Egregores are composed of, *run on*, multiple human brains, potentially millions of them, but they are (usually) far less complex, *lower-dimensional*, than humans. It's a bandwidth issue: an egregore doesn't only rely on language for transmission, but for all of its cognition.
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Interesting. So but is there a mode of collective action that doesn’t fit this definition of egregore? I guess when people are knowingly aligned instead of just by subconscious assumption? But even that might have non-self-aware participants. Can something be part-egregore?
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"Egregore" is an extended metaphor for trying to understand the behavior of groups of humans that behave as-if they had agency separate from the constituent humans. How relevant that metaphor is varies.
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I think "collective action" is virtually always evil and I personally avoid it at all costs, but I'm not going to claim that's intrinsic to the model, or that the model is universally applicable.
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But to get back to your question, certainly there are individual humans who are skilled at assembling mobs and sending them after their enemies, for instance.
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A baroque nihilism ensues.
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. Banned in Sweden. SubGenius, Zhuangist, white-hat troll. Defrocked mathematician. Brain problems.