Many articles argue that human societies look a lot like ant colonies. Ants have a caste system which is similar to our job specialization. "The typical colony consists of one or more egg-laying queens, numerous sterile females (workers, soldiers) and, seasonally, many winged sexual males and females." (Wiki) There are much more ants than humans: one million...
Great Filter
Is stupidity the flip side of beliefs?
There is a Dutch saying: "A donkey does not bump into the same stone twice." I didn't see foreign equivalents. An alleged quote by Albert Einstein states: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” The key difference between animals and humans is (not) having beliefs. Recently, I noticed this question: If Humans Are the...
“Fact are facts.” Are they??
Last week, I received a reply to my Facebook post, in which I disputed the alleged neutrality of Dutch public broadcasting. The reply was: "Facts are facts." I asked him if he was aware of the views of Karl Popper (1902-1994) on this subject (eg, 1974 video). His response made clear that he was not. In the view of Karl Popper, facts are objective truths while...
Love, Knowledge & Power and zero-sum
My Thursday night was restless due to the upcoming full moon of 16 May. My mind kept wondering about zero-sum outcomes within the Love, Knowledge & Power domains of the 7 Belief systems. The Power domain always has a zero-sum outcome: one man's loss is another man's gain. How about the other two? The Love domain has various outcomes. For some, there is synergy...
The Great Filter in civilizations: a conclusion
For a long time, I’ve wondered about the Great Filter in civilizations. Why do initial successful civilizations eventually fail? It also relates to the Fermi paradox: if there is any extraterrestrial civilization, why haven't they contacted us by now? All civilizations seem doomed to fail after their initial success; often for unknown reasons (eg, Cahokia, USA)....
We need Knowledge, we want Power, and we believe in Love
In my blog of last Thursday, I suddenly noticed an overlap between two of my concepts: (i) Love, Knowledge & Power (my blogs), and (ii) Needs, Wants & Beliefs (my blogs). Combined, both concepts result in the following: (1) we need Knowledge, (2) we want Power, and (3) we believe in Love. This is trialism at its best. The other side of this coin is that both...
Recent Comments