What does a compassionate society look like and why should we care?

We live in interesting times. I’m not sure we’re going to make it as a species (see here) and, recently, I’ve been writing about some of the things that we’re going to need if we’re going to survive (like a sense of humour). I’ve also Read More …

Let’s face it, we’re all DOOMED…

Here’s the deal – given enough time, a biosphere that isn’t collapsing, and fewer rogue states and fanatical morons, we’d probably be OK as a species. Chances are, without the imminent threat of destruction, global warming, famine, water shortages, rising sea levels and toxic oceans, and given Read More …

Why the Nanny State doesn’t work…

You’d think, that with over a hundred years of scientific study of human behaviour, that we’d have learnt a few ways of manipulating human behaviour. And you’d be right (see last week’s blog). So the great irony is that, although governments (or more correctly, government departments and Read More …

The dark side of psychology: Manipulation, mind control, and priming…

In my posts so far, I’ve spent the majority of my time talking about the ways in which psychology can benefit us. Mostly, I’ve focused on mindfulness, and understanding the psychoevolutionary basis for human behaviour so that we can choose our actions. As a part of Read More …

The brain that lied: Limited modelling systems, system errors and frustration…

Over the last six months I’ve written a fair bit on how our brains get us in trouble. In particular, I’ve focused on what I like to call the ‘inner monkey‘, our limbic system: the primitive part of our brain that tries to stop us from being eaten, and Read More …

Psychology in the future: The science fiction of therapy…

As you probably know, I’m a psychologist. I’ve spent a lot of time studying psychology (including 11 years of tertiary training), and I keep up to date on as much of the leading-edge in my area as I can, as well as in other related areas, Read More …

What you should know (Part 2)…

Last week, I wrote about some basic things that we are all supposed to know about (but not that many of us do anything about) regarding our health. This week, I’d like to continue the theme with some stuff that’s equally important to your physical Read More …

Good and bad instinct: Learning to tell the difference between expertise and evolution

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the illusory self, and encouraged a healthy scepticism regarding the things you feel are ‘right’. I claimed that, often, the things that we feel are the right thing to do are very much the wrong thing, themselves the product of Read More …

Memetic inoculation – how to develop immunity to memetic hacking (and avoid the Zombie apocalypse)

A while back I wrote about memes and how they can ‘hack’ past our consciousness (here). I suggested that some concepts, like religion, are particularly effective at getting past our conscious defences because, as ‘sticky’ memes, they are able to trigger a wide range of fundamental human Read More …

Is elite athlete “arrogance” a performance hack? Part 3 (When hubris becomes sociopathy)

This week I’m going to continue the articles on athletic arrogance as a performance hack. Initially, this line of thinking came from my speculations about how we hack our neurological limitations, using behavioural ‘software patches’, to increase our ability to perform. In this case, I Read More …

Is elite athlete “arrogance” a performance hack? Part 2 (When arrogance becomes hubris)

Last week I wrote about elite athlete “arrogance” with the suggestion that it’s actually a learned performance hack to help athletes trust “expert systems” under pressure. The more I thought about this though, the more I realised that it’s not just used by athletes, and that Read More …

Memes, Consciousness and Mind Hacking – Part 2 (The Magus Syndrome)

So quick precis of last week: I referred to memes, an evolved method of communicating complex information between human beings, and suggested that they can be an ideal mechanism for hacking human consciousness (by bypassing regular mechanisms and reinforcing themselves through neurobiological reward). I also Read More …