https://reasonandmeaning.com/2017/10/31/what-is-social-cooling/

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Reason and Meaning

Philosophical reflections on life, death, and the meaning of life

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  * Author
      + Biography
          o Anti-Biography
          o Brief Bio
          o Bio
          o Outgrowing Religion
          o Playing Poker
          o Geneology
          o My Mother
          o My Father
          o 35th Wedding Anniversay
      + Academic
          o CV
          o Academic Geneology
          o Intellectual Heroes
          o My Philosophical Mentor
      + Books
          o The Meaning of Life
          o Philosophical Ethics
          o Who Are We?
          o Piaget on Evolution
          o Intro to Ethical Theories
          o 4 Books That Changed Me
          o 4 More Memorable Books
          o Book Dedications
      + Advice
          o Boredom
          o Damaged Psyches
          o Being Agreeable
          o Being Disagreeable
          o What Should We Fear?
          o Better People
          o Play is Good
          o Moving from the USA
          o Advice & Criticism
          o Simmering Ideas
          o Self-Made People
          o Depression & Truth
      + Favorite Quotes
      + The Blog
          o What's It About?
          o Disclaimer To All Essays
          o The Question of Meaning
          o The Problem of Life
          o One Million Views
          o Two Million Views
      + The Search for Meaning
          o Table of Contents
          o Preface
          o Introduction
          o 1. Life & Meaning
          o 2. Religion & Meaning
          o 3. Philosophy, Science & Meaning
          o 4. Death & Meaning
          o 5. Transhumanism & Meaning
          o 6. Skepticism & Meaning
          o 7. Optimism & Hope
          o 8. Hope & Meaning
      + Personal
          o Wondering
          o Children
          o Daughter's 30th Bday
          o New Grandchild
          o Politics & Grandchildren
          o Advising Grandchildren
          o Lying to Grandchildren
          o Switzerland
          o Wife's 60th Bday
          o Random Musings
          o Mother's Day
          o Random Reflections
      + Contact
  * Religion
      + Philosophy of Religion
          o Arguments for God
          o The Problem of Evil
          o Arnold: Divine Plans
          o Arguing with Theists
          o Properly Basic Beliefs
          o Shrode: Presuppositionalism
          o Philosophy/Theology/Science
          o God of the Philosophers
          o Arnold: Accepting Religion
          o Arnold: Presuppositionalism
          o Are the Gods Evil?
          o Living & Religious Claims
          o Carrier: Christian Delusion
      + Science & Religion
          o Science Explains Religion
          o Einstein and Darwin
          o Science & Religion: Dialogue
          o God & Evolution
          o The End of Time
          o More on the End of Time
          o Hypatia & Religion
          o Logic & Religious Beliefs
          o Cosmology vs. Creationism
          o Against Creationists
          o Shrode: Critique of Religion
      + Religion & the Future
          o Better Humans Revisited
          o Building Better Humans
          o Technology & Religions End
          o Religion & Superintelligence
          o Religious Superintelligence?
          o Transhumanism & Religion
      + Atheism
          o Smart-People Problem
          o No Smart-People Problem
          o Spirituality wo/God
          o The Age of Atheists
          o Religion for Atheists
          o Intellectual Snobbery
          o Arguments Against Atheism
          o Soft Core Atheism
          o American Piety
          o Atheist Delusion
          o How Prevalent Is It?
      + Religion & Meaning
          o Religion & Meaning Pt.1
          o Religion & Meaning Pt.2
      + General
          o Religion Without God
          o Children wo/ Religion
          o Scientology
          o Christianity & Abortion
          o The Mina Stampede
          o And Public Colleges
          o Carrier: The Dark Ages
          o Sexual Abuse Catholicism
          o Religion as Community
      + Humor
          o Biblical Prescriptions
          o Proofs for Santa
          o More Proofs for Santa
  * Science
      + Astronomy
          o Many Worlds/Multiverse
          o Transcension Hypothesis
          o Livio: Hubble Telescope
          o Lisa Randall: Dark Matter
          o Black Holes & Truth
          o Energy/Matter/Time/Space
          o Extraterrestrial Life
      + Science & Philosophy
          o Wonders of Science
          o Wonders, Not Miracles
          o Science & Meaning
          o Science As Wisdom
          o Living in a Multiverse
          o Comp Sci & Philosophy
          o Piaget: Science&Philosophy
          o Neil deGrasse Tyson
          o Americans Don't Believe
          o Science & Philosophy
          o Science & Mystery: Reply
          o Science & Mystery
      + Science & Technology
          o The Global Brain
          o Techno-Optimism
          o Social Media
          o Tech Hijacks Minds 
          o Barbour: On Technology
          o Investing in Science&Tech
          o Social Cooling
          o Is Google Bad?
          o Slaughterbots
      + Scientists on Science
          o Rutgens: Trust in Science
          o Sagan: Speaking for Earth
          o Sagan: Irrationalism
          o Sagan: Pale Blue Dot
          o Gleiser: Limits of Science
          o Yanofsky: Science&Reason
          o Wilson: Young Scietists
          o Gawand: Graduation Speech
      + Biological Evolution
          o The Truth of
          o Biological Progress
          o Timeline
          o Darwin & Genius
      + Cultural Evolution
          o Shakespeare & Evol.
          o Evolution & Meaning
          o More Evolution & Meaning
          o We Must Evolve Quickly
          o We Must Evolve
          o Evolutionary Visions
      + Cosmic Evolution
          o Cosmic Evolution & Meaning
          o More Cosmic Evol & Meaning
          o Earth's History
          o Wright: Human Destiny
          o Pinker: Critique of Wright
          o Cosmic Natural Selection
  * Future
      + Transhumanists
          o Ray Kurzweil
          o Hans Moravec
          o Michio Kaku
          o Marshall Brain
          o Damien Broderick
          o Paul & Cox
          o Daniel Dennett
          o John Messerly
      + Critics
          o Michael Bess
          o Bill Joy
          o Charles Rubin
          o John Searle
          o Jaron Lanier
          o Better Humans
          o Better Humans Pt.2
          o Revolt Against
          o What Computers Won't Do
          o Mind Uploading-Impossible
          o The Singularity as Religion
      + Transhumanism
          o The Transhumanist Wager
          o TH & Freedom
          o Life In a Computer
          o Mind Uploading
          o A Glorious Future
          o Implanting Moral Chips
          o Is It A Religion?
      + Superintelligence
          o Bostrom: Superintelligence
          o Superintelligent Distress
          o Superintelligence Exists
          o Intelligence Augmentation
          o Rise of the Machines
      + Existential Risks
          o Wisdom & Avoiding the End
          o Torres: Religion & the End
          o More Religion & the End
          o The Risks
          o My Thoughts on the End
          o Rees: Our Final Hour
          o Survival of the Richest
          o Yuval Harari's Warning
          o Survival of Humanity
      + General
          o Connected to Past & Future
          o Robotic Nation
          o Robots & Economics
          o Overpopulation
          o Longevity & Overpopulation
          o Future Tech & Philosophy
          o Can We Live There?
          o Envy of the Future
          o Star Trek
          o Moral Enhancement
      + Good Books on AI & Robotics
  * Death
      + Death is Bad
          o Vincent Barry
          o George Pitcher
          o Steven Luper
          o John Leslie
          o Nick Bostrom
          o Samuel Scheffler
      + Death is Not Bad
          o Leo Tolstoy
          o Stephen Rosenbaum
          o Oswald Hanfling
          o David Benatar
          o James Lenman
          o Andrew Stark
      + Death & Technology
          o Death Should Be Optional
          o Tech Titans & Death
          o Cryonics
          o Scientific Immortality
          o Overpopulation
      + Essays on Dying
          o Laurie Becklund
          o Emily Debrayda Phillips
          o David Malham
          o Paul Kalanithi
          o Roger Ebert
          o Oliver Sacks
          o Oliver Sacks Pt.2
          o Oliver Sacks' Death
      + Poems
          o Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"
          o Henley, "Margaritae Sorori"
          o Dickinson, "Because I could not stop for Death "
          o Owen, "Dulce Et Decorum Est"
          o Auden, "September 1, 1939"
          o Robinson, "Richard Cory"
          o Larkin, "An Arundel Tomb"
          o Larkin, "Aubade"
          o Appleman, "Gertrude"
          o Shelley, "Ozymandias"
          o Auden "Funeral Blues"
      + Personal
          o Death is Bad
          o Death Should Be Optional
          o Cemeteries
          o Friend's Mother
          o Friend's Mother Pt. 2
      + General
          o Do We Survive Death?
          o Immortality
          o Christopher Hitchens
          o Denying Death
          o Death as Ticking Bomb
          o The Fear of Death
          o Fearing Immortality
          o Death & Meaning
          o Death is Evil
  * Ethics
      + Introduction
          o What is Ethics?
          o Theories & Intuitions
          o Moral & Legal
          o Ethical Theory
          o Morality & Facts
      + Meta-ethics
          o Is Ethics Objective?
          o Cultural Moral Relativism
          o Personal Moral Relativism
          o Emotivism
      + Contractarianism
          o David Gauthier
          o Gilbert Harman
          o John Rawls
      + Normative Ethics
          o Morality & Religion
          o Natural Law
          o Kant's Ethics Outline
          o Kant's Ethics
          o Utilitarianism
          o Hobbes: Social Contract
          o Shermer: Science & Ethics
          o Sartre's Ethics
          o Evolution & Ethics
      + Abortion
          o Noonan: "An Almost Absolute Value in History"
          o Marquis: "Why Abortion is Immoral"
          o Warren: "On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion"
          o Thomson: "A Defense of Abortion"
          o Reply to Pro-Lifer
          o More Replies to Pro-Lifers
          o Politics & Abortion
          o Philosophers & Abortion
          o Ethicists & Abortion
          o Christianity & Abortion
      + Euthanasia
          o Worse Off Alive
          o The Euthanasia Debate
          o Williams: "The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia"
          o Brock: "Voluntary Active Euthanasia"
          o Rachels: "Active and Passive Euthanasia"
          o David Goodall's Death
      + Biotechnology
          o Sandel: "The Case against Perfection"
          o Tooley: "Moral Status of Cloning Humans"
          o Steinbock: "The Morality of Killing Human Embryos"
          o Kass: "Beyond Therapy: Biotechnology & ..."
          o Lauritzen: "Stem Cells, Biotech & Human Rights ..."
      + Sexual Ethics
          o Goldman: "Plain Sex"
          o Mappes: "Sexual Morality and the Concept of Using ..."
          o Sexism
      + Global
          o Just War Theory
          o Walzer: "The Triumph of Just War Theory"
          o Risse: "What We Owe to the Global Poor"
          o Dwyer: "Illegal Immigrants, Health Care, & Social ..."
          o Justice is Enough
      + Good Books
  * Politics
      + Authoritarianism
          o Breaking Point
          o Overthrowing Democracy
          o Populism & Autocracy
          o Toward Totalitarianism
          o American Authoritarianism
          o Giroux: Orwell & Huxley
          o Umberto Eco on Fascism
          o Brenner: Authoritarianism
          o Taub: Authoritarianism
          o Mudar: Democracies Die
          o Sargent:Trump & Tyranny
      + Trump
          o Does He Care About You?
          o Coping With
          o Mudar: Corruption
          o Ignorance
          o Crawford: His Legitimacy
          o Crawford: Devastation
          o Eric Hoffer: His Followers
          o Ken Burns: His Threat
          o End of Democracy
          o Existential Threat
          o Arnold: Tolerating Him
          o Cult of
          o Mudar: Surviving
          o Racism
          o Lies
          o The Era of Stupidity
          o American Nero
      + Truth
          o Epistemic Crisis
          o Alternative Facts
          o A Right To Your Opinion?
          o Stanley: Beyond Lying
          o Stanley: Demagogues
          o Mueller's Case
          o Fake News
          o Arnold: Fox News
          o Net Neutrality
      + Election 2020
          o Essays About
          o Crimes against humanity
          o A Plea To Voters
          o Exit From Autocracy
          o National Crisis
          o Breaking America
          o After the Election
      + 2016 Election
          o To My Grandchildren
          o Brenner: Disgraced America
          o Yudkowsky: Against Trump1
          o Yudkowsky: Against Trump2
          o Prospect Theory
          o Education & The Election
          o Devastated by the Election
          o Normal vs. Abnormal
          o Mencken: On Politics
      + Science
          o The Transhumanist Party
          o Congress & Science
          o Republicans & Science
          o Nerds, Science, Politics
          o Mark Bittman: On Society
          o Politics & the Movie Fargo
          o Science & Political Office
          o Net Neutrality
          o Forbidden words
      + Economics
          o Piketty & Tyson
          o More Piketty & Tyson
          o Piketty & Politics
          o More Piketty
          o A New System
          o Whales & Profit
          o Morality & Stocks
      + Violence
          o Civilization's Fragility
          o Firing Mueller
          o Ten Stages of Genocide
          o Comey's Firing
          o Republicans & Democracy
          o Freedom Caucus
          o What If Everyone Had Guns?
          o Gun Deaths in USA
          o Arnold: Guns & God
          o Another Civil War?
      + General
          o Future of America
          o The Dangers of Patriotism
          o Shakespeare & Politics
          o Prison Reform
          o Politicians & Grandchildren
          o Kavanaugh: Sexual Assault
          o Abortion & Politics
          o Sports, Law & Politics
          o Arnold: What Is Socialism?
          o Arnold: Repubs & College
          o American Politics 2014
          o USA is a Failed State
      + Book Reviews
          o Dionne, et.al., After Trump
          o Farris: Fighting Dirty
          o Hoffer: The True Believer
          o James: Trump Is Asshole
          o Stanley: Propaganda
          o Bernstein: Why Read Arendt
          o Kellner: American Nightmare
          o Brennan: Against Democracy
          o Snyder: On Tyranny
          o Wood: Technoprogressivism
          o Talisse: Overdoing Democracy
  * Meaning
      + Agnostic
          o Paul Edwards
          o A. J. Ayer
          o John Wisdom
          o R. W. Hepburn
          o Robert Nozick
          o W.D. Joske
          o Oswald Hanfling
          o Ludwig Wittgenstein
          o Herbert Fingarette
          o Carl Sagan
      + Nihilists
          o Schopenhauer Pt.1
          o Schopenhauer Pt.2
          o Camus
          o Thomas Nagel
          o Walter Stace
          o Joel Feinberg
          o Simon Critchley
          o Milan Kundera
          o Charle Huenemann
      + Subjectivists-Pessimistic
          o Jean Paul Sartre
          o Paul Edwards
          o Raymond Martin
          o John Kekes
          o Bertrand Russell
          o E. D. Klemke
      + Subjectivists-Optimistic
          o Kurt Baier
          o Kai Nielsen
          o Hazel Barnes
          o David Schmidt
          o Nick Hughes
          o Robert Solomon
          o David Lund
          o Julian Baggini
          o Richard Taylor
          o R. M. Hare
          o Irving Singer
          o Andre Maurois
      + Objectivists - General
          o Garrett Thomson
          o Karl Britton
          o Susan Wolf
          o Steven Cahn
          o Susan Wolf Pt.2
          o James Rachels
          o Tennyson: Ulysses
      + Objectivists - Specific
          o Joseph Ellin
          o Terry Eagleton
          o Mortiz Schlick
          o Owen Flanagan
          o Victor Frankl
          o Christopher Belshaw
          o Raymond Belliotti
          o Paul Thagard
          o Thaddeus Metz
      + Religious- Less Dogmatic
          o Leo Tolstoy
          o Antony Flew
          o David Swenson
          o Reinhold Niebuhr
          o Philip Quinn
          o William James
          o Huston Smith
          o John Hick
      + Religious- More Dogmatic
          o Louis Pojman
          o John Cottingham
          o William Craig
          o Tom Morris
      + Evolutionists
          o Daniel Dennett
          o Michael Shermer
          o Steve Stewart-Williams
          o John Stewart
          o Teilhard de Chardin
          o P.B. Medawar
          o Jacques Monod
          o E. O. Wilson
          o Julian Huxley
          o Larry Rifkin: Video
          o John Messerly
      + Book Reviews
          o The Human Predicament
          o Beginning & End
          o Joshua Seachris
          o Ultimate Questions
          o E. O. Wilson
          o God & Darwin
          o All Things Shining
          o Science & Philosophy
          o Surfing w/ Sartre
          o The Anthropocene
          o God & Meaning
          o Reply to Ruse
          o Michael Ruse
  * Philosophy
      + Intro. to Philosophy
          o What is Philosophy?
          o Philosophy/Science/Religion
          o Is Truth Relative?
          o Arguments for God
          o The Problem of Evil
          o The Prisoner's Dilemma
          o Do We Live in the Matrix?
          o Freedom & Determinism
          o Against Free Will
          o Can A Machine Think?
          o Philosophy of Mind
          o Personal Identity
      + Critical Thinking
          o Introduction
          o Psychological Impediments
          o A Right to Your Opinion?
          o Who Should I Believe?
          o But I Just Believe
          o Deceptive Language
          o Crimes Against Logic
          o G.I. Joy Fallacy
      + Human Nature
          o Confucianism
          o Hinduism
          o Buddhism
          o The Bible
          o Islam
          o Plato
          o Aristotle
          o Medieval Philosophers
          o Modern Philosophers
          o Kant
          o Marx
          o Freud
          o Sartre
          o Darwinism
          o Feminism
      + Eastern
          o Hinduism: One Page
          o Hinduism: Basics
          o Hindu Philosophy
          o Buddhism Basics
          o Buddhist Philosophy
          o Confucianism: Basics
          o Taoism: Basics
      + Existentialism
          o What Is It?
          o Marcel: Problems & Mystery
          o Marcel: Creativity & Hope
          o Nietzsche: On Nihilism
          o Unamuno: Life as Tragedy
          o Frankl: Tragic Optimism
          o Camus on Meaning
          o Sartre on Meaning
          o Camus' "The Plague"
      + Epistemology
          o Non-Falsifiability
          o Belief & Knowledge
          o G.I. Joe Fallacy
          o Cognitive Biases
          o So Little Time
          o Piaget: Knowledge Evolves
          o On Certainty
          o Disconsolation
      + Truth
          o Why Truth Matters
          o Harry Frankfurt: On BS
          o Is Knowledge Power?
          o Walt Whitman
          o Lying & Truth
          o Monopoly on Truth
          o Does Knowledge Matter?
          o Searching for Truth
          o Truth & Falsity
          o Truth and Power
      + Skepticism
          o Against Dogmatism
          o Fallibilism
          o Belief & Skepticism
          o Skepticism & Meaning
          o Skepticism
          o Democracy & Skepticism
          o Limits of Knowledge
          o Conspiracy Theories
      + Metaphysics
          o Process Philosophers
          o Parfit: On Existence
          o What is A Worldview?
          o Naturalism
          o Meaning & Worldviews
          o Alan Watts: Who Am I?
      + Hope
          o Is Hope Bad?
          o Hope and Pandora's Box
          o A Defense of Hope
          o Larry Rifkin MD
          o A Defense of Optimism
          o Doug Muder on Hope
          o And Possibilities
          o Hope (Academic)
          o is the thing with feathers
          o And Existence
          o Against Hope
          o For Non-Believers
      + Poems
          o Tennyson, "Ulysses"
          o Emily Jane Bronte, "Life"
          o Henley, "Invictus"
          o Yeats, "The Lake Isle of Innisfree"
          o Frost, "The Road Not Taken"
          o Dickinson: "The Brain is wider than the Sky"
          o Larkin, "This Be The Verse"
          o Tennyson "Tears Idle Tears"
          o Longfellow "Morituri Salutamas"
          o Longfellow "A Psalm of Life"
          o Frost, "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening"
          o Robinson, "Dear Friends"
      + Popular
          o Is Philosophy Dangerous?
          o Kahlil Gibran
          o The Serenity Prayer
          o Must Evil Exist?
          o Theory & Practice
          o Big Questions
          o Orwell's 1984
          o Communing with Nature
          o Philosophy Humor
          o Football & Change
          o Adler: Truth & Justice
          o Transcendence
      + Thought Experiments
          o Baggini: Epistemology
          o Baggini: Logic
          o Baggini: Metaphysics
          o Baggini: Ethics
          o Baggini: Aesthetics
          o Baggini: Political Philosophy
      + Teaching
          o Daniel Gray, BA
          o 30 Years Teaching
          o Letter From Student
          o Defending Philosophy
          o Value of Philosophy
          o Philosophy & Wonder
          o Philosophy Class
          o Former Students
          o Relevance of Philosophy
          o Teacher Burnout
      + Book Reviews
          o Hagglund: Death&Meaning
          o Why Does The World Exist?
          o Outer Limits of Reason
          o Better Never to Have Been
          o Consolations of Philosophy
          o Philosophy at Midlife
          o A Thinker's Guide...
          o Star Map
          o Conspiracy Theories
  * Philosophers
      + Ancient Philosophers
          o Presocratics
          o The Ionians
          o Heraclitus
          o Parmenides & Zeno
          o Protagoras
          o Pythagoras
          o The One and the Many
          o The Sophists
          o Epicurus
          o Plotinus
      + Socrates
          o Socrates' Teachings
          o Socrates: Knowledge
          o Socrates: Trail And Death
      + Plato
          o Plato on Human Nature
          o Plato: Cave, Line, Sun
          o Plato: The Apology
          o Plato: Political Theory
          o Plato: Gyges' Ring
          o Plato: Justice
      + Aristotle
          o Aristotle on Human Nature
          o Aristotle: A Good Life
          o Aristotle: Good Societies
          o Aristotle: Living Well
      + Stoics
          o On Grieving
          o Epictetus: Self-Control
          o Epictetus & Stockdale
          o Aurelius: The Meditations
          o Aurelius: Get Out Of Bed
          o Seneca: Shortness of Life
          o Cicero: On Old Age
          o On Emotions
          o Seneca: On Tranquility
          o On Happiness
      + Modern Philosophers
          o Hobbes: Politics and Ethics
          o Descartes' Third Maxim
          o Descartes to Kant
          o Spinoza
          o Kant: Developing Talents
          o Marx: Politics
          o Schopenhauer: Pessimism
          o Schopenhauer: Hope
          o James: Once & Twice Born
      + Hume
          o Hume: Good Philosophers
          o Hume: Suicide
          o Adam Smith: Hume's Death
      + Nikos Kazantzakis
          o Life & Thought
          o Saviors of God
          o Life's Meaning
          o Against Hope
      + Bertrand Russell
          o Value of Philosophy
          o On Idleness
          o We Fear Thought
          o Nobel Prize Speech
          o Last Written Words
          o How To Grow Old
          o His Grandmother
          o The Will to Doubt
          o What He Believed
          o A Free Man's Worship
      + Will Durant
          o Value of Philosophy
          o Cycle of Life
          o Words & Wisdom
          o Cultural Progress
          o Meaning in Life
          o Story of Philosophy
          o Convict 79206
          o The Past Is Alive
  * More
      + Work
          o Monotony
          o What We Want
          o Rethinking Work
          o Meaningful Work
          o Friends & Work
          o Fulfilling Work
          o Money
          o Work/Life Balance
          o Overworked
          o Do What You Love?
          o Working for Tech Giants
      + Music
          o Suzuki & Schubert
          o Ode to Joy
          o Dan Fogelberg
          o River of Souls
          o Pawn in the Game
          o Political Parody
          o Darrell Arnold
          o Philosophical Videos
          o 40th Anniversary
      + Music-About Time
          o About Time
          o About Time Pt.2
          o Closing Time
          o All Things Pass
          o The Living Years
          o Oh Very Young
          o Fogelberg: In The Passage
      + Time
          o Nostalgia
          o Life is Brief
          o Life is Fleeting
          o How To Spend It?
          o Experiencing Time
          o Past & Future
          o F. Scott Fitzgerald
          o Larry Rifkin MD
      + Love
          o What is Love?
          o Types of Love
          o And Death
          o Jane Austen
          o Love & Pain
          o 50th Anniversary
          o The Art of Loving
          o Marriage
          o Monogamy
      + Happiness
          o Best Countries
          o Happiness Equations
          o Harvard Study
          o Predicting
          o Relationships
          o Relationship Scale
          o Nature
          o And Meaning
          o Walking in Nature
          o Solitude
          o Are We Ever at Home?
      + COVID-19
          o All in it Together
          o Government Response
          o Whose Credibile?
          o Bad Arguments
          o Assessing Claims
          o Argument from Authority
          o Rejected WHO Tests
          o Argument Against Expertise
          o Death Analogies
          o Trump's "Expertise"
          o Argument from Authoritarianism
          o Hannah Arendt's Insights
      + Reasoning & Politics
          o The Backfire Effect
          o Recounts & Backfire Effect
          o Democracy to Demagoguery
      + Health
          o Health Care as Reward
          o Vegetarianism
          o Infections
          o Guns
          o Food & Society
      + Depression/Anxiety
          o Sleep & Depression
          o Nicotine Gum
          o Responsibility
          o Whose Fault?
          o A Poem
          o Marijuana
          o Alan Watts
          o Back To Sanity
          o Game Addiction
          o Solitary Confinement
          o And Truth
      + Movies
          o Philomena
          o Spotlight
          o Fargo
          o Sense&Sensibility
          o Groundhog Day
          o Paterson
      + Documentaries
          o Planet of the Humans
          o Nightmare Bacteria
          o Exile Nation
          o No Place on Earth
          o Where To Invade
          o Life Itself-Roger Ebert
          o Food Chain
          o Command&Control
          o The Holocaust
          o Trump's Showdown
      + Writing
          o How To Write Well
          o Why Write?
          o About Writing
          o Writing To Learn
          o Examples of Great Writing
          o Faulkner: Nobel Speech
          o Evans: Writing Well Matters
      + Psychology
          o Gerotranscendence
          o Maslow: Self-Transcendence
          o Literacy & Consciousness
          o Intelligence
          o Evolutionary
      + Education
          o Destroying Higher Ed
          o David Foster Wallace
          o The Value of
          o Why Go To College?
          o Schooling & Authoritarianism
      + Freedom
          o Hand: Freedom & Power
          o Hand: Freedom & Govt. Part1
          o Hand: Freedom & Govt. Part2
          o Hand: Freedom&Politics Pt.1
          o Hand: Freedom&Politics P.t2
          o Hand: Freedom & Humanity
      + Political Correctness
          o My Ignorance
          o Confederate Statues
          o Defending Steven Pinker
          o Freedom & Cancel Culture
      + Climate/Environment
          o Climate Migration
          o Average Temperature
          o Bill McKibben: Falter
          o Jared Diamond: Upheaval
          o Environmental Catastrophe
          o George Will's Nonsense
          o GMOs and Climate
          o Prisoner's Dilemma
  * Books
      + AI & Robotics
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What is Social Cooling?

October 31, 2017FreedomJohn Messerly

Stylized eye.svg

"Like oil leads to global warming ...
Data leads to social cooling"

Social cooling refers to the idea that if "you feel you are being
watched, you change your behavior." And the massive amounts of data
being collected, especially online, is exxagerating this effect. This
may limit our desire to speak or think freely thus bring about
"chilling effects" on society--or social cooling.

Here's a summary of how this works: 1.  Your data is collected and
scored. Then data brokers use algorithms to reveal thousands of
private details about you--friends and acquaintances, religious and
political beliefs, educational background, sexual orientation,
reading habits, personality traits and flaws, economic stability, 
etc. This derived data is protected as corporate free speech.

2. Your digital reputation may affect your opportunities. Facebook
posts may affect job chances of getting or losing a job, bad friends
may affect the rate of your loan, etc. These effects are independent
of whether the data is good or bad.

3. People start changing their behavior to get better scores which
have disparate outcomes. Social Cooling describes the negative side
effects of trying to be reputable online. Some of the negative
effects are:

a) Conformity - you may hesitate to click on a link because you fear
being tracked. This is self-censoring, which has a chilling effect.
You fear choosing freely.

b) Risk-aversion -  When physicians are scored, those who try to help
sicker patients have lower scores than those who avoid such patients
because sicker patients have higher mortality rates.

c) Social rigidity - Our digital reputations limit our will to
protest. For instance, Chinese citizens have begun to get "social
credit scores," which score how well-behaved they are. Such social
pressure is a powerful form of control.

4) As your weaknesses are mapped, you become increasingly transparent
. This leads to self-censorship, conformity, risk-aversion, and
social rigidity becoming normal. No longer is data a matter of simple
credit scores.

All of this leads to questions like: When we become more
well-behaved, do we also become less human? What does freedom mean in
a world where surveillance is the dominant business model? Are we
undermining our creative economy because people fear non-conformity?
Can minority views still inform us?

5) The solution? Pollution of our social environment is invisible to
most people, just like air pollution and climate change once were. So
we begin by increasing awareness.  But we should act quickly, as data
mining and the secrets it reveals is increasing exponentially.

(Example - I have an advanced degree. This simple piece of data
predicts that: I'm unlikely to be a Republican; I know the difference
between the journalistic standards of the New York Times or the
Washington Post and those of Fox "News," Breitbart, etc.; I don't
believe in alien abductions or faked moon landings; I know that
evolution and climate change are true beyond any reasonable doubt;
I'm less likely to be religious; I probably don't drive a truck; etc.
All that from just one bit of data, and some of those inferences
might be mistaken. Imagine what else others know--or think they
know--about you and me?)

6) Conclusion 

a) Data is not the new gold, it is the new oil, and it damages the
social environment.

b) Privacy is the right to be imperfect, even when judged by
algorithms.

c) Privacy is the right to be human.

_______________________________________________________________________

My resource for this brief summary is https://www.socialcooling.com/
index.html. The site has this note: "Feel free to re-use content,
it's all under a CC-BY 4.0 License."

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- A Graph of Cognitive Biases Will Trump Fire Mueller? -

14 thoughts on "What is Social Cooling?"

 1. [67d223daf] Chris Crawford says:
    October 31, 2017 at 9:13 am

    Certainly we are facing a radically new social environment in
    which our every action is recorded. This has already proved
    injurious to some people whose comments on social media have had
    horrid consequences. People are indeed learning to be more
    circumspect in their public behavior.

    Some of the injustices that arise from the explosion of personal
    information arise from too little information, not too much. The
    case of the physicians who take on riskier patients is a good
    example. Knowing the results of their work -- how many patients
    died -- is only part of the information about the physician.
    Knowing the full story -- that these physicians accepted more
    difficult cases -- produces a more accurate picture. Moreover,
    there are financial incentives to get a more accurate picture. A
    provider of doctors' insurance who looks only at the survival
    rate will turn down a risk-taking physician. But a provider of
    doctors' insurance who get the complete picture discovers that
    the physician is in fact not as liable to litigation as the death
    rate suggest, and will provide insurance, making a profit in the
    process.

    Another point: I recall a quote from a wise fellow (Thomas
    Jefferson?) to the effect that one should always behave as if
    everybody was watching. This was the best guarantor of virtuous
    behavior. This suggest that the explosion of information will
    improve behavior. I do not deny that the loss of privacy will
    indeed lead to the three social ills you describe. The third one,
    however, is only applicable to a totalitarian state.

    I have long advocated that the Internet be modified so as to make
    anonymity impossible. That would put an end to hacking and all
    manner of digital crimes. That in itself would justify the
    alteration. So I'm arguing for even GREATER loss of privacy. I
    suppose that I should twirl my mustache as I write this.

    At the same time, I think that we need much more thorough laws on
    how companies can use private data on individuals.

 2. [8283a1c65] mess1955 says:
    October 31, 2017 at 9:22 am

    Ok, let me think on this. I'm no expert concerning privacy on the
    internet. And right now I'm mostly worried that Trump will fire
    Mueller and that will be the end of the rule of law.

 3. [380670736] Len Arends says:
    October 31, 2017 at 12:32 pm

    I'm an at-will employee in the public school system. I used to
    post widely on issues of the day, but have decided that the risk
    of getting doxxed is growing, so I'm trying to get out of the
    habit of speaking honestly and prolifically online. (And in this
    case, lapsing!)

 4. [380670736] Len Arends says:
    October 31, 2017 at 12:35 pm

    Also:

    The level of trolling is so much higher now than even five years
    ago, it feels like screaming into a hurricane to write anything
    with a serious point.

 5. [8283a1c65] mess1955 says:
    October 31, 2017 at 12:36 pm

    Thanks Len. Sounds like social cooling.

 6. [bc0807fff] Andris Heks says:
    October 31, 2017 at 6:52 pm

    There are plenty with PhDs who believe in God.

 7. [8283a1c65] mess1955 says:
    October 31, 2017 at 7:02 pm

    among philosophers like myself, theism is almost non existent

    https://www.salon.com/2014/12/21/
    religions_smart_people_problem_the_shaky_intellectual_foundations_of_absolute_faith
    /

 8. [99f005010] BB says:
    September 27, 2019 at 11:03 am

    Privacy isn't just the right to be imperfect. It is also the
    right to not be mistakenly judged as imperfect, based on others'
    distorted perceptions, prejudices and expectations.

    For example, I decided not to purchase tickets to one of my
    favorite band's concerts, because I could not do so anonymously.
    There is some (completely unwarranted) controversy about this
    group and someone in my demographic could be negatively affected
    by being associated with it. If the purchase had been made, I
    would have had no control over the use, misuse and abuse of the
    data generated by it.

    For now, I will stick to more mainstream, socially acceptable and
    politically correct tastes in music, at least publicly.

 9. [8283a1c65] John Messerly says:
    September 27, 2019 at 4:20 pm

    that is chillling.

10. [8283a1c65] John Messerly says:
    September 27, 2019 at 4:20 pm

    that is chilling.

11. [99f005010] Bubba says:
    September 30, 2019 at 7:26 pm

    @Crawford...

    "....one should always behave as if everybody was watching. This
    was the best guarantor of virtuous behavior. This suggest that
    the explosion of information will improve behavior."

    Um, no. We'd all have to somehow agree on what constitutes
    "virtuous behavior" and what doesn't.

    I consider the collection, dissemination and misuse of so much
    personal information about people to be bad behavior and
    certainly not virtuous behavior.

    As for anonymity, the powers that be, the ones collecting all of
    this information, tend to live cloistered lives, in gated
    communities, and their social activities tend to involve
    exclusive parties and events to which we ordinary people can have
    no access.

    Meanwhile, we have to worry about misleading candid photos of
    ourselves being posted on Social Media for the boss or a
    potential employer to find.

12. [99f005010] Bubba says:
    April 12, 2020 at 6:12 pm

    Social Cooling now on hold.

    Social Distancing now the in-thing.

13. [2135a444c] Sekhar says:
    January 12, 2021 at 9:21 pm

    Interesting. Check this article from last year titled 'digital
    global warming': https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/
    digital-global-warming-sekhar-sarukkai

14. [5504da5dd] Chris says:
    January 13, 2021 at 2:40 am

    Indeed a very interesting concept. I'd argue that banning Trump/
    Parler from the internet is a very recent demonstration to
    everyone of where the line is. It shows the consequences of
    speaking out your mind (lies objectively, but still). This will
    contribute to even more Social Cooling.

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