The Sanity Virus
The Sanity Virus Applying the epidemiological model to spiritual warfare. MARK BISONE From what I’ve observed during my brief sliver of Earthly life, most people who ponder human nature and culture require three tools: An analogy. One or more models that neatly illustrates this analogy. A coherent story that explains these theoretical elements as an immanent whole. Let’s begin by analyzing the first two tools, which are connected but require the third to be useful when attacking a given cultural problem. When developing them in language, the KISS principle is usually applied: the simpler the analog and the more isolated its model, the better. This is true whether we’re discussing the Cartesian theory of organic automata (and our exception from it) or the neural networks of today’s Big Bad Artificial Intellects. In any age or region, humans will describe ourselves in accordance with whatever technologies happen to be ascendant at the place/time, either in contrast to that tech or ...