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Defense and Future – Part 1: Building Cognitive Immunity
Defense and Future 1 Defense and Future – Part 1: Building Cognitive Immunity 2 Defense and Future – Part 2: The Ethics of the Nudge 3 Defense and Future – Part 3: The Coming Age of Synthetic Persuasion ← Series Home Shortcuts Rules of thumb for quick classification
Behavioral psychology
The Antiquity of the Scam: When Opinions Are Cheap For centuries, human societies have been driven by a constant scramble to capture human awareness for commercial or political ends. Every request, whether for a purchase, a vote, or a donation, is designed to compel compliance, often by exploiting fundamental psychological principles,. In a world of extraordinary complexity, people rely heavily on “shortcuts,” or rules of thumb, to classify information quickly and respond mindlessly when trigger features are present. These automatic responses, while necessary for daily efficiency, make the public terribly vulnerable to those who know how to manipulate them. This state of affairs ensures that the electorate operates not as a dispassionate jury weighing evidence, but as an entity primarily guided by emotional and psychological networks,.
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Defense and Future – Part 2: The Ethics of the Nudge
Defense and Future 1 Defense and Future – Part 1: Building Cognitive Immunity 2 Defense and Future – Part 2: The Ethics of the Nudge 3 Defense and Future – Part 3: The Coming Age of Synthetic Persuasion ← Series Home Inevitability Influence inherent to design
Choice architecture
The Architect’s Dilemma: Inevitable Influence Influence is inherent to design; whether we intend it or not, the environment in which choices are presented fundamentally shapes human decisions. A choice architect—anyone responsible for organizing the context in which people decide—cannot create a neutral environment,. Even seemingly arbitrary choices, such as the order in which food is presented in a school cafeteria, will significantly influence outcomes, like whether students choose apples or brownies,. This inevitability of influence is the core dilemma: since design is inescapable, the question becomes whether that design should be intentional and directed toward improving welfare.
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Defense and Future – Part 3: The Coming Age of Synthetic Persuasion
Defense and Future 1 Defense and Future – Part 1: Building Cognitive Immunity 2 Defense and Future – Part 2: The Ethics of the Nudge 3 Defense and Future – Part 3: The Coming Age of Synthetic Persuasion ← Series Home Immortality, bliss, divinity New human goals
Harari
Existential risk Technology rendering humans irrelevant
AI advancement
The Paradoxical Pursuit of Immortality and Certainty At the beginning of the third millennium, humanity has prioritized conquering famine, plague, and war, and is now setting its sights on audacious new goals: achieving immortality, bliss, and divinity,. This pursuit is fundamentally enabled by breakthroughs in biotechnology and information technology. However, this unprecedented access to scientific power comes with a severe existential risk: the technology capable of upgrading Homo sapiens into Homo deus may also be powerful enough to render the unenhanced human irrelevant,. This dilemma is driven by a deep ideological conflict stemming from the rise of algorithms and the challenge they pose to the liberal humanist ideals of free will and individual sovereignty.
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