By deploying the brain’s ability to compress information and think abstractly, humans are the only animals on the planet who can simply make things up, agree on them as a group, and they become real. This “social reality” is a superpower that gives us far more control over reality than we might think."Reality," phenomenal that is, is subjective constructed socially and layered on physicality.
The Author explains how happens through "the Five Cs: creativity, communication, copying, cooperation, and compression."
This ability and its use have enormous consequences for humans, the only species that is able to do this, and also on the planet, especially in a technological age of globalization in which humans shaped the environment.
Undark
Why Chimpanzees Don’t Hold Elections: The Power of Social Reality
The Guardian
Facts Won’t Fix This: Experts On How to Fight America’s Disinformation Crisis
Why Chimpanzees Don’t Hold Elections: The Power of Social Reality
Lisa Feldman Barrett
ht Global Economic Monitor
Related
Two social "realities" come into conflict in a gigantic power struggle.
(Try to abstract from the politics if you are involved in it and see the relationship of the links. Of course, the different sides will view this differently but both should be able to grasp the point.)
Facts Won’t Fix This: Experts On How to Fight America’s Disinformation Crisis
Lois Beckett
As per a previous article you posted, the ruling class has achieved narrative control. Having captured the fifth estate, they possess the superpower. Enjoy the eve before the darkness.
ReplyDelete“ ability to compress information and think abstractly, humans are the only animals on the planet who can simply make things up, agree on them as a group, and they become real.”
ReplyDeleteLOL that is the definition of a Reification Error...
"Real" as in collectively understood. About as 'real' as common sense, lol.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reification_(fallacy)
ReplyDeleteReification (also known as concretism, hypostatization, or the fallacy of misplaced concreteness) is a fallacy of ambiguity, when an abstraction (abstract belief or hypothetical construct) is treated as if it were a concrete real event or physical entity.[1][2] In other words, it is the error of treating something that is not concrete, such as an idea, as a concrete thing. A common case of reification is the confusion of a model with reality: "the map is not the territory".
“Out of money!”... “borrowing from the Chinese!” all reification errors... by people not adequately trained in the scientific abstraction...
ReplyDeleteIt’s not to be admired...
Why do you have trouble with the vernacular?
ReplyDeleteReality is a holy grail, perception is our daily bread.
Worker consciousness is group awareness, not the absence of unconsciousness.
If you have time, watch "The Century of The Self" by Adam Curtis.
ReplyDelete“ ability to compress information and think abstractly, humans are the only animals on the planet who can simply make things up, agree on them as a group, and they become real.”
ReplyDeleteLOL that is the definition of a Reification Error...
Everyone has a world view that one takes to be "reality." A world view is interpretation of experience. Humans generally choose to affiliate with those of similar world views and either distance from those that don't or come into conflict with them.
Liberalism is supposed to provide a field for interaction among different perspectives. But liberalism itself is an aspect of a particular category of world views. Traditionalism is another. Another is a combination of liberalism and traditionalism (which can leads to cognitive dissonance).
Some are able to stand back and see their own world view as such instead of mistaking it for reality, which involves confusing a map with a territory.
Values are indispensable for cementing world views into place.
ReplyDeleteAll very well but any elementary school teacher will tell you the "reading culture" is in decline and reading material is where you are more likely to encounter more nuanced argument.
ReplyDeleteSome are able to stand back and see their own world view as such instead of mistaking it for reality, which involves confusing a map with a territory.
ReplyDeleteBut "Reality" here is just a word for another world view. So at some point, there is no alternative to "confusing" the map with the territory. Otherwise, you have sneaked a magical belief in your own omniscience into your world view.
Handily, God has arranged things in Time, so that infinitely many everythings don't happen all at once. So there is a reasonable way of going about it - understand everyone's world view up to Now, arrange them into your own, make that your reality / map / territory, which of course is always changing itself as it goes along. Philosophy is its own time, captured in thought.
Me, I like small talk :)
ReplyDeletePS: I'm thinking about the blender that I just bought online the other day (flash sale: 40% off). Haven't received it yet but already I'm having a reality check -- regret :(
Steve Grumbine was able to change his world view when informed by MMT. He's in the minority.
ReplyDelete40% off for a blender... that's a sweet deal :)
ReplyDeleteNot bad, but the 40% off on a Wolf Gourmet Toaster Oven I got last year was even sweeter :)
ReplyDeleteAnd just so you guys, if you're going to get a toaster oven, don't bother unless it's a Wolf. Seriously, that thing is a beast. It has rendered are regular oven just about obsolete :)
Small talk, none of the philosophical mumbo-jumbo where I can't figure out what the hell is being said ;)
Me love my new doesn't-vent-the-steam pressure cooker.
ReplyDelete