Update Worldview.md

content/inquiries/Worldview.md

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ My worldview has evolved over the years, influenced by experience and observatio
 **Tribes:** Humans in their current form have lived on Earth for around 200,000 years, in what Paul Seabright called a society of [‘murder, reciprocity, trust, hoarding and stealing’](https://www.amazon.com/Company-Strangers-Natural-History-Economic/dp/0691146462) that arose when early man was forced from the trees into the more brutal environment of the savannahs.  To understand the [soap opera](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soap_opera) enveloping modern politics, academe, celebrity gossip, and war, look no further than these societies of [150](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number) or so naked apes.  Take away the technology and little has changed today.  Our brains have shrunk about 10% over this period, so if anything we are a bit stupider than our forebears.  If we had truly advanced beyond primitive society, we would be solving our problems and looking for efficient ways to implement those solutions.  Instead, our first choice as the arbiter of social problems is tribal warfare.  Mechanized war gives us the power to act out our grievances from the comfort of our La-Z-Boy.  We declare war on countries, but also on arbitrary individuals (terrorists and criminals, however arbitrarily defined) and even bizarrely, on abstractions (cancer, drugs, communists, hate).  Our greatest and most expensive innovations have been arbitrary, amorphous and ever more bloody conflicts of choice.  In the boredom of modern life, [War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning](https://www.amazon.com/War-Force-that-Gives-Meaning/dp/1400034639).
 
 
-**Empire:** Humans are naturally tribal creatures, sharing this trait with all social animals.  Tribalism arises as a coping mechanism for inadequate brains and as a way of internalizing the trust that lubricates reciprocity. But to move beyond [Dunbar's number](https://theconversation.com/dunbars-number-why-my-theory-that-humans-can-only-maintain-150-friendships-has-withstood-30-years-of-scrutiny-160676) we needed inventions to overcome the limits of human consciousness.  That was religion, probably first practiced on an industrial scale by the Pharaohs.  Egyptian and Babylonian priests created elaborate cosmologies to predict crop cycles and used them to maintain order in large societies.  Ancient religions were the arbiters of law, science, and behavior, specializations that have since unbundled into their own professions.  They were as attractive for the entertainment they provided, as for the enlightenment they promised.  Religions offered tribal identity, which in large-scale societies could be fluid.   Rulers would interview priests to determine the best religion.  Constantine the Great went through four religions before choosing Christianity as his tool to command the Roman Empire. In a world where travel and communication were scarce, expensive, and time-consuming, religions were suggestive rather than absolute. Pope Innocent IV's papal bull _Ad Extirpanda_ was a clever innovation that changed that, allowing the Church to torture heretics (however defined).  The  truly devoted were enthusiastic practitioners, inventing many artful instruments of edification as the Protestant Reformation took off.  Religions have always been bloody affairs, and modern religions weaponize available technology for mind control -- very successfully.  As [Niel Gaiman](https://www.amazon.com/American-Gods-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0380973650/ref=asc_df_0380973650/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312114918153&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14977556065872423235&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029978&hvtargid=pla-432992956489&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=58874700661&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312114918153&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14977556065872423235&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029978&hvtargid=pla-432992956489&gclid=Cj0KCQiAj_CrBhD-ARIsAIiMxT-XHLTqXOsT14Fe8V3MQJwXzUGaGOXv28CTwfDOtML8lgJSjChpSd4aAt0BEALw_wcB) writes of a host of seductive new Gods to worship, manifestations of modern life and technology -- Internet, media, modern transport.  Religion is the defining technology of tribalism writ large and the handmaiden of empire.  Those who would be emperors need clergy, and tailor religion to serve messianic delusions.
+**Empire:** Humans are naturally tribal creatures, sharing this trait with all social animals.  Tribalism arises as a coping mechanism for inadequate brains and as a way of internalizing the trust that lubricates reciprocity. But to move beyond [Dunbar's number](https://theconversation.com/dunbars-number-why-my-theory-that-humans-can-only-maintain-150-friendships-has-withstood-30-years-of-scrutiny-160676) we needed inventions to overcome the limits of human consciousness.  That was religion, probably first practiced on an industrial scale by the Pharaohs.  Egyptian and Babylonian priests created elaborate cosmologies to predict crop cycles and used them to maintain order in large societies.  Ancient religions were the arbiters of law, science, and behavior, specializations that have since unbundled into their own professions.  They were as attractive for the entertainment they provided, as for the enlightenment they promised.  Religions offered tribal identity, which in large-scale societies could be fluid.   Rulers would interview priests to determine the best religion.  Constantine the Great went through four religions before choosing Christianity as his tool to command the Roman Empire. In a world where travel and communication were scarce, expensive, and time-consuming, religions were suggestive rather than absolute. Pope Innocent IV's papal bull _Ad Extirpanda_ was a clever innovation that changed that, allowing the Church to torture heretics (however defined).  The  truly devoted were enthusiastic practitioners, inventing many artful instruments of edification as the Protestant Reformation took off.  Religions have always been bloody affairs, and modern religions weaponize available technology for mind control -- very successfully.  As [Niel Gaiman](https://www.amazon.com/American-Gods-Neil-Gaiman/dp/0380973650/ref=asc_df_0380973650/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312114918153&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14977556065872423235&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029978&hvtargid=pla-432992956489&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=58874700661&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=312114918153&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14977556065872423235&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9029978&hvtargid=pla-432992956489&gclid=Cj0KCQiAj_CrBhD-ARIsAIiMxT-XHLTqXOsT14Fe8V3MQJwXzUGaGOXv28CTwfDOtML8lgJSjChpSd4aAt0BEALw_wcB) writes of a host of seductive new Gods to worship, manifestations of modern life and technology -- Internet, media, modern transport.  Religion is the defining technology of tribalism writ large and the handmaiden of empire.  Those who would be emperors need clergy, and tailor religion to serve their messianic delusions.