The modern world is hyper-connected. Yet our brains have had little time to evolve to deal with this hyperconnectivity, and our intuitive grasp of large scale social phenomenon is poor. Despite this, sensible political and economic decisions rely on exactly this kind of understanding. So, if our aim in live is to do good, and not just appear to good, we can study social science to try to connect our social, political and economic opinions with good moral outcomes. Our focus should be trying to understand the social world as it is, not to imagine it as we wish it to be, nor to confuse understanding with the advocacy and opinionation of politics.
There are thousands of social theories available for those interested enough to pursue them, but I’ve formulated several easy-to-read articles, combining well-known ideas and some of my own concepts, to cover some of the essentials of human social dynamics relevant to Technonaturalism and rational people generally:
- Bias – How our mind and our social situation can conspire to hide the truth from us
- Power – Realising how the pursuit of power shapes our society is essential if we are to sidestep its harmful effects
- Social Status – Perhaps even more common than a lust for power is the drive to gain social status (which can be achieved through cooperation or domination)
- Social Modulation and Social Replacement – Primate brain size is strongly correlated with social group size, and human brains are heavily evolved for social interaction. But the parts of the brain used to judge and interact with other people can sometimes be stimulated by inanimate objects that mimic social interaction. Awareness of this concept allows us to control this force for good and minimise its harm.
