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Memetic condoms to prevent extremism
I see extremism as more than a belief system; it is a dangerous cognitive disorder. It creates circular logic and is fueled by a message of "us" verses "them". If extremism is an infectious destructive meme it must be understood and combated with an even more powerful meme.
Extremism cannot be stopped with 10, 000 or 100, 000 troops equipped with the latest weapons of war. It will rise up again, every time, because it is the meme - not the person infected by the meme - that lives on.
Utilizing methods such as fMRI, it should be feasible to demonstrate that certain “memetic infections” can disallow access to the part of the brain where rational thinking takes place.
Let’s assume it could be demonstrated that extremism is linked to a memetic infection which causes dangerous cognitive damage to the brain (even if temporary) and that certain vulnerabilities to this type of memetic infection could be clearly defined.
It would then be possible to create "memetic condoms," if you will, to immunize against such damage.
An effective meme should have fecundity, fidelity and longevity. Armed with solid facts about the cognitive damage and the inherent dangers of extremist memes, educational memes could be built. After being carefully constructed, these preventative memes could be propagated in targeted areas to those most vulnerable, for example, those in war torn places.
If we can understand what happens inside the brain, making it possible for otherwise good people to be able to commit unthinkable acts…we can begin the long road to prevention.
inthegarden beyondthecave
"Don't take consciousness for granted"
http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_lewis_don_t_take_consciousness_for_granted.html
Comment deleted
inthegarden beyondthecave
Good point. Scientific method belongs among our protective memes.
I'm going to add some to my list.
All statements about correlations of types of events (including causal patterns (laws of nature)) should be subject to verification in accordance with the methods of science.
inthegarden beyondthecave
A meme that is short enough to be rememered will also be ambiguous enough to be hijacked. A meme that is long enough to eliminate most ambiguity will not be as easy to remember and can be broken into parts with the parts being hijacked.
I think the most helpful memes are those that draw as back to the origin of rationality and point us toward maintianing that rationality. A good meme is one which tends to to hold us to rationalty's project of pursuing good. A bad meme is one which tends to thwart that project. The trick of course is to distinguish the project that is truly directed at the good from those that are not. Here are some suggested memes that I think tend to be helpful:
Be benevolent.
Treat others the way you would want to be treated.
Choose your actions and beliefs (and your methods of choosing your actions and beliefs) in the way you would want everyone to choose their actions and beliefs (and methods of choosing actions and beliefs).
Practice empathy.
Love even your enemies.
Have faith in benevolence.
Choose your beliefs and actions based on, and only on, those reasons which you could want everyone to rely upon whenever those reasons are applicable.
Any statements about correlations of types of events (including causal patterns (laws of nature)) should be regarded as uncertain to the extent that they have not been verified in accordance with the appropriate methods of science.
The more developed our methods of rationality are, the more rationality is preferable to irrationality.
The methods of rationality (including scientific method) should be revised to, and only to, the extent that they fail to provide useful conclusions. In this case, usefulness is measured by usefulness generally rather than usefulness to a limited group. More usefulness is preferable to less usefulness. Our ultimate aim is to find the most useful methods.
Laszlo Kereszturi 500+
Diane: "The meme I foresee being effective against extremism would be a compact package of facts about the disorder. That information would need to be packaged such that people would want to avoid the disorder."
Recently this was published:
"British Intelligence Vandalizing Extremist Online Magazines"
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002176.html
Maybe they should not put garbage characters, but that "compact package of facts" :-)
Zdenek Smith 100+
Please watch this video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/sharmeen_obaid_chinoy_inside_a_school_for_suicide_bombers.html
Vincine Fallica
It’s an interesting concept.
Diane Benscoter 50+
Madarain jones
Diane Benscoter 50+
Kevin Wiebe 20+
It is my view, from observation; that memes have evolved to take advantage of human emotions, cognitive biases, group solidarity, and other trends in human psychology that have biologically origins. Human beings are biologically hardwired with cognitive biases, I can recall a pretty good TED video on monkey economics that touched this issue briefly. But theres plenty of such phenomon that psychologists have discovered.
There is for example a representativeness heuristic tends to lead people to think emotionally important events (life, love, intelligence, creativity), have emotionally significant causes ( all loving creator, universal consciousness, inmaterial soul,etc). Another good example is escalation of commitment. Where people justify continue to invest in something, based upon how much they've already invested, rather than weither or not their investment is likely to pay off.
As for reason, reason is a tricky beast. Two people can believe drastically different things, but both can be equally as rational. In most cases, reason alone only serves to ensure people hold self consistent ideas. The crux of the issue, is the rejection, or deliberate ignorance of facts. Which coupled with reason, would warrant the distorted meme induced perspective obsolete. This can adequately be explained by confirmation, and emotional biases.
As for your inquiry, I think science and/or the particular thought proccesses associated with it, are our anwser.
Diane Benscoter 50+
trey fleuriet
We have to start somewhere class room is epitomal. If we are talking about the future then let us enfluence the future, which is our children.
In America we blow off our religion. Not because of education, but because our lives are so much easier and suffer free compared to other realigiously extreme countries. Because we have glutton lives, we don't have many reason become martyrs. 100 years from now though, I wouldn't be suprised to see that 80% are non religious. (Well I would actually because if I could see I would be 127 years old :).
Bottom line, people just don't understand enough about how their brain works and Diane makes a great point that we should educate ourselves.
Diane Benscoter 50+
Vilgot Huhn 10+
Secondly. Many visionaries through the ages have thought of forcing the "right" ideas on people. And as far as I'm concerned, "forcing them" is bad, both in effectiveness and in being kind of annoying. And I sense tendencies of wanting to force these memes on people, obviously with good intentions, I generally like the idea, but that's not how the world works. Just dropping the right propaganda on people isn't enough. Humans are hard, sometimes almost impossible, to control.
Anyways, my idea for a condom is "humor". (Going with the same idea as Amos Oz in his short book about curing fanaticism) How wonderfully naïve of me. But I'm serious about humor, it's funny, and thus it is probable to replicate. And with humor I don't mean all humor. Not pure shadenfreude or something like that. But the ability to laugh at yourself. "Självironi" is the swedish word for it. To be able to see your own flaws, to laugh at that which doesn't make sense. Instead of being a double-thinking asshole, laugh at the inconsistency. See the ironic part of serious issues. It's easy to laugh at crazy fundamentalist creationist, because they make no sense. They're a rich topic. If you are a fanatic, you'll just be insulted by this heresy. Someone is making fun of something holy! But I think that when humans face the choice in modern society between the group of people laughing at the humor of the world versus the group of offended people, they will much rather belong to the group that's having fun. And I think topics humor is an expanding circle. If it's ok to make fun of A, a couple of years later B accepted, and so forth.
However, in societies where you get stoned to death for heresy, there is little hope for any quick change. Still I believe humor and fun will win in the end, because in circumstances where the status quo is fanatically on the side of stoning heretics and such, humor triumphs.
Diane Benscoter 50+
Tim Colgan 50+
I'm convinced that humans are essentially tribal creatures and war with neighboring tribes is a response to human biological characteristics which have evolved to enhance the survivability of "our" tribe.
Yet, in modern societies, most of us have been indoctrinated in such a way that we end up living a life without killing anyone. So maybe the answer to your question lies in discovering what social learning has enabled us to get as far as we have.
Diane Benscoter 50+
While I am encouraged by the more global view mentioned above, having personally been in a religious cult, I am passionate about discovering a way to understand extremism from a cognitive perspective. I know my cognitive abilities were hampered by the ideas in my brain, during my time in the cult, until I was deprogrammed. If there is, in fact, a kind of cognitive disorder that allows effected individuals to potentially cause harm to themselves and/or others (suicide bombers, for instance) I want to look for a way to prevent that, especially among those most vulnerable to this "disorder".
Also, I know the word meme throws people off when I talk about my theory and my plans for research, but I also think memetics is an important concept to help explain my theory.
Again, thank you for your thoughts.
Christophe Cop 500+
Diane Benscoter 50+
Joseph McMahon
Diane Benscoter 50+
Joseph McMahon
Diane Benscoter 50+
Daniel Sheehan 20+
If you want to combat memes with memes I suggest that you employ memes that ground or anchor you in reality. Memes that, over time, have proven to hold truth, like:
"All that glitters is not gold"
"There's no such thing as a free lunch"
And my personal favorite, "People that drive with their hazard light on are right."
Diane Benscoter 50+
For what I am suggesting, building preventative "condom " like memes, they do need to be solidly based in facts/truth. This is why I am working toward beginning research utilizing the latest technology neuroscience has to offer. This project needs to begin with solid data regarding the difference between a brain which functions with a high level of rational thought and one that is capable of atrocities.
"People that drive with their hazard light on are right." is one I haven't heard, but love, so I hope it spreads and has a long life. The others you mentioned are clearly already successful memes.
Jordan Miller 20+
Dain Brammage