Hi Steve, When our "Sustainable Happiness Week" is over (starts Saturday on Jefferson's birthday--OF COURSE!--ends on Earth day) I'd love to have a deeper conversation with you guys about all of this.
We're actually doing two surveys, the one presently on-line based on the Bhutanese domains of happiness, which doesn't encourage us to do a statistically significant random sample (but it's a great social organizing tool)---and a follow-up, which will incorporate the best social research design we can muster, with hopefully at least a few objective measures. I remember in the old days sneaking into SFI to watch Josh Epstein do his early ppt. on the spread of epidemics and thinking: how can I apply this to the morphing of mass movements into revolution into civil war into complete chaos. Carl, thanks for the link to the paper on measuring happiness. It's a big problem among happiness researchers. Ron, I will get back to you tomorrow after I look at your web site. Merle 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 > -- 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
