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Humans certainly get infected with mind-controlling memes. How sure are we that there aren't fungal/bacterial/viral sources of change to human behavior? Maybe a

Humans certainly get infected with mind-controlling memes. How sure are we that there aren't fungal/bacterial/viral sources of change to human behavior? Maybe an infection could make us more peaceful or warlike, authoritarian or laissez-faire, pious or agnostic, obedient or obstinate. Political and religious movements sure seem to spread like biological infections. I wonder if there are epidemiological measures that could tell the difference. Velocity of spread could be discriminator, but you'd have to test that on populations that are culturally but not physically isolated and visa versa, which is a tall order.

Johnjonjoan 6y ago
Like toxaplasmosis? We don't really like entertaining these things because our identities are very attatched to the idea of free will.
- imtringued 6y ago
  There is no meaningful difference between a world with free will and a fully deterministic world. You're still going to make the same decisions and live the same life in either world. If you get shot, you die, even with free will. If you lose your legs, you'll be trapped in a wheelchair, even with free will. If you get infected by a zombie disease, you'll become a zombie, even with free will. Free will simply doesn't buy you anything. You can still keep your identity without it.
  - Johnjonjoan 6y ago
    Without free will you've never made a decision. Try telling anyone they didn't decide what they do or like or wear and you'll see that (for now) identity is tightly tied to free will in most peoples minds.
- aurelianito 6y ago
  Toxoplasmosis is known to promote risky behavior in infected people.
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7373737373 6y ago
This pandemic seems to provide pretty great conditions for conducting such studies, say using Facebook datasets if these were academically accessible.
- 1propionyl 6y ago
  They are (or were) academically accessible. Remember the Cornell/Facebook study on emotional contagion? It's not a matter of whether the study could be done. It's a matter of it being incredibly unethical to do it. Signing up for Facebook is not sufficiently informed consent for these sorts of studies.
8bitsrule 6y ago
Four centuries (14th-17th) of 'dancing mania' in Europe has been widely, hypothetically blamed on 'poisoning' by the ergot fungus from rye bread (which is not very popular anymore). Certainly, in the 17th century 'ergotism poisoning' caused tens of thousands of deaths in France, and large afflictions in Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot

Johnjonjoan 6y ago

Like toxaplasmosis? We don't really like entertaining these things because our identities are very attatched to the idea of free will.

imtringued 6y ago
There is no meaningful difference between a world with free will and a fully deterministic world. You're still going to make the same decisions and live the same life in either world. If you get shot, you die, even with free will. If you lose your legs, you'll be trapped in a wheelchair, even with free will. If you get infected by a zombie disease, you'll become a zombie, even with free will. Free will simply doesn't buy you anything. You can still keep your identity without it.
- Johnjonjoan 6y ago
  Without free will you've never made a decision. Try telling anyone they didn't decide what they do or like or wear and you'll see that (for now) identity is tightly tied to free will in most peoples minds.
aurelianito 6y ago
Toxoplasmosis is known to promote risky behavior in infected people.

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7373737373 6y ago

This pandemic seems to provide pretty great conditions for conducting such studies, say using Facebook datasets if these were academically accessible.

1propionyl 6y ago
They are (or were) academically accessible. Remember the Cornell/Facebook study on emotional contagion? It's not a matter of whether the study could be done. It's a matter of it being incredibly unethical to do it. Signing up for Facebook is not sufficiently informed consent for these sorts of studies.

8bitsrule 6y ago

Four centuries (14th-17th) of 'dancing mania' in Europe has been widely, hypothetically blamed on 'poisoning' by the ergot fungus from rye bread (which is not very popular anymore). Certainly, in the 17th century 'ergotism poisoning' caused tens of thousands of deaths in France, and large afflictions in Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_mania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergot