• In total there is 1 user online :: 0 registered, 0 hidden and 1 guest (based on users active over the past 60 minutes)
    Most users ever online was 789 on Tue Mar 19, 2024 5:08 am

Who is Howard Bloom?

#5: Nov. - Dec. 2002 (Non-Fiction)
AvatarofPower

Re: Who is Howard Bloom?

Unread post

Succinctly... He's onto the idea that societys can form cohesive interactive superorganisms based on the replicator he describes as the meme. These superorganisms, because they are an integral part of the human envrionment, directly influnence human genetic evolution. These superorganisms, because they are contained in a larger societal and physical envrionmet and contain mutable information-conveying replicators, are themselves subject to a Darwinian-like evolution.Thats what I got out of the Lucifer Principle, at first glance. --Avatar"The computer is the most extraordinary part of Man's technological clothing: it is an extension of our central nervous system. Beside it the wheel is a mere hula-hoop." -- Marshall McLuhan
mrshelterman
Official Newbie!
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu Apr 16, 2015 12:36 pm
8

Re: Who is Howard Bloom?

Unread post

I'll throw my two sense in as I quite enjoy Howards insights and it does take a little bit of contemplation to understand where he is coming from. Yes Howard calls this a Scientific Expedition, and he uses science as well, but he is mostly a philosopher on deep down inside and most of his writing are seminal in nature.

I'll mention where I see Howard coming from in his book the Lucifer Principle. Howard's idea has many implications which is where his far flung supporting evidence comes from. Firstly, Howard refutes the idea of the Selfish Gene, as based on history and life in its current evolution we do see evolution as violently selfish, but if we look at it from a wider scale, we can see patterns of this selfishness as more prevalent on a broader scale of cultures and societies. Our interactions on a micro scale are quite unimportant and not generally described as violent, but more cooperative. So ultimately, we actually cooperate more then we feud. This is where the paradox comes in, because as memetics comes in and moves mass amounts of people to cooperate, evolution also roots out the weakest link in the pecking order, rewards those who transcend their nature with + endorphin boosts and social adornment. Most of the feuding does not necessarily come from individuals conflict, but from conflict on mass scales. An example is how what you and I do in the privacy of our own homes are irrelevant, but what we do in mass groups of people is relevant as there lies the ability to cause great harm or good on a scale that is much more noticeable. This is just like how he describes a puddle of water being relatively boring in comparison to a ocean of water that can wash a house away from the shores (entelechies). Howard also states somewhere outside of his writing I believe about how Genes actually work together to sustain life within an organism, so it is not entirely true that Genes are always selfish. Yes they compete, but like all quarks, leptons, atoms, particles, cells, organisms, social organisms, they all exist solely through cooperation. If we are not social, we seize to exist or whither away from irrelevance.

Howard mentions something very interesting about our biological determinism to be violent and stomp out competition. Yes, each of us individually can strive to be the best versions of our selves orally, but of course we cannot achieve this entirely, especially on the mass scale of social organisms. Just like how our body goes through cell apoptosis, we as human drop out of the organism like flies and this violent nature eludes us almost entirely. This idea was inspired also by the academic bullying that Howard and other colleges have experienced with the idea of sociobiology, social organisms, and other subjects Howard indulges in. Social organisms have built a selective culture in universities that shun new forward thinking that step out of the bounds of the groups current status quo (or in Howards aphorism that he lives by, look at things underneath your nose as if you never seen it before and then proceed from their. university profs and scientists will deny sociobiology, but at the same time follow the same evolutionary process that Howard is talking about). Howard describes how brilliant scientists who were ran out of academia because they discuss the wrong topics that the tenured track employers want people to subscribe to. In other words, in the market place of free ideas and discussion, discussion is held by a monopoly by a few. We have to remember how people like Freud stepped out of his bounds with crazy assertions and hypothesis, but in the end many of his ideas created a new field of credibility.

There some funny ideas that Howard brings up that demonstrate how the social organism works. The irrational war of Allopathy an Homoeopathy. Allopathy tried to defame and run Homoeopathy out of practice, and when it succeeded, it engulfed the ideas of homeopathy and incorporated as its own. Despite little remnants and influences homoeopathic medicine has in modern medicine application, homoeopathy is given zero credibility in influencing the symbiotic unity that homoeopathy and allopathy have. It raises the question, if homoeopathy won, would we be in the same place today in regards to modern medicine? It is highly likely that Homoeopathic medicine would have incorporated Allopathy into its practice if that school of thought won.

If one is not entirely fond of Howards ideas, they may enjoy his interpreting of history which is also great fun. I will also state that I have yet to find a entirely specific or accurate refute of Howard's ideas in the Lucifer Principle. I know many people are not fond of his biological deterministic approach to our violent nature which seem inevitable. still, I have seen a convincing argument against this either.
Post Reply

Return to “The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History - by Howard Bloom”