How the communist mid-school education system made me Libertarian transhumanist

This is my first post for a long long time but it's an important holiday today and I decided to celebrate in my own way.  

Here in Bulgaria, 24 May is the Day of the Cyrillic Alphabet, Bulgarian Enlightenment and Culture. We celebrate the creation of our alphabet , books, literature and everything related to science, knowledge, education and more. It is a bright holiday which has a lot to do with the preservation and richness of the Bulgarian culture.   

That made me thinking of my education and how I got to the idea that the technology and the free will can help solving many socio-economic issues, which exists for centuries - e.g. this the short story of my informal technocrat-leaning education, which I got mostly during the communist era in Bulgaria. 

Well , I grew and graduated in times, when the Bulgaria education system was indoctrinated by communist propaganda and the state's socioeconomic matters were planned for 5 years ahead by the government. There were no private businesses or even no real business at all - just 5 years state-level plans with foggy goals, which nobody cared to achieve anyway.

Well of course I was not aware about the state matters at that time, as I was mostly interested in animations ( mostly russian ones ),  sci-fi books, outdoor games and well girls at some point.   

At the time my shy teenage moustache got noticeable,  I started to be fascinated by the idea that the human body and mind limitations can be overcome by the use of proper technology.  

The first story I was hit by, was the one where a small guy got instantly physically enhanced by utilizing proper chemical compounds called Popeye the sailor, where this guy was eating spinach to get stronger.  I would say he was like a vintage instant Capitan America. 

I guess this was my early crash into the idea that my biologically human body is not necessarily to be considered as a final verdict, which later developed as an everlasting interest into what is called transhumanism. And even though that for all those years the Holy Grail of the transhumanism, the singularity was and still lives in the future , I was and still feel optimistic.

Years passed , a plenty of technological breakthroughs are for real now and my interest in those areas never seized, which at that time in my mind was not connected to politics, economics  or any other sociological matters.  I was just an young technocrat leaning over cyberpunk, biologically, chemically and cyber enhanced bodies and souls and strong beliefs that the technology some day will give all the answers to the questions in my nerdy socially-challenged mind. Hm, I guess that was a weird hope to finally be able to get an algorithm on how to be more popular or just liked by these weird creatures with long hair and soft voices. Well... still looking for this algorithm.   

Later on, I started working, dealing with business and technology and somehow got impressed by the libertarianist ideas ,where well all is decided by the market, by the individual. The libertarianist concept corresponded in my mind with the idea for freedom of will, endless opportunities, initiatives, innovation, which somehow for me were related to the cyberpunk idea. 

And here we come to the moment, when I realized that may be those similarities between the two areas  are not just delusions of my mind, but actually a field which some call "Libertarian transhumanism", which basically connects the dots between the two and pushing the idea of owning yourself even further  - so that you can change and enhance yourself. 

Even though the most interesting part for me was always the technology side, the impact of those technologies over the socio-economic flesh became quite interesting for me later, when my moustache got slightly lighter color.  

So, still wondering how the communist education system made me indoctrinated with "Libertarian transhumanism" ideas. Well I think I was just naturally disgusted by that false propaganda for the power of the state, the false goals and the great bright future which will eventually happen one day. 

Hm, so it seems that education system was actually successful - I learned a lot anyway.  

So, happy 24 May!

"I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think”
― Socrates

Are we going to fail real life? ( repost )

The text was originally written by me for a Second Life  in-world magazine.Some of the content was cut off by the editors, so here comes the whole text:

Futurists often talk about the challenges, which the human race will face during the long journey towards the Space colonization. They predict that these challenges will force a new biological and psychological shift as a response of the extreme physical conditions in the Space. However, there is yet another evolution path for us to walk – virtual world colonization. The 3D Virtual worlds are getting more and more popular these days. They will eventually replace the Web 2.0 hype as a platform for social and business interactions. People will start to look on to the virtual worlds as a new residential place much alike the Americas in past or Space in the future. This journey has already started in long ago, since the presence of APRANET

Second Life is one of the major players in the virtual world scene. It has a number of unique features, however the most significant one is its community driven nature. Second Life is self organizing and changes in result of the community interactions. It is considered as place, where everything may happen.

There are anthropological studies over the psychological limitations developed in result of characteristics existing in our genotype and phenotype. We tend to develop specific psychological constructs, seen as a direct result from our biological characteristics. These psychological constructs then are manifested as behaviors. For the purpose of this speculation, I will talk about the biological characteristics as biological limitations. We may consider the behaviors influenced by these biological limitations as a rational. We just can’t do it another way!

L'anatomie, c'est le destin!

The phrase means "anatomy is a destiny" and is usually attributed to Freud. The original phrase belongs to Napoleon. We don’t jump from skyscrapers, because we can’t fly. We are afraid as the height goes up because of our flight limitations. We tend to approach a person closer to talk, because our voice is distance limited. We feel jealous, when our intimate partner is approached by another individual, because our reproductive path is treathen.We can’t live in water without equipment. However, there are behaviors, where the relation to specific biological properties is hard to be seen. Sometimes the direct relation is missing just because the biological limitation is already a history. For example adult people may demonstrate behaviors developed during the infancy (when there were biological limitations presented), although the biological limitation is not presented, anymore. Such behaviors may be considered as irrational.

It is quite challenging from a scientific point of view to develop a clear behavior classification based on the rationale-irrational axis in the real life. However, Second Life is still far more limited in terms of possible states. It is still described by a limited number of rules, which allows researchers to operate over them with more formal tools. This makes the rational-irrational behavior classification in Second Life much easier. The “limited number of states” characteristic renders Second Life as a useful scientific playground- the behavioral context is much simple and suitable for formal representations. However, these research possibilities raise a various ethic questions.

Just because, the very soul of Second Life is the human imagination, we may expect to see it expressed in a ways as much as the number of the residents. Residents build places from the past, from the future, from the tales, from movies and so on. Residents build objects, write scripts, perform live, attend to events or just socialize. It seems like there are tons of different expression forms in Second Life – no one is the same.

However, if one spends a little time to watch residents for specific behaviors, he will discover a strange phenomenon. This phenomenon is strange if one believes that human imagination is a true “infinity” synonym. Residents tend to demonstrate repeating irrational behavioral forms in similar situations. They are irrational in the Second Life context, because the underlying biological limitation is just missing in the virtual world. Following some examples:

• Line of Sight
Tons of public events (concerts, theaters, educational classes,presentation) are hosted every day in Second Life. It is not rare to see folks struggling to take a front place near the stage. In real life we’re doing this, because our effective sight and hearing distance is limited. This tendency is observable into individuals, who know that Second Life provides instruments to watch around the avatar to a far greater distance.

• Physical Space Distribution
Go to public places in Second Life and watch people talking. You will see a tendency people to distribute the virtual space based on their feelings and goals toward specific peers. People try to preserve the right distance, when talking with peers. People try to stand in front of the peer as it would be done in real life. People stand aside, when feel uncertain or socially incapable. Avatars may communicate in Second Life (technically) without using these common social techniques, but people use them, anyway.
In real life, we tend to distribute our physical space according to our psychological space. It may be observed easily in closed spaces like rooms. We stand closely to our intimate partners. We stand on a limited distance from unknown people and far from our enemies. We tend to keep a descent distance from formal peers during conversation. We take a place near the corner in unknown and unstructured situations. The distance and place are more likely to reflect our current emotional state, our fear and uncertainty, our goals. There are plenty of local social-cognitive theories, which try to explain the physical space distribution in result of specific psychological properties. We still demonstrate this type of behaviors in the virtual environment, although Second Life provides communication tools, which are distance-independent.

• 3D Space Distribution
This one may be considered as yet another Psychological Space Distribution phenomenon. In real life we live closer to the ground. We have skyscrapers and towers, but they are built on the ground. Going higher and higher, the discomfort levels starts raising. While in real life, we may localize specific biological limitations and corresponding psychological constructs, which make the sky inhabiting difficult, in Second Life it is slightly different. Second Life world is a true 3D (still virtual) space. Avatars may fly up to 170 m, alone. The maximum height, to which avatar may fly with the help of a vehicle is about 4000m (there are ways to push avatar up to million meters, actually). Buildings do not have to be built on the ground and may hang up in the air up to 650-700 m from the ground. In general Second Life residents may live high above the ground if they want. They may fully utilize the true 3D space in the virtual world – and it is still a dream in the real life in 21 century. There are a lot of buildings and platforms in Second Life built high above the ground. However the majority of the population inhabits the ground levels. I see it as a result of our specific psychological constructs formed in the physical world.

• Attribution
Attribution is a social psychology concept. It expresses the tendency people to attach stable traits to events and people. We always try to explain the world around us. We may think of attribution is another word for explanation. When something happens, we make attribution about it and then the attribution influences our behavior. There are various studies over the attribution phenomenon. People tend to attribute taller people as smarter, older people as wiser, men as better drivers, etc.
In real life the physical attractive individuals receive more sexual attention than individuals considered as non-attractive. One possible explanation (biologically inspired) for this tendency is the assumption that the physical attractiveness is an evidence for a biological health and eventually such individual will “produce” healthy off springs. We may think of it like a rational behavior in real life.
Residents in Second Life may choose their avatars shape. They may look sexy, ugly, scary or whatever they like. Although, there is no direct connection between the actual shape chosen and the individual psychological characteristics behind the avatar (it is not trivial to see it, at least), we tend to make attributions for the individual behind the avatar, based on its virtual appearance. We automatically attribute the attractive avatars as smart, funny, trustful, skillful on first sight, without actually knowing the real individual behind it. We start acting towards the target avatar according to the attributions we’ve made. It’s not hard to find posts in Second Life forums, which complains about the disappointments from in-world relations. I see them as a reflection of the human attributive capabilities, which are inadequate to the virtual reality characteristics.
From this perspective, being a human means to have irrational psychological limitations which prevent us from being as much effective as the virtual world allows. Being a human means to feel better, when talking eye-to-eye with your partner and be afraid from falling down.

The technology boost in areas like Full-Immersion Virtual Reality, Augmented Virtual Reality and Biotechnology will increase the potential and the challenges for us as virtual residents. Sensing and acting in virtual worlds will not differ sensing and acting in real life.
Evolutionary psychology claims that the behavioral traits development in the species is based on the same evolution principals as the evolution of the biological properties. It considers the environment as a central driving force behind the evolution process. The increased environment challenges in the virtual space due to the future massive technology advances will trigger human race to evolve new behavioral traits in order to adapt to the virtual space demands.

The intrinsic human psychological properties, which build the human identity, will be replaced. We will soon face the new human kind - virtual human, adapted to meet the virtual reality challenges.

Is the virtual human going to fail in real life trying to use its virtually evolved behaviors, then?

Salespersons and rejection: a psuedo-scientific speculation

Some beleive that the ability to overcome objections and rejections are the most important salesperson abilities. The succesfull salesperson is the one who is able to overcome the emotional issues after the next rejection.

How can be predicted if someone is going to become a good salesperson or not? Can we know from a single interview if someone will be able to overcome the rejections and continuing to pursue his objectives.

Basic theory:
The Attachment theory suggests that children rejected by their parents are likely to develop rejection sensitivity. In other words they are more likely to become vulnarable to social rejections. The rejection sensitivity is described as tendency to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and over-react to social rejection.
The rejection sensitivity can be also developed in response to a peer social rejection in the childhood. There is tendency that the rejection (once developed ) in the childhood is stable and difficult to overcome for the child. The rejection tendency can remain active event if the child is moved to another school for example. The eventual explanation of this phenomenon is that the peer groups create reputational biases that act as stereotypes and influence subsequent social interaction. This can be further analyzed by using some of the concepts behind the Labeling theory.

So?!
People rejected by their parents or people with relatevly low popularity among their peers in the childhood are more likely to develop stable social rejection tendency. It means that such people are more likely to have difficulties in overcoming the rejections from their potential customers.

It is almost impossible to get complete track of the a person history back to the childhood in a single work interview. However, one possible approach to predicit if a person is more likely to fail as a salesperson is to perform series of social phsychology tests in the form of games during the interview. Such a tests can "measure" the level of the rejection sensitivity and to "capture" the basic behavioural approaches uses by the individual to overcome the rejection effect.

For example a good candidate for such experiments are variants of the "ball toss" and "cyberball" paradigms developed originally by Dr. Kipling D. Williams.

Links
Social rejection
Labeling theory
Attachment theory
Cyberball game

Exo-psychology by Timothy Leary

This article (http://www.futurehi.net/docs/Exopsychology.html) is making a lot of sense to me and especially to my current work in neural robotic controllers.
It is not about novelty knowledge - I just like the style of Leary.
I like the part, where the idea for a "local reality" and the accidental imprinting into the neural circuits.
So, the reality is not a global concept - it is just a matter of a "local" electromagnetic activity in result of the temporal "environmental" stimulus and accidental biochemical imprintings.
The "environmental stimulus" is used to describe the process of converting the external sensoral modalities to an electromagnetic activity with emphasis over the electromagnetic representation. The imprintings are biochemical processes of stimulus reactive forming of neural circuits in the childhood. Note that the rules for the neural shaping in response to certain environmental stimulis are defined by the individual DNA. According to this theoretical model the individual may not get out of the behavioral frame defined by these accidental biochemical imprintings.
Actually this is what we see, when evolving digital neural robotic controllers. We all talk about the amazing phenomenon of emerging behavioral patterns, which are not directly evolved or learned on-line. However these patterns are limited by the neural and sensoral structures evolved. The artificial neural plasticity during "learning" is a kind of a sientific holly grail. However the biological neural circuits demonstrates plasticity in the beginning of the individual ontology. It seems like the on-line learning capabilities of the neural circuits are rather exaggerated.
Тhe evolved neural circuits, sensoral structures and neural changes in result of imprinting form the local reality of the agent and limit the number of the behavioral patterns, which may be learned.
It may be beneficial in our searching for solution of the neural plasticity problem to take into account the imprinting phenomenon found in the biological neural circuits.