Varn Vlog The Nature of Complex Problems and the Reduction to the Self

How's that for being un-SEO friendly? We talk about the nature of complexity, complex societies, and the development of social atomization. We go through the works of ecologist Joseph Tainter, anthropologist Marshall Sahlins, literary theorist and linguistic anthropologist M.M. Bakhtin, and cultural historian Christopher Lasch while I reflect on complexity, capitalism, and social atomization;

Works Cited:
Bakhtin, M.M. (1986) Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Trans. Vern W. McGee. Austin, Tx: University of Texas Press.

Lasch, Christopher (May 17, 1991). The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. W. W. Norton & Company

Sahlins, Marshall. (2004) Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture and Vice Versa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Tainter, Joseph. (1988). The Collapse of Complex Societies. Cambridge University Press.

Abandon all hope ye who subscribe here.
Intro Musics: Spaceship Revolution by Etienne Roussel (Solo Intro), Bitterlake (Political Intro), Bitterlake (Strange Intro), The Siege of Kalameth by Jon Björk (Main Show Intro), Teknique by Anthony Earls (Nailing It Down Intro).
Outro Music: Let Down by Issue AB
Intro and Outro Video Design: C. Derick Varn (Main Show Intro, Show Outro), Djene Bajalan (Solo Intro, Political Intro, Space Outro), Bitterlake (Strange Intro)

[Experimental-Unit]

It's good to mention "operationalizing variables" here. Often we are interested in something where there is no good metric, so we make proxy metrics and argue why the proxy metric is a good stand-in for what we are saying we care about.

Another connection where the normative is within a pseudo-purely-descriptive discourse.

[TheYoungtrust]

Would I be a bad materialist if I find John Vervaeke's explanation of the change from the Bronze Age to the Axial Age, explained by "psycho-technologies" developed at the time, easier to understand than the Marxist perspective? I find it easier to see how the complexity of thought during that period changed how we organized socially, rather than viewing it as a good Marxist would, because I don't see larger societies—I'm guessing, in particular, Egypt and Babylon, which were probably bigger than Greece and other complex societies at the time—necessitating the change.

[curiousfella]

Good to call it the "cipher of" since both camps are just reformers for now. And complexity sure opens up space for groups to claim to produce value yet recruit themselves, do threat inflation, etc. in ways to maximize group reproduction. Companies/academies are everything that the AI alarmists are worried about. But also useful. I mean I like me some Mark Hyman (that RFK Jr. shouted out recently) and he's also a product of academia of course.