[FRIAM] "certain codes of conduct"

Tue Jul 28 15:55:02 EDT 2020

Nick, I didn't "assume" anything.  It's this article that does much more
than "assume" --and virtually all old white people (who are all privileged
merely by being white) are absolutely tone deaf about the underbelly of
what's happening in America.  I am old and white but not tone deaf (because
of my profession), and I have always known--and acknowledged--that I am
racist because I grew up in the U.S. surrounded by institutions
continuously perpetuating the original racism of the creators, although an
occasional few "woke" white people tried their best to turn things around.

I can't believe you suggest that participants in "higher education" are a
microcosm of the wider world. Did you mean that?

On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 12:27 PM <thompnickson2 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Merle:
>
>
>
> Your generation may not be able to tackle the article with an open mind,
> but I suggest that we need to pay close attention.
>
>
>
> I take it you mean “our” generation, right?
>
>
>
> I assume that you mean by racist that these “codes of conduct” unfairly
> advantage some racial/ethnic group at the expense of others.  I assume that
> that is what  you mean by racist.  I assume you don’t mean that there will
> be no “codes of conduct” in a post-racist world.  But any code of conduct
> is a constraint, and thus disadvantages somebody for whom that constraint
> is, well, a constraint.
>
>
>
> When I was young, I used to write books.  Now I am old, I just write book
> titles.  I am thinking of a book entitled, *Who is this old White guy,
> and why should I pay attention to him? * It’s a book about Strunk and
> White’s *Elements of Style*.  Now there’s a code of conduct if ever I saw
> one!  What does Strunk and White look like in a post racial world?  You
> cannot imagine a world without style guides anymore than you can imagine a
> highway without rules of the road, right?  So what does Strunk and Brown
> look like?  Trust me.  Those aren’t rhetorical questions.  I really want to
> know.
>
>
>
> But yes, I will read the article.
>
>
>
> Nick
>
>
>
>
>
> Nicholas Thompson
>
> Emeritus Professor of Ethology and Psychology
>
> Clark University
>
> ThompNickSon2 at gmail.com
>
> https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Merle Lefkoff
> *Sent:* Tuesday, July 28, 2020 1:01 PM
> *To:* The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <
> friam at redfish.com>
> *Subject:* Re: [FRIAM] gelotophilia
>
>
>
> Sorry, Steve, to be a bit off topic here, but your reference to "certain
> codes of personal conduct" emerging from institutions of "higher education"
> are now considered racist.  And I suggest that the list take a look at this
> amazing piece in a recent NYTimes titled "Whiteness Lessons".  Your
> generation may not be able to tackle the article with an open mind, but I
> suggest that we need to pay close attention.
>
>
>
>
> https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/15/magazine/white-fragility-robin-diangelo.html
>
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 28, 2020 at 9:58 AM Steve Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com> wrote:
>
> As I read the interchange about GPT-3 and the Chinese room, I was drawn
> off into side-musings which were finally polyped off to a pure tangent (in
> my head) when DougC and NickT exchanged:
>
> NLT> Dog do joy; why not computers?
>
> DC> dog is highly interconnected - hormones, nerves, senses, and
> environment. neurons are not binary . every synapse is an infinite state
> variable.
>
> While Joy and humor are not identical, there is some positive
> correlation.   Poking around, I was only mildly surprised to find that
> there was a body of literature and in fact international organizations and
> conferences on humor (not mimes or clowns or  stand up comedians, but real
> scholars studying the former as well as regular people).   I was looking
> for the physiological complexes implied by humor or joy.   I haven't (yet)
> found as much on the topic as I would like, maybe because I got sidelined
> reading about 2 neologisms (ca 2007) and a related ancient (Greek) term:
> *Gelotophobia*, *Gelotophilia*, and *Katagelasticism*.   My limited
> Italian and Spanish had me reading it as "Gelato" or "Helado" which
> translates roughly into our own "Ice Cream", though the ingredients differ
> toward less rich technically.
>
> Their meanings, however are roughly:  Fear of being laughed at; Love of
> being laughed at; and the Pleasure of laughing at others.     These are
> apparently more than the usual discomfort or warm feelings we might get
> from being laughed at, or from laughing at others, but a more deep and
> acute sense of it.
>
> https://www.wired.com/2011/07/international-humor-conference/
>
> https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/14037/1/Ruch_Proyer_PhoPhiKat_V.pdf
>
> Part of why I bring it up on this list is because as I study myself and
> others as we exchange our ideas, observations, and occasional
> (un)pleasantries, I am fascinated by the intersection between (convolution
> amongsT?) personal styles and perhaps more formal "training" each of us
> might have learned from our parents, among our peers, by our teachers, our
> workplaces, possibly professional organizations, etc.
>
> It appears to me that institutions of higher education enforce/impose a
> certain code of personal conduct first on their participants (undergrads,
> grads, postdocs, staff, faculty) which is a microcosm of the larger world.
> White Collar and Blue Collar contexts are also similarly dissimilar, and
> within those, a cube-farm of programmer-geeks and a bullpen of writers, and
> a trading floor of traders (all white collar, taking their showers at the
> beginning of the day) have a wide spectrum while blue collar workers
> (taking their showers at the end of the day) do as well.   Construction
> crews,  oilfield roughnecks, cowboys, farmhands, etc.   each have their own
> myriad ways of interacting... sometimes *requiring* a level of mocking to
> feel connected, etc.  There may also be a strong generational component...
> as we cross roughly 3 generations.
> Greatest/Boomers/X/Millenials/Zoomers/??? and all the cusps between.
>
> But what I was most interested in is related to the original discussion
> which is what is the extended physiological response to humor, joy, mockery
> that a human (or animal?) may have which a synthetic being would need to be
> designed to include.   Perhaps a properly broadly conceived General
> Artificial Intelligence would ultimately include all of this as well, and
> as deep learning evolves, it seems that there is no reason that a GI
> couldn't simulate the physiological feedback loops that drive and regulate
> some aspects of humore?
>
> - Steve
>
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>
> --
>
> Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
> Center for Emergent Diplomacy
> emergentdiplomacy.org
>
> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
>
>
> mobile:  (303) 859-5609
> skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
>
> twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff
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-- 
Merle Lefkoff, Ph.D.
Center for Emergent Diplomacy
emergentdiplomacy.org
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

mobile:  (303) 859-5609
skype:  merle.lelfkoff2
twitter: @Merle_Lefkoff
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