side wins), and fear it being stolen
- people have given up epistemology for tribalism
Democracies seem to have emerged following a period of cultural enlightenment (Renaissance, Greeks)
- times when people were being trained in taking each other’s perspectives
- democracies break down relatively quickly
  - hard to keep a population well educated, informed and engaged in the democratic system
  - with generations moving on, populations forget what it was like before democracy and get lost in their own personal issues
  - Idea of Information Commons
Markets uncontrolled will produce terrible consequences for long term, they’ll create a market for human trafficking etc…
- Government’s role is to watch the predatory aspects of the market.
- People’s role is to watch the government and make sure they do their job.
Most people are certain about their beliefs.
- Certainty gives a sense of security. Humans have a need for Certainty
- I have to be comfortable with uncertainty otherwise I’ll jump to false certainties

Created on: 2020-10-10 Creator: Daniel Schmachtenberger Link: Topic (tags): sense-making