[HN Gopher] Critical Mass and Tipping Points
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Critical Mass and Tipping Points
Author : yamrzou
Score : 20 points
Date : 2024-09-26 21:13 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (fs.blog)
(TXT) w3m dump (fs.blog)
| rwmj wrote:
| If you're comparing critical mass in physics with critical mass
| in sociology, I already know you're full of it without needing to
| read any further.
| tristanMatthias wrote:
| Is there not a value in drawing interdisciplinary ties between
| fields? Physics underpins reality, would it not be feasible
| that it's laws scale to higher order complexities?
| stonethrowaway wrote:
| See Pepsi rebrand for answer.
| tristanMatthias wrote:
| Curious what conclusion you draw from this. Care to
| elaborate?
| stonethrowaway wrote:
| This page was intentionally left blank.
| blackeyeblitzar wrote:
| That seems like a shallow dismissal
| Joker_vD wrote:
| > The concept can explain everything from viral cat videos to
| why changing habits is so hard.
|
| Somehow this line persuades me of exactly the opposite.
| baxtr wrote:
| Why?
| jongjong wrote:
| Interesting read. It puts into context the importance of luck in
| life. There is a group of people who become oppressed to the
| point that it becomes unbearable and they have a choice either to
| die by revolting too early without critical mass, or by letting
| themselves starve from the increasing weight of the oppression.
| In the case of the opioid epidemic, people have been/are driven
| to insanity and commit suicide by drug overdose.
|
| You really don't want to be in that early oppressed group.
|
| IMO, it's because human systems are over-systematized and over-
| regulated. It always causes oppression. Some group of people has
| to pay dearly for all the structures that are imposed on them.
| Laws and social structures essentially never work for everyone
| equally; at scale, many laws systematically steal wealth, power
| and opportunities from one group and give it to another.
|
| Even the most well-meaning laws basically end up stealing from
| certain groups of people for the benefit of others. Especially on
| a complex global playing field. Just look at Africa. It's not
| their fault that they're stuck in poverty... Western powers keep
| installing corrupt dictators by sponsoring coups. The dictators
| then saddle their citizens with debt. The people have little say.
| Then basically they become so poor that they are forced to
| immigrate to the rich countries which are causing the problems...
| And for the most part, join the lower class of that society where
| the oppression continues under a different form.
|
| They get to be oppressed in this slightly different way while
| also contributing to the continued oppression of their people
| back in their home countries through the gift their cheap labor
| to their oppressors in their new country, which enriches them.
| This is made possible by a combination of ignorance and
| intergenerational low self-esteem inflicted upon them by their
| oppressors as a result of manipulation of the political systems
| of their previous countries.
| zakary wrote:
| Better never means better for everyone. And it always means
| worse for some.
| didgetmaster wrote:
| Life is not a 'zero sum game'. Just because someone benefits
| from something does not mean someone else is exploited or
| oppressed.
|
| Many in the anti-capitalist crowd have the mindset that
| wealth is not created, but just spread around. If someone
| gets rich, it must mean others got poorer. If that were true
| then everyone would be getting poorer as the population grows
| (finite resources spread ever thinner within a growing
| society).
| omegaworks wrote:
| >The concept of a sociological critical mass was first used in
| the 1960s by Morton Grodzins, a political science professor at
| the University of Chicago. Grodzins studied racial segregation --
| in particular, examining why people seemed to separate themselves
| by race even when that separation was not enforced by law.
|
| Curious where this researcher found examples of white flight in
| the 60s completely divorced from the reality of explicitly
| incentivized depopulation and segregation[1]. Very weird that it
| is used as an example of "spontaneous" sociological critical mass
| here, because it very much was catalyzed by real economic policy.
|
| 1. https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/redlining
| jonahx wrote:
| Flight and segregation emerge spontaneously in any population
| where people don't want to be a _significant_ minority, even
| when they prefer some amount of diversity:
|
| https://ncase.me/polygons/
| roenxi wrote:
| For such an interesting topic, the many of the leading examples
| seemed weak. The racial segregation one seemed a bit strange to
| me too (is racism really the only reason people can think of?
| If an area is undergoing radical demographic shifts then there
| is going to be a lot going on), the business one seemed vague
| and the Independence one is underexplored.
|
| It is an important topic but I wouldn't recommend reading this
| article on it. It seems to be a just-so story situation without
| much meat on the bone.
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