Jah, now that you mention it, it *does* look like the Smokey Bear sign. The intent on the front end is just to provide some bells and whistles to encourage participation, and the happiness level isn't controlled for influences, i.e. isn't blind. It probably will become a Facebook app, though the few times when I check FB I notice a propensity for an irritating artificial cheeriness, which could skew things.
But it still will be interesting to see if there are any broad trends, since reports are time-stamped and geolocated. What happens after a natural or economic disaster in a region? Does it go down as most people predict, or spike down then up as people discover community effects, rebuilding a neighbor's house, etc.? Just yesterday I got access to terabytes of data to be mined when happiness reports are in order to flesh out the demographics of the area of each report. You mention happiness "contagion". Is that due to the link on WHM about the Christakis (Harvard) and Foster (UC San Diego) on contagion and effects of happiness (and unhappiness, as well as obesity), up to two degrees of separation? There's a TEDx talk by Foster and the paper is quite interesting. Ron -- Ron Newman, Founder MyIdeatree.com <http://www.ideatree.us/> The World Happiness Meter <http://worldhappinessmeter.com/> On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Steve Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > Ron/Merle - > > When I went to the WHM, the three things that struck me were: 1) This is > not a blind measure... it seems like you should have to state your level of > happiness before you find out what the current "average" level is; 2) It > looks a lot like the "Current Fire Danger" meter in our forests (Smoky Bear > attending with his shovel, jeans and hat); 3) I suspect "happiness" to be > culturally sensitive (both in meaning and in scaling?) > > Is there a model of sorts for "contagious happiness"? I also assume some > of those here who use models of contagious disease might have some > meta-models to offer (Doug, show your hand)? Are there reservoir > populations? What are the non-human vectors (pets?). Is cynicism a > prophylactic? Does happiness (and cynicism) act like quorum > sensing/quenching (as with biology and/or hive populations?) Are there > memetic equivalents to the modes of gene/protein expression? > > I would expect contemporary models of this might be registered on a > network (scale-free, small world, power-law connected). > > The Maharishi effect has been offered to me many times without explanation > for it's presumed mechanism. Back in the day, the Maharishi claimed that > "world peace" (or some other unspecified collective good) would be achieved > as soon as the square root of 1% of the population (that would be .0001 > fraction?) achieved Sidhi status. Anecdotally, the number started out at a > high mark of 10%, then dropped to a less onerous one of 1%, I don't know > when or why the square root (.0001was added. I assumed it implied some > kind of model for the phenomenon, but nobody seemed to know where that part > came from or why the numbers kept getting downgraded. > > I recently watched the movie Kumare' (at the suggestion of our own Glen > Ropella) and enjoyed it a great deal. A documentary film maker sets out > to look into the world of Guru's and in the process becomes one... > > The best line of the movie was "My job is to be happy!", reducing his role > as a (faux) Guru to a single, simple and effective concept. The > documentary seemed to be completely authentic (as opposed to being some > kind of mockumentary) and a conclusion (related to our earlier discussion > about placebo/nocebo) might be that by embracing the role of a Guru(tm), > Kumare' (the character) managed to have the effect of a genuine Guru(tm). > > 10 of his 14 acolytes remained true to him after he exposed himself as a > documentary film maker studying the phenomena rather than a "real" guru. 4 > have refused/avoided further contact with him. All 14 seemed to be > enjoying huge benefits from their participation with him in his > "practice". The 10, in followups seemed to have persistent positive > effects, the other 4 we don't know but might have lost what they gained? > > - Steve > > Merle, > I'm the developer of www.WorldHappinessMeter.com (WHM). How can I be > involved in the Happiness Santa Fe launch on Saturday? I notice from your > site that an in-depth survey is part of the festivities. One planned > addition to WHM is a survey in order to gather data worldwide to save the > need for boots on the ground. > > Ron > > -- > Ron Newman, Founder > MyIdeatree.com <http://www.ideatree.us/> > The World Happiness Meter <http://worldhappinessmeter.com/> > > On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 3:12 PM, Merle Lefkoff <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Roger, >> >> Righto! We launch "Happiness Santa Fe" on Saturday ( go to our >> website, the Center for Emergent Diplomacy, or just go to Happiness Santa >> Fe for a calendar of events). We've had many recent conversations about >> how to encourage conditions for a shift in our mental models from >> consumerism and inequality toward compassion and generosity. >> >> When I teach Complexity at Upaya in the Buddhist chaplaincy program I >> usually suggest that compassion is an emergent property of the biggest >> system of all--our brains. So I say, hey guys, just meditate more! We >> have hard neuroscience on how that works. But how do we change the initial >> conditions for a collective response? Perhaps one way is to measure human >> happiness and well-being differently by expanding GDP to include ecological >> and social indicators as the Bhutanese have been trying to do for decades. >> We tend to value what we measure. >> >> You know, dear Roger, that I follow the research carefully. Thanks for >> this link. You guys study--we act and put it on the ground!! >> >> Merle >> >> >> >> On Thu, Apr 11, 2013 at 1:20 PM, Roger Critchlow <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> There's an intriguing book review in Science this week: >>> >>> *Studying Human Behavior* How Scientists Investigate Aggression and >>> Sexuality *by Helen E. Longino* University of Chicago Press, Chicago, >>> 2013. 261 pp. S75. ISBN 9780226492872. Paper, $25, £16. ISBN 9780226492889. >>> >>> http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6129/146.1.full?rss=1 >>> >>> The claim is that there is not and will not be a dominant paradigm for >>> researching human behavior, there are multiple ways of establishing causes >>> for behavior and that's just the way it is. >>> >>> So not only do phenomena worth studying emerge at different levels of >>> organization, but the emerging phenomena at a level of organization are >>> amenable to different disciplines of study which may all be judged >>> "scientific" by a philosopher of science. >>> >>> So, what's scientific evidence now? >>> >>> -- rec -- >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D. >> President, Center for Emergent Diplomacy >> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA >> [email protected] >> mobile: (303) 859-5609 >> skype: merlelefkoff >> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> > > > > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > > > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >
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