Amergent

 In a realm not unlike our own, a young troubadour named Dylan emerged, singing of a world gone awry. His songs spoke of times of change and upheaval, of a generation adrift, and of a society fractured by greed and injustice. "The line it is drawn, the curse it is cast," he sang. This line became a battle cry, a rallying point for those who felt marginalized and unheard. A new generation, inspired by his words, rose up to challenge the old order. "How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?" Dylan asked. This question echoed through the land, sparking debates about identity, purpose, and the meaning of life itself. As the old ways crumbled, new ideologies emerged, each claiming to hold the key to a better future. "The times they are a-changin'," Dylan proclaimed. These words became a mantra for those who embraced progress and innovation. But for others, they signaled a threat to tradition and stability. A chasm began to form betw...

 The Baldwin Effect is a concept in evolutionary biology that describes how learned behaviors can influence the evolutionary process. It was first proposed by James Mark Baldwin in the late 19th century and represents a bridge between learning and evolution. The Baldwin Effect suggests that if an organism's ability to learn a certain behavior or adapt to its environment is advantageous for survival, those individuals with a genetic predisposition that facilitates such learning will be more likely to survive and reproduce. Over time, this predisposition can become genetically encoded in the population, even if the behavior itself was initially acquired through learning rather than being hardwired from birth. The interplay between learning and evolution in AI could lead to systems that not only solve problems more effectively but do so in a way that is more biologically inspired, potentially unlocking new forms of artificial intelligence that are more robust, adaptive, and efficient....

  An enduring message from Donald Trump this past eight years has been that the institutions need pruning, if not a simple pruning then a far more rigorous draining of the swamp. In terms of the following arguments there is little to disagree with. Government has become oppressively involved in the majority of the personal, cultural, and economic aspects of our lives. The main disagreement with Trump is that we do not need neo-monarchism to solve it, we need a decentralisation of institutions. The argument presented here is that the most fundamental mechanism of that power grab is the way that institutions are regulated and controlled by government, which in turn permits those institutions (including corporations) to garner the lion’s share of power. This leads to a fundamental corruption of free markets and culture which then results in corporations and institutions being used by government to run our lives. This article will look at the most objective factors, those involved...

 Why you should avoid voting for people who appear to be strong leaders Social dominance orientation (SDO) is a personality trait that predicts social and political attitudes. People with high SDO prefer and support social hierarchies in which some groups dominate others. Understanding SDO can help us see why some people support authoritarianism and hierarchical structures in society. Those with high SDO believe that society should be structured in a way where some groups are superior to others. Consequently they also think it is acceptable for these dominant groups to have more power and resources concomitant with carrying greater responsibilities whether this setup benefits society as a whole or not. The certainties of a social hierarchy are the main objective. People with high SDO tend to exhibit certain attitudes and behaviours. They prefer social systems where groups are ranked, with some at the top and others at the bottom. They believe that inequality is natural and sometime...

The psychology behind the term authoritarianism. Authoritarianism is a term often used to describe systems of governance or personality types where strict obedience to authority is emphasised, often at the expense of personal freedom and democratic principles. This article explores what authoritarianism is, the psychology behind it, and its impact on society. Notably, all the researchers agree on one thing: A rise in authoritarianism never ends well and often ends disastrously for everyone - those who support it the most strongly tend to find out that it was no more in their best interests than the minorities who are scapegoated. This will be explored further in the next article on social dominance personality among leaders and its relationship to the dark heart of authoritarianism. The concept of authoritarianism gained significant attention after World War II when two social scientists, Theodor Adorno and Else Frenkel-Brunswik, sought to understand the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi...

  The world has become increasingly complex in the twentieth century and even more so in the first quarter of the twenty first. How we deal with complexity both emotionally and cognitively can impact on how we deal with the factual world around us. It can affect our decision-making and make us vulnerable to abuses of power. There are many folk who just don’t seem ready to accept that the world is complex, and they turn to alternative simplistic stories that have no basis in reality. Marketers and politicians play on our need for simplicity, but if you know their tricks you can be forewarned. Complexity accounts for the tendency to accept simple but false narratives instead of continuing the analysis until a robust solution is found. The reasons for this are listed below. This effect is in addition to the most basic tendency to adopt a reassuring belief and then rationalise it. The two tendencies probably overlap - an existing simple and reassuring belief can function as an emotiona...