[FRIAM] if by 'populism' he meant ...

[Prof David West]

Glen,

This is not about populism per se, but about your formulations.

The very first post made we wonder how you would differentiate between a mass delusion and culture — other than put them on some kind of continuum or making the first a subset of the latter. None of your subsequent posts dealing with 'mechanisms/formulations' clarified this question.

An alternative mechanism/formulation you might consider: the vTAO or virtual Adaptive Topographic Organism.

You have never heard of this before because it was a model I proposed in my doctoral dissertation and I never had the chance to followup or operationalize the model because I was hired to teach software development.

My problem was how culture affected cognition. The model starts with the Hopfield metaphor of a neural net: raindrops (inputs) falling on a topography (established by connection weights) and being channeled to low points (outputs). The topography was shaped by learning and adjustment of the weights.

I extended this metaphor/model but making connection weights a function of the "constancy" of the inputs; with constancy being a combination of frequency and consistency. A feedback loop was established with the outputs altering the environment and altering the constancy of the inputs.

Trivial example: you paint the inside of your house red (output) and that increases the constancy of receiving 'red' inputs.

The metaphor/model was extended with seven 'layers' of topography: e.g. a core layer where the constancy is established simply by being carbon=based lifeforms, to  culture shaping the gross geographic features, the penultimate layer of habit being akin to watershed, and the final layer being more or less intentional thought / free will / decision making etc.

In my mind's eye I can see how the vTAO is consistent with, supportive of, the mechanisms/formulations in your posts, but that might just be misplaced pride in authorship.

davew


On Thu, Dec 24, 2020, at 9:08 AM, ⛧ glen wrote:
> I've read plenty of formulations of what it is. And I'm familiar enough 
> with Long. What I want are criticisms of formulations. If you're not 
> willing to criticize my formulation, then perhaps you could write a 
> counterpoint and explain why Long was NOT populist? But I definitely 
> encourage donations to Wikipedia. I gave them $50 this year.
> 
> On December 24, 2020 5:43:27 AM PST, Frank Wimberly <wimberly3 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huey_Long
> >
> 
> -- 
> glen ⛧
> 
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