Consilience Project

The meta-crises framework co-developed by Daniel Schmachtenberger https://consilienceproject.org/

I agree and I can’t figure it out. It’s not only the media either - it’s everyone. Extreme polarization is everywhere, and all of it seems to boil down to a struggle for power. Rich vs poor, citizens vs police, republican vs democrat, autocratic vs democratic - all being seen in extreme forms. It’s like the world has fallen under a spell or a mass psychosis. I would love to hear theories of what the root cause is. Is it due to massive state sponsored manipulation campaigns via social media? Worth reading: https://consilienceproject.org/social-media-enables-undue-influence/

Came here to mention the interview by Nate and am happy to see you did. In addition, and on a similar conceptual basis, I'd recommend: The Great Simplification [1] The Century of the Self [2] Can't Get You Out of My Head [3] The Resilience web site content [4] The Consilience Project [5] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xr9rIQxwj4 [2] https://thoughtmaybe.com/the-century-of-the-self/ [3] https://thoughtmaybe.com/cant-get-you-out-of-my-head/#top [4] https://www.resilience.org/ [5] https://consilienceproject.org/

Reminds me of Daniel Schmachtenberger's excellent article, The Endgames of Bad Faith Communication: https://consilienceproject.org/endgames-of-bad-communication/. Under his framework, this would be a specific example of bad faith communication, and he agrees that the breakdown in our ability to communicate in good faith is a threat to true democracy.

It takes 30 minutes of moderate effort to find this information, but really few people bother to do it. Our real problem is our inability to look at the landscape and synthesize a response, either individually or collectively. We know social media is toxic to us, but we keep using it. We know our governments are corrupt, but we accept them anyway. We know AI will radically change society soon, but we keep acting like it won't. We don't do anything because the walled gardens we're in don't tell us to, and we're currently quite comfortable; though increasingly concerned with that weird cloud coming towards us on the horizon. So we live in cognitive dissonance: constantly trying to "address the problem", then give up thinking maybe it's fine after all, and letting it happen for one more day. The combination of addiction and visceral disbelief - we know the reality intellectually, but don't accept it - is ruining people's lives, and has neutered an entire generation (or multiple?). We don't know how to act, how to coordinate, or even how to control ourselves. Instead, we find comfort in relying on dysfunctional systems that tell us "it's okay, don't worry about it". What would have spurred reform or revolution in a healthy population, instead falls flat. Eventually we'll each, individually, have to face the consequences of this dysfunction. Do you really want to risk your family's future on your present mental handicap? Big Tech created the walled gardens, but we entrapped…

Irony and satire are not effective against Nicespeak because those who engage in it are either evil or stupid. The evil know what they are doing and will meet you with hostility for being called out. The stupid will react with confusion, frustration, and ultimately hostility for your failure to engage with them in the pleasantly appeasing mediocrity which it requires. See The Endgames of Bad Faith Communication https://consilienceproject.org/endgames-of-bad-communication/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30997666

we wouldn't try to re-create it Some people argue that we've already recreated it: https://consilienceproject.org/its-a-mad-information-war/ > While the 2016 U.S. election was a watershed in computational propaganda, the same phenomenon has basically swept the planet, beginning as early as 2010.[..] We posit that this frontier leads toward mutually assured destruction, like all frontiers of arms races in weapons technologies.

Identify elements of good/bad communication patterns: https://consilienceproject.org/endgames-of-bad-communication/ Non-violent communication is a very structured approach to guiding people through perceived difficult behaviour: https://www.clearerthinking.org/post/2019/03/06/Want-to-improve-your-r… Gain a little understanding about the give and take of communication: https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/good-conversations-have-lot… If possible, try to spend more time with people who espouse these desired characteristics and less time with those who don't. Finally, conversation should be...fun...if possible. If you hack your way to being 100% in control of things all the time, then how much fun is that going to be for others?

I thought the generalized examples here[1] were objectively adequate. Using real world examples in this context strikes me as dancing into a mine field and a dismissal of the nuanced exercise towards understanding that the author suggests[2]. [1] https://consilienceproject.org/content/images/size/w1000/2022/01/Misle… [2] https://consilienceproject.org/content/images/size/w1000/2022/01/Misle…

I wish we could get some critiques that weren’t from a subgroups that so closely resembles the neargroup they’re criticizing: https://consilienceproject.org/team/ These essays often feel less like a novel analysis, and more just like different US elite factions arguing over whose turn it is to gain the Mandate of Heaven.

I used reddit for the first time in 2020 and only because a researcher friend told me to ask a question about implementation details of a paper I read. It gave me a good answer and to my surprise had some relatively famous names in the research field in the subreddit. That said, it also seemed to me like it's (maybe intentionally?) designed to promote bad faith communication[0]. Combine that with the Eternal September phenomenon it seems like an place of inevitable decay; whatever subreddit there is struggling against entropy. I think I saw an add about "Reddit: the Frontpage of Internet" but I think a more apt catch phrase would be "doormat"; all the rude, dirty people stomp all over it to get to the internet house. The mattress is mud ridden and smells. And the design of it is like a room without any windows with a broken AC making it humid, mold ridden and hot. And it was made right next to a Highschool and gives free entrance vouchers to the students. Some subreddits might try to carve out a space in the room, keeping it clean and everything but when most people coming in is bad faith and the room is so hopelessly inhospitable, it's just a matter of time. [0] https://consilienceproject.org/endgames-of-bad-communication/

>> Bitcoin did actually solve a real problem: a completely digital decentralized immutable record. > That doesn't describe a problem though, it describes a technical solution. The problem is that we can't seem to form consensus in a world inundated with technology. Bitcoin and other chains have shown that you can create a state that reaches consensus under specified rules that are enforceable by computation and not violence. Yes it has many problems, and the consensus is limited to the blockchain "world", but I envision a future where block chains can be valuable "truth" layers to the computation stack that society operates on. Practically, I believe blockchains can be solution for creating online decentralized identity (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/business/identity-access-mana… which will help solve our information consensus problems (https://consilienceproject.org/democracy-and-the-epistemic-commons/). I also believe they have much to offer in modernizing the financial system, and providing better ways for governments to implement monetary policy.