Category Archives: investment

CRISPR changes everything

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Autism

Some mental illness may no longer need to be diagnosed through social tests.    While the United States busys itself with corporate protectionist legislation like the TPP to protect the major drug companies, some of the world is experimenting with the new precise, cheap and repeatable gene editing method known as CRISPR.

In the past gene editing was hit or miss.  Practiced more like chemistry, it was more like a million misses to a marginal hit.  Identifying a gene was not enough, splicing it became a major endeavor for companies like Monsanto.   Experiments on human DNA (except perhaps if you count our GMO diet) was effectively impossible.

As of 2015, the CRISPR technique, takes a precise strand of DNA and inserts it, reliably, in a larger DNA strand, precisely where it is told to insert it.   This is the holy grail of both nano scale assembly, and made to order DNA.  The mind reels.  Designer babies are eminent.  Greatly reduced aging is possible.  DNA based nanites can built to both manufacture on the table top and enhance human attributes.

These are in the future (AFAIK), but before all that, apparently we have already begun to use it verify genetic disease.  The technology is not even a year old and Chinese scientists have already implanted a suspected autism gene in monkeys, to see if their behavior varies.  It does.

The implications are huge for all illness from athletes foot to cancer, but it’s important that the first study is on behavioral disease.  If the civilization gene is correct and psychopathy is genetic, we could be close to a completely different world.  There are no suspect genes (other than the debunked warrior gene) at the moment, but it is possible to find, were the right people to take interest.  Now, a new way to verify that first study is readily available.

Conversely should some mental illnesses become officially understood to be genetic, psychopaths should  be easier to diagnose.  Psychopaths are the highest functioning mental illness.  ASPD stage psychopaths are well known for feigning other mental illnesses to evade detection.  A narrower field of patients through genetic screening for other disease means less misdiagnosis, and more understanding of the social consequences of widespread psychopathy.  That ultimately means real targeted help for the psychopaths.

Obedience

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Obey

‘I was just following my superior’s orders’ – Nuremberg principle IV

Is obedience a virtue?  It certainly is treated as such by some.   Obedience may bring to mind strict parents or the rank and file of the military.   Certainly some good has come from both.  It seems to contradict the idea that the human right to fork or to walk away from and split with authority is valid at all.  With some exploration of the word and it’s uses for good, it becomes clear that humanty’s understanding of obedience must be a misnomer.

To answer this we need to look at what virtue itself is about.  A virtue is personal attribute (transitory or not) that reflects both morality and accomplishment.  In other words a person with an accomplishment behind them that deems them worthy of respect (Please see an earlier post for exploration of that word.)  Morality is of course some variation of conscionable behavior.

The very concept of obedience falls apart as a virtue.  The conscience as defined by civgene (psychopaths as our predecessors) indicates that moral thought is comprised of reason (defined), and the metamind part of reason will always be subconscious. A virtue must include both parts of reason (the hunch and rational thought.)  With enough time, your gut will contradict your orders, and unrationalized obedience becomes a vice.

I’m not saying the obedience has no place in civilization.  The lions share of humans may be empaths, but we share the world with psychopaths.  Psychopaths lash out at a world which rejects their master/slave model.  They can be treated well with the right considerations and restrictions, but they will never participate in self contained cooperation.  They simply lack the tools.

To share a particular mission with psychopaths we need to revert to their way of thinking, temporally.  The oath is the solution to this conundrum.  To the psychopath the oath has no subconscious impact, just more master/slave orders to follow, but to the emapth it is ceding one’s personal conscience to a self realized principle.  The consequences of disobedience tie directly back to that oath.    When orders conflict with oath, the commander has broken the very respect upholding the oath has earned him.  He is no longer acting in a virtuous way.

So when an empath follows orders from a parent or a commander, that right to fork is only temporally, voluntarily, ignored.  You can be obedient to an open principle, but no human owns your destiny, except you.  Your conscience owns immoral orders as if they were your own mistakes.   Abusing your conscience in any fashion slowly destroys your understanding of right and wrong.  Morally dubious orders program your subconscious with false risks, crippling your abilty to think in a complete way.  You become oblivious to danger at all levels.  Your temporary submission to achieve the goals of your mission, has made you less capable, which in turn endangers it.

An immoral parent with a gambling addiction may corral you into friends that take money management lightly, a mentor may exploit you sexually as payment for hard to come by experience, and a commander may demand you kill people who pose no violent threat to anyone.  Please consider the respect you have, and may one day be afforded by your society.  That respect reflects your virtues, including operating under oath, and refusing to operate when that oath is violated.

Specifically on children, they and parents have an unwritten oath.  Society demands it, for it’s own good.  The parent genuinely emparts their understanding of the world, and the child genuinely incorporates it into their metamind as their starting point.  A way to get by until their metamind begins adapting to their own experiences.   Forming an understanding of how to invest in themselves and their world without being taken, robbed or crushed in any number of ways.  Children are not slaves to be exploited.  The legitimate oath is by design, temporary, conditional, and only fully functional when perpetually transitional towards functional adulthood.

Psychopaths only compete and never cooperate.  They do not obey moral principles, only hierarchy.  We have some distance to travel before they can be identified and are never given authority over data or other human beings.  They may recite an oath aloud, but it’s up to you to make sure they follow it.  You do yourself, them and humanity as a whole a service when you shun disloyalty to a moral oath.  That is what an oath is for.  A bridge between two groups of humans who behave as two different sets.  Shunning externally simulates the metamind for those without one.   Immediate direct consequence is the only way to impart moral principles to those without conscience.

An oath can externally recreate the functionality of a meta-psychopath for a group of otherwise principled humans.  A conditional temporary suspension of personal reason to well thought out societal rationalizations.  Just obedience is possible if a moral oath is served with integrity.  Obedience need not be slavery, but in the absence of moral thought, it surely is.

Edit: Typo

Who is in contol? Banking vs new technology

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banking-vs-technology-v3

Thank you for your feedback an patience! Perhaps these new images will shed some light on how pack vs social topologies effect human economic behavior.

Here are the individual images, but they loose something without the dimension of time.  Just click on them for detail.

Inherent-technology-all-behaviors-fiat Inherent-technology-unique-behaviors-fiat Inherent-technology-common-behaviors-fiat

 

Feedback is welcome.  Thank you for your help!

Edit v.2 :  minor repairs.
Edit v.3 :  After some consideration realized fiat is a substitute for coinage.  The animation helped with perspective..

Note:  I have deleted the earliest post and version of this graph.  Not trying to be revisionist, it’s all up on github, but this graphic is so much more clear cut and understandable.

 

What is happening to the global economy?

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Econ-tech-subsitute-v2

Psychopaths are exerting disproportional influence on the economy.  Some empaths have been captured  either by cult or by  political ideologies, becoming temporary proto-psychopaths.  This  leads to collapse, and a  rout of genetic psychopaths.   A brutal but effective means to reversion to a trust and metamind based economy.

We broke that mechanism when we split the atom.  If we let that happen again, the nuclear power plants could melt down, as they will fail disaster not fail safe when their daily mechanizations are no longer attended by knowing employees.  Perhaps this was by design as part of MAD, but it’s guillotine hanging over the planets head now.

Green loosely matches the Adam Smith model.  As we approach the red psychopathic supplements for trust behaviours, (substituting debt for money for example) we approach the dystopia Marx and Engels observed but lacked to data to understand.   Just in time, open source has demonstrated the vital importance of the right to fork.   If we support that right through systemic changes we can back away from the edge of the cliffs of collapse.

Discuss this with your families this Thanksgiving and perhaps we can make a change for the better.  Please share your ideas and comments.

EDIT: I left this post up for completeness but there is a newer superior 3d graph.

 

How does legal distribution work?

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Legal distribution is the right to veto laws passed by representatives by popular vote, not by abolition, but by moving a law to next smallest legal jurisdiction.  The distribution (federal United States of America for example) means 50 copies of the law are made (one for each state) and the funding is divided 50 ways as designated by percentage by the original bill.  Now each state can change and adapt the law to suit their needs and the funding stream is secure.  Even in the case of state abolition funding flow is guaranteed unless the original now distributed law is abolished by lawmakers at the federal level.

This can be undertaken at any scale and be reduced down to the next smallest jurisdiction.  Including the sovereign individual.

A legal distribution would trump all contracts with the state.  Contracted works would have to be rebid by each distributee.  Contracts with individuals would be exempt as no jurisdiction can be lower than a single sovereign individual.

This attacks centrists, power seekers, and the corrupt would be oligarchs who would raid the treasury without the people.  It discourages secret deals in lawmaking by greatly increasing the risks as works bribed in secret can no longer be delivered reliably.

It suits the goals of 3 of the 4 sectors on the political compass including the majority of republicans and democrat populations (only the statists suffer)

It addresses the problems of the inevitable collapse of government due to growing corruption, corporate lawmaking outrunning civic players, lack of market data in government regulation (state level competition), it solves scapegoat populism driven by propaganda, and if proven as fact it solves growing psychopath populations hijacking the political process to destruction for short term personal gain.

It is based on the human right to fork, which derives from the inherent human rights (property, currency, freedom, friendship, and investment), which form civilization and from which markets derive.  In this it is a direct antidote to the form of propaganda known as the Hegelian dialectic, by always offering a third choice (bad, less bad, localities compete to produce better data) in civic decision making.

It appears superficially socialist, but is actually is a localist antidote to socialism’s observed inequity and graft.  It respects and preserves the hard the hard won balance of rights and common good of distributed laws, but returns the power to oversee that law to a smaller more manageable scale.

The reduction of waste and the restored economy of scale should make voluntary type one civilization participation significantly more feasible.  The right to veto means unexpected corruption in global agreements can be rapidly retracted, and reworked in a competitive fashion and in time a new law can be passed with the data resulting from variation of the distributed competing implementations.

This does not solve the tragedy of the commons directly but instead solves the problem that causes it, aversion to corruption.  The risk of unexpected (to the population of citizens) consequences is near negligible as laws with purposely or unintentionally hidden results can quickly be revoked.  In other words the risk that state defectors will do more damage than defectors at large.  Power as an end to itself is far less feasible at any scale.

Legal distribution should be compatible with any government type like republic, monarchy, technocracy, communism, etc.  Two notable exceptions are theocracy or anarchy.

Psychopaths and ex-military in the workplace

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guru

Someone asked what can be done about some ex-military coworkers who where acting in a psychopathic fashion (competing and not cooperating) and failing in their aggressive technical goals.

True psychopathy is genetic.  This will be fact one day I’m certain.  Psychopaths have only their rational mind to cope with the world.  Most people have both a metamind (conscience) and rational mind and when they use both that is reason.  If empath vs psychopath behavior where a venn diagram psychopaths behavior would be completely enclosed inside empaths much larger circle.

Military are almost always empaths.  They are almost always proto-psychopaths or meta-psychopaths.

Proto-psychopaths are created.  The conscience is trained to essentially get out of the way so the person will act like a dutiful psychopath.  (They make great but unstable slaves) The conscience is doing some problem solving but it’s main role is to keep the rational mind on the  ‘straight and narrow,’ stabilizing the rational ‘psychopath’ part.  This is why some ex-mil types are less creative.  All the creativity their brain has to offer is reenforcing loyalty to a service they’ve since retired.

Some soldiers create themselves as meta-psychopaths.  Meta-psychopaths also suspend their conscience.  The difference is who is in charge of the change, their drill instructor, or themselves. Meta-psychopaths are very much like a guru.  So they will be MUCH more effective in the private sector later on.  They enjoy the full set of human behavior.  They can be ruthless like a psychopath and creative like empath.  These are the soldiers that go on to become special ops and accomplished technicians in the service.  This is the outcome the military increasingly wants.

Actual genetic psychopaths make terrible soldiers.  They dutifully follow orders while watched, but are more interested in promotions and self gratification.  They are constantly trying to one up their superiors even when it could cost lives.  (The psychopath slave always wants to become the master)  When faced with battle/real danger they look for any opportunity to desert as survival is the only (selfish) logical choice.  BTW they can make great warriors ah la the Vikings but raping and pillaging is about self gratification, not service, duty and strategic progress of the whole group.

I frequently see proto-psychopath ex-soldiers wrongly accuse meta-psychopath soldiers (or any other non proto-psychopaths) of being psychopaths.  Their creative process is seen as an attack on their hierarchical superiors.  They simply don’t understand and therefore respect their creative use of their metamind.  They see self direction as insubordination.  This is part of the cost of intentional proto-psychopathy.

‘what is to be done.’

Ideally you want non psychopathic emapths in your company.   So the best thing you can do is avoid creating a psychopathic culture.   How?  Simple.  Psychopaths only compete, so reward cooperation.  Yes unfortunately those condescending ‘team building’ things do work, at least for the cooperators.

Avoid hiring psychopaths in the first place.  Follow up on all references!  If HR doesn’t, fire them.  Psychopaths lie constantly (to survive) so they will be caught in little lies.  It’s less important if they’ve made some mistakes in their past and WAY more important that they don’t lie about them.  Don’t accept blank spots in a resume.  They can be anything but blank.  ‘I went on a kayaking tour across the country for 6 months’ or ‘I just couldn’t find a job’ or ‘my son had cancer’ ‘I was tired of the daily grind’ is way better than ‘personal matters.’  If they lie to you ever, drop them like they’re hot.

Only hire proto-psychopaths for operational roles.  Give any ex-military  proto-psychopath a goal with enough authority and vigor and she will say, ‘I will accomplish it.’   Even if the goal is absurdly unobtainable.  This behavior is usually not helpful in business.  Remember creativity and questioning authority are disreputable to them.  They have no social mechanism to say no to ‘orders.’  They are cannon fodder for any lurking psychopaths, who are naturally serving their own ends.  They should be easy to pick out in the interview process as a little too eager to please.

There are some advantages to having competitive people in sales positions, and to less of a degree operations.  The important characteristic is these jobs solve specific, well understood problems.  These are good positions for your proto-psychopaths, but never a psychopath.  They will usually sacrifice the companies future for personal gain now.   They will probably be caught and fired, but at what total cost.

How about the psychopath that is already there but hidden?  Create false golden opportunities and watch who takes them.  They are your problem.  Psychopaths will only be restrained by their short term rational analysis of risk.   They will lie cheat and steal as the opportunities are perceived to present themselves.

Creating a false prize to see who claims it is called a honeypot.  Keep in mind the honeypot will need to be very clever to outwit the smartest sociopaths (psychopath limits stage)   Hand known information to trusted workers and see if their boss takes credit for it.  Create false contacts for industrial espionage.  Leave company credit cards (with tight limits) and equipment where employees can ‘find’ them.  Offer impossibly hard projects (no money, no market, tight deadlines) with a promotional promise and see who nibbles.   Feign illness, retreat to the security room, and watch your next in command as she fills your shoes for a few days.

Companies are moving toward a split model of operations and sales (understood problems) as the functional side and dev-ops or creative work on the other.  This is a wise move.  A small group of people competing with everyone and everything can destroy a company.  Jealousy has a very limited scope of risk analysis.  Remember ‘everything’ includes your company’s interests as well.  Cooperation isn’t a natural choice for psychopaths, only alliance.

Trust markets to a fault? Ask an ad man for the facts about behavior.

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Great Interview with Rory Sutherland.  Turns out he, armed with some ideas from Richard H. Thaler has rather scathing (and pleasantly veiled) criticism of modern economics.   I have some reading to do, but it sure seems the Thaler’s ‘econs’ are EXACTLY like civgene’s economic view of psychopaths.  Logic or rational thought being the only thing making decisions for people in an economy is an absurd idea.

Marketing if you didn’t know finds it’s start with people like Edward Barnays,  Sigmand Freud’s nephew.  It, like a dead man’s switch, is a morally neutral tool.   Ranging from useful public service announcements, to nazi propaganda.   Rory certainly seems to want to do some good in the world, sharing his secrets.   Not only does this help us understand his trade, but ourselves.

Some quotes follow if you prefer to read.   Enjoy.

“One of the fantastic things, I always say, is that the digital world is like Galapagos Islands for the understanding of evolutionary psychology.  The little foibles of human behavior that crop up online.   Are very very telling in what the what deeper human mind really cares about.   What it finds attractive, more important what it finds repellent.  The system one brain (Earlier quote “primarily the subconscious”) is more about the avoidance of catastrophe than the attainment of perfection.”
 
“System one resides in the darker part of the brain.  System two(the logical conscious brain) is post rationalizing decisions taken by system one.”
 
“When we design experiences, or when we design choices , or when we design websites, it makes perfectly good sense to design them to work with our evolved psychology.  What we somtimes do is design products for what Richard Thaler calls ‘econs.’  Which is a completely imaginary species which has never existed.  That probably wouldn’t would have survived had it sprung up by chance which is that completely rational man beloved of economic models.  Which would be comepltely hopeless in any real world situation.”

 

Defense against a psychopath: The dead man’s switch

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grenade

While psychopaths and other animals share behavioral traits, the smartest psychopaths can be nearly as intelligent as the smartest emapths.  Here is the danger in thinking that psychopaths are illogical, hateful or cruel for fun.  Every human is different, but for the most part they are using the tools they have, the best they can.  They don’t want to lose the competitions they create, they just aren’t as good at deciphering complex or distant outcomes as empaths are.  With too many variables, every choice looks like a roll of the dice to them.  Logic breaks down with scale.

Fortunately there is a way to express natural long term risk to them in an immediate way.  The dead man’s switch.  Simply model the predictable negative outcome, and create a switch that with the absence of your attention will create the appropriate response.  You have created a contest and won it before they even knew it existed.  Now they are allied to you in preventing the negative outcome for them which is a foregone conclusion should you become incapacitated.  Don’t feel guilty about this.  They have no real concept of how friendship works, and are most comfortable operating as transitory allies.  Something that is now possible with less fear of seemingly random aggression.

Here are some examples of dead mans switches for illustration.

An informational dead man’s switch.

A physical dead man’s switch.

A warning.  Unlike shunning, reserving judgement, or forgiveness this tool isn’t inherently moral.  It can be used in very immoral ways.  It is up to you to determine a technically accurate switch, resulting action, and impact should the switch be triggered.  As a rule using general moral principles (murder is wrong, envy is usually self destructive, etc…) should minimize collateral damage and create a positive outcome for moral agents left behind.  As a good test, should you be incorrect about their intentions or psychopathy, there should minimal negative consequences for them when the switch is triggered.  Ideally in the case of a incorrectly aimed switch, any damage should be reversible.

The key to successful use is to implement multiple switches.  Do not indicate exactly how many switches there are.  That way there is no sudden jeopardy should a switch be discovered, and the existence of some switches can be announced if needed.  Informational switches are the best like simply indicating a negative on a web page and that the web page may be removed some day (implying the positive)  Remember Narcissists and ASPD stage psychopaths already face a formidable enemy in the legal system (paying taxes in a city with a capable homicide detective is a dead mans switch) so the real problem is sociopaths.

Sociopaths are psychopaths who dedicate themselves to not getting caught (acting like a psychopath) so this indicates a remedy.  Presenting clear evidence of their sociopathy or makes an excellent dead mans switch.  Also such a switch could create new evidence, for instance, jealousy in your aggressing sociopath demonstrating their nature in public.  A well designed situational switch is superior to a static informational one as the fresher the data, the less likely the sociopath has concocted a script, or accumulated the favour, territory, or allies to counter it.