This is more or less aimed at Glen Ropella,
This narcissism issue intrigues me> I considered a network of agents that are inter-connected to each other with some type of two way conduits. In one type they gain and the other they must give. I imagined that each agent could corrupt the demand conduit from another agent. In effect creating a bubble entity between itself and the feeder. The bubble would be maintained as long as the incoming resources were in excess. Now I considered that when the density of agents became excessive that the individual could no longer afford to maintain so many connections. The agents would disconnect the bubble (Superficial) and begin disconnecting outflow of resources while trying to suck up as much as possible. I speculated that a large group would disintegrate from within as individual agents began voluntarily disconnecting from the network while maintaining the appearance of connectivity. Hence the rise in superficiality in large societies. So the appearance of cooperation was more important than actual cooperation. Now narcissism may give the owner a belief that it is entitled to more resources or it may simply be a ruse to have others get close enough to feed upon. Kind of a orchid /fly baiting arrangement. Narcissists return very little to their communities that is why they seem so despised historically. But a simple agent capable of managing a distinctive input and output stream independently could be used as a concept. If we included a flawed value system it would be interesting. For instance the 55 year old divorcee with a boob job appearing as a candidate sexual partner. Or the 70 year old balding newsman with sparkling white teeth. So every agent desires sex but each has its peculiar judgment methods. By the way Glen I agree with your historical perspective somewhat but have modified it in my mind to account for forgetfulness. It seems that only events with very strong negative emotional context are remembered by most. Even if those events are very rare they outweigh by many factors the positive rewards of the past. So History and negative emotion are linked. But actual rewards are dismissed or devalued. In fact real memories are regularly replaced by fictional negative images. The human brain seems to care little about veracity in such matters. I found Net Logo and am little disappointed by the site but not discouraged. Little by little we gain ground. Perhaps a survey of Baby Boomers is also warranted. Narcissism may be on the upswing in all age classes. Narcissism may be an observer defined attribute rather than an actual behavior. As a teenager I saw girls crowd around mirrors whenever available. With the development of float glass, mirrors became very cheap and some people covered their ceilings even Vans with them. I recall Motels advertising mirrored ceilings for the sex trade along the Lakeshore in Toronto, it has all vanished now due to urban sprawl. So perhaps the proliferation of cheap mirrors unleashed narcissism? Make up, stockings and underwear used to be major targets of shoplifting when I was a young department store worker but I have no idea what interests young people today perhaps iPhones? The scoundrels I associated with focused on the early digital calculators and consumer electronics. Higher yields! My wife used to spend much more time in front of a mirror before we were married, now that we are separated perhaps she has resumed the narcissistic pattern? I avoid mirrors generally. Glen don't jump to conclusions so quickly. Dr.Vladimyr Ivan Burachynsky Ph.D.(Civil Eng.), M.Sc.(Mech.Eng.), M.Sc.(Biology) 120-1053 Beaverhill Blvd. Winnipeg, Manitoba CANADA R2J 3R2 (204) 2548321 Phone/Fax vbur...@shaw.ca -----Original Message----- From: friam-boun...@redfish.com [mailto:friam-boun...@redfish.com] On Behalf Of glen e. p. ropella Sent: March 23, 2010 7:39 PM To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Narcissism Epidemic Spreads Among College Students Thus spake Douglas Roberts circa 10-03-23 03:08 PM: > So, the suggestion is that If you have a Facebook account, you got it > because you are a narcissist. Sounds a bit ... simplistic to me. Oh no, that suggestion wouldn't come from me! [grin] I defended facebook users from Nick's accusation of narcissism, which he then admitted might have been over the top, if I recall correctly. But I do think there's something interesting, here. Our "information society" does one thing very well. It allows us to more completely ignore opinions we don't want to hear. If I don't like what's printed in the New York Times, I can read the Houston Chronicle. If I don't like what's on the NBC nightly news, I can listen to NPR. If I don't have any local victims for the nonsense I want to spout about "complexity", I can join a mailing list based in Santa Fe and annoy them. If I want to spout racist opinions and I get shouted down at the local pub, I can go home and log into an Aryan Nation website to hang out with my clique. I think this might be related to a hypothetical increase in narcissism. I could speculate that an increased narcissism is just one symptom in a hundred of them caused by multidimensional hyper-connectivity. -- glen e. p. ropella, 971-222-9095, http://agent-based-modeling.com ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
