Brilliant hypothesis. Worth exploring.https://twitter.com/vgr/status/1309988191114416128 …
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Replying to @SamoBurja
@vgr Another way of framing B is that many of the manipulative elements of sociopathy are sublimations of violence, analogous to broad scale transitions from physical force as a means of control to, e.g., propaganda or economic control.1 reply 1 retweet 4 likes -
At least one mechanism for this: witting application of force invites resistance, unwitting manipulation does no, leading to selection for ever subtler mechanisms of manipulation. In the limit, manipulators cannot see themselves as such, but have been selected into their roles.
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Replying to @aresnick @SamoBurja
It also takes less effort or talent. Applying force takes strength and skill at aggression. Copying a behavior that seems to work without either allows sociopath behaviors to spread memetically across untalented populations.
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Each manipulation discovery by a sociopath is a vulnerability revealed broadly like a zero-day exploit with no patch forthcoming since evolution is too slow.
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“Civilization advances by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking about them.” — Whitehead. Manipulation operations definite.y count as important ones.
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Replying to @vgr @SamoBurja
Absolutely! Partially, I was also suggesting imitation may not be the only mode of acquisition since those incentives also occur on the micro scale.
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(Certainly also true that imitation, myths, etc. accelerate it. Hence mistaken embrace of “Coffee is for closers”, House of Cards/Mad Men worship, etc.)
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Replying to @aresnick @SamoBurja
“Sometimes cargo cults work” Cargo cult selection hypothesis
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weren't we discussing at some point how cargo cults are apt to persist as long as the content of the cargo cult belief is relatively benign
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Can’t recall but I’m making the stronger argument that they might be adaptive
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there's tonnes of adaptive epiphenomena in a cargo cult, like belonging
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True! One distinction here is that mutual perception can mint power. Cargo cults were bootstrapped by a real observable + spurious association. Insofar as power calls forth deference, you get a stone soup dynamic (“I’m powerful because I act how we think powerful people act.”).
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End of conversation
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