MonkeySphere

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[The Monkeysphere] - quite a well written rant about the implications of inbuilt limitations. --DR

: Done with great humour. Quotes include " This is perhaps how Ayn Rand would have put it, had she not been such a hateful bitch." Some of the connecitons it makes are a little tenuous, however - the reason capitalism works is tied more closely to other features of monkeys than the central hypothesis. Referencing the 'famed monkeyologist Charles Darwin' is an aside likely to offend some idiots who could do with absorbing the rest of the content and entirely unrequired since it gives people a way to discard it. And it's a shame he bucks out of connecting the whole 'visualise everyone else as a single person' and how it connects to capitalism. --Vitenka
: In all, very good - in fact - MonkeySphere - deserves more discussion. --Vitenka

Ok. Central hypothesis is that people can only cope with social connections to around 150 people at once and that this is the cause of much of the shape of human society. All presented in a fairly logical (though humourus) way.

So, extending it. People do seem to have an inbuilt capacity for the authors definition of racism. Very quickly people come to classify 'customers' for example, and treat them as a single person.
Would it help in any way to exploit this and actively refer to a stereotypical 'foreigner' or two in the media?
Alternately, since people do have room to grow their social network temporarily - why not add personal details to all news stories? Even completely made up ones. To help people identify with the people involved?
Would that help, or lead to a higher 'I know this person' threshold of familiarity? --Vitenka

How does your 150 break down between: People you have met face to face and interact with regularly, people you have met face to face but whom you now hardly ever see, people who you have heard about but have never significantly interacted with, fictional characters (from books, games, films, etc), and stereotypes representing larger groups (John Bull, Uncle Sam, The Treacherous Foreigner, The Butler, The Gypsy, The Punk Rocker, The Hells Angel, etc) --DR

: Be interesting to find that out as average stats. Personally my 150 is more like 7. --Vitenka (Friends, family, everyone else, everyone I never meet and about three people I can actually name.)