Intellectual Stockholm Syndrome: The 220th Evolutionary Lens with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying
Apr 6, 2024
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PhD biologists Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying discuss the modern Dark Age through an evolutionary lens. They explore topics like informational advantage, entropy, and reason. They examine totalitarianism, deception, compliance, and intellectual Stockholm syndrome. Additionally, they touch on balancing humility and confidence, academic conformity, and the importance of diverse perspectives in academia.
Adopting false narratives akin to Stockholm syndrome can lead to embracing falsehoods for survival or compliance.
Gaining insights into unexplored truths offers a greater advantage than merely recognizing falsehoods.
Balancing humility and confidence is crucial for effective problem-solving and decision-making.
Deep dives
Understanding the Psychological Process of Embracing Falsehoods
In situations like the COVID crisis or within cults, people can gravitate towards embracing falsehoods due to a psychological process akin to Stockholm syndrome, where individuals adopt the perspective of their captors or the prevailing narrative to ensure survival or compliance. This phenomenon stems from a deep-seated evolutionary drive to detect hallmarks of well-being and security, even if it means accepting false information.
Two Distinct Levels of Informational Advantage
There are two crucial levels of informational advantage - recognizing falsehoods and knowing truths that others are unaware of. While recognizing falsehoods may provide some advantage, the true value lies in understanding complex truths that are not broadly recognized. Gaining insights into unexplored territories of knowledge requires a rigorous program of study and an ability to navigate complex systems effectively.
The Need for Balance Between Humility and Confidence
Balancing humility and confidence is essential in navigating complex issues and decision-making. While humility ensures openness to acknowledging limitations and gaps in knowledge, confidence empowers individuals to trust their insights and capabilities in addressing challenges. Embracing both qualities allows for a nuanced approach to problem-solving and decision-making.
The Importance of Oscillation Between Modes and Adaptability
Flexibility and adaptability, demonstrated through the oscillation between different modes of thinking and problem-solving, are crucial for navigating uncertain and challenging situations. Moving between humility and confidence, analytical and intuitive thinking, and being open to diverse perspectives enable individuals to approach issues with a balanced and dynamic mindset. The ability to switch between modes and embrace complexity enhances problem-solving capacity and resilience.
Impact of Intellectual Obstructionism
Intellectual obstructionism, which hinders superior ideas from gaining traction, poses a significant challenge in various contexts. The concept encompasses barriers like 'standing,' where individuals are often dismissed from engaging in discussions due to lack of formal legitimacy. Additionally, the phenomenon of 'double standards' exemplifies how complex rule systems can selectively enforce certain criteria to stifle opposing viewpoints. This obstructive behavior, seen in contexts like academia and public discourse, highlights the need to address and mitigate such practices.
Importance of Track Record in Ensuring Truth Progression
Maintaining a reliable track record, particularly in academia and scientific endeavors, is crucial for steering progress towards truth and understanding. The discussion emphasizes the significance of track records centered on predictive power rather than conventional success metrics like grant acquisitions or publications. By establishing a system that values institutions and individuals based on their predictive efficacy and adherence to truth-seeking, it becomes possible to safeguard against revisionism, retconning, and the perpetuation of falsehoods for self-preservation or agenda-driven motives.
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In this 220th in a series of live discussions with Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying (both PhDs in Biology), we talk about the state of the world through an evolutionary lens.
In this episode, we discuss the modern Dark Age. Topics include informational advantage, entropy, and reason. We discuss whether all static rules are gameable, and whether adjusting your model to increase predictive power can help you evade the sophists. We also ask what people in North Korea actually think about their lives relative to the rest of the world, and how their situation is analogous to that of people who have been kidnapped, or to that of a populace that is convinced by authorities to do things that are against their interests. At what scales does Stockholm Syndrome apply? We also discuss confidence and humility, intellectual obstructionism, and the value of track records.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Excerpt from Chandler Burr’s book about Luca Turin, The Emperor of Scent: https://chandlerburr.com/books
Mattias Desmet’s The Psychology of Totalitarianism: https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/the-psychology-of-totalitarianism/
Evolutionary Lens Livestream 121 from April 2, 2022, Welcome to the Noble Psy-Op: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrfL6fRW150
