Empathy Models/Empathy Model/Backup

This is the original Empathy Model article. It was meant as an action research model, and slowly evolved into a self-standing wiki by a single author. The present article attempts to complete the transition; it more leans towards a psychology manual.

I recently adopted a cat who was still much of a kitten in many respects and very sweet when we found him, but was homeless and had to survive his first winter by in the nearby forest by hunting. He is incredibly affectionate, makes himself loved, and wherever he goes, he often got handouts from my neighbors. When this cat, now named Mystery, and I were first getting to know each other, he showed up with a bird he had just caught. I went to get my camera to document the even, but when I got back there was absolutely nothing was left of the bird except claws and a few feathers. And then when we were playing a little later he sank her teeth and claws into my hand, and she would have torn it apart if I let her. As a hunter, his "sweet" nature had given way to his predatory nature, and while we were playing, his neural mapping--or perhaps "motor memory"--kept his hunter nature alive even as we played affectionately. So because of his hunting nature, he a bit bi-polar and can play very rough. One night he caught a mouse, then another the next night another, then another... until I figured out it was re-catching the same mouse! He had changed his hunting style and become a catch-and-release cat, showing concern for the life of the mouse: his empathy. Finally the mouse stopped visiting. He seems to have two natures that are completely different. One nature shows his life in a family, or social, environment; and the second shows how he survives in a hostile natural environment. Unlike Mystery when we met him, we humans have had an alternate to potentially hostile environments. We have escaped danger by creating socially supportive environments, and through ingenuity and collaboration we have been able to create the resources that we initially fought for by hybridizing nutritious plants. Traditionally our foods are grain-based, and were garnished for further nutrition. Sometimes the garnish was meat, but meat seems to be historically rare, as it was difficult to obtain, and not necessarily a sustainable resource. The most interesting advance is the development of legumes as meat substitutes, especially the soy bean.

Sometime during the past few thousand years, people in the Far East solved the meat problem by domesticating and evolving the soy bean, which completely replaces meat. Buddhism may have started in India, but its basic principles lived so long in Eastern Asia that a culture was able resolve natural life's primary contradiction by collaborating technologically not just empathically, but with empathy as a goal.

The real action, according to the empathy model, is in the spaces between us; very little is completely within us. What connects us, and all higher animals, into a collaborative environment is the neurology that is the basis of our interactions: emotional connections. Everything happens in the spaces between us. The quantum model of physics is analogous: we are points of energy, surrounded by fields of energy. Individually we do very little, and as isolated individuals we suffer loneliness and become unhealthy.[1]

 In this model people are pointless, as everything happens in the spaces between us. 

Revision underway : The model has grown with time and much of the experimental material has been supported or deleted. Initially meant developed as a template for action, or action research, it has become a comprehensive model; reworking is necessary to separate its intent from its assumptions, and to create hooks for new material, especially neurological, and underlying support from the environment [2].

How wikis naturally develop new information

Wikis build information from the information brought to them, an extension of the idea of meta-data. Sometimes the knowledge built from the information brought to the wiki is surprising. In the case of this wiki, a surprising finding is the idea that the rules-based system is so significant in this model, and in a negative way. Aside from the obvious social rules and guidelines found in human society that we take for granted, I found that another type of rules-based system exists in isolated, or unempathic, minds that can be punitive and corrupt.

A self-admitted obsessive helped me understand this type of rules-based system. If you go to his house, he told me, you will find that everything is in its place, and any deviation from strict object placement in his environment is a violation of his basic rule; there will be consequences if there is any deviation. When I tried to bond with him, he flatly stated that he is not my friend and that we only work together. None-the-less he opened to me enough to share his rules-based system. He was proud of his system (which is an illness) as he feels it gives him strength. It is significant in this discussion to say that he also stole; we worked together in a retail store and he stole from the sum of accidental cash overage that many stores get occasionally.

The significance is strong because the vast majority of people are not obsessed with rules, and won't let arbitrary rules impact their lives in negative ways. These findings within the wiki seemed insignificant because they are found in lesser minds. Yet the way a wiki can naturally accumulate and structure information, giving each aspect equal significance, it can show the relationships between isolated facts and how they influence the greater whole. A wiki can show a relationship between rules and exploitation giving the possibility that many of society's controlling factors may be the constructs of lesser minds--intelligent perhaps, but lacking in emotional communication abilities, and hence reliant on self-made rules as a substitute for natural, or God-given, morality.[3]

The Model

• A useful working model that can be applied by anyone to help develop benefits
• Initially introduces as a template for creating successful action research
• It is complex, but not overly complex (Einstein)
• Size, bias, love, and resources: Because the model is complex not every component has yet been installed; three missing are size, bias, and what Darwin called "natural affection," or love.
  • Size is important; empathy is directly proportional to the distance from the bottom to the top of a control pyramid (Micheal Moore, Roger and Me).
  • Bias is equally important; obviously so looking when looking at photographs of lynchings. But in my experience the most common bias is bias against bias, where the most common example is that any American suffering from job loss who complains about it is immediately branded a racist. Bias is viral.
  • Resources as a topic--obtaining or creating resources-- is central to organismic life, and complex life is supported by collaboration; it is empathic, or fits the emotional model. The taking of resources is not collaborative, it is cooperative; violent robberies by gangs is typically predatory cooperation.
  • Another important topic is the "blood model" of human evolution, which is easily opposed by the "love model," of evolution that shows that empathic interrelations are based on empathic neurons, and empathic neurons have evolved to be nearly the same in different species that occupy different evolutionary branches.
• It is to be used to develop learning into beneficial action in ways that have developed through natural and historical human evolution
  • Empathy
  • Empathy Action discussion group on Care2.com
  • Recent evolutionary neurological research by de Wall
  • Empathy_Model/Reference_material Other Empathy citations
• Very important are the works defining Synergy by Ruth Benedict, and the experiences of Native Americans during the Colonization/Immigration of North America by Cynthia C. Wesley-Esquimaux [4]
• Carl Rogers brought empathy to psychology and to the policy-making parts of society
• The most original work will show the development of modern compassionate religion in a historical context (George Hart), and the parallel development of the modern scientific approach
• A valuable tool for applying the empathy ideas of emotional communication] is found in computer communication: the "network layer stack." The "network layer stack" abstracts all the concepts of computer communications, and allows them to coincide on different layers simultaneously in a especially the "network layer stack" that can be applied to help abstract emotional communication concepts. But the key complexities of organismic conceptualization, especially in the evolution of communication neurons, are far beyond technology
• Beyond this writing is the dark, or emotionally defective, side of humanity, or perhaps all organismic life. "Anti-empathy" is described in the writing about recently convicted murderer, Hans Reiser. Reiser is important because he is a connection into today's Information Society, and he is presently virtually on a microscope slide. He shows the contradictions of the modern Information Society. The Information Society's collaborative roots are in the e-mutualism of the free software community, which helps define emotional communication. Reiser was an important e-mutualist leader, and creator of important file-system software, yet he symbolizes the Information Society's psychological digital nature, and its failure to be part of, or genuinely benefit, normal society. (Christopher May, [5] [6]).
• Rationale discussion and the introduction of new ideas is found on the Empathy model discussion page

Empathic neurons

• Humans and other primates, elephants [7], and whales
  • Spindle Neurons that join emotional and analytic parts of the brain to allow for conceptualization
  • Mirror Neurons
    • Emotional connections between empathic organisms through these neurons
    • Across distances as a sympathy developed into a form of Empathy supported by imagination
  • Whales have neurons and neural constructs that humans, primates, and elephants do not: "modular organization of certain cells into 'islands'"[8]
• Other animals such as pets, including birds, with whom we have emotional connections

Communication

Digital

• Character-based
• Rules-based
  • Ingenuine, or optionally truthful based on rules
    • Beck's dishonesty with patients through the misuse of empathy in cognitive therapy [9]

• Cooperative
  • Predatory cooperation
    • Humboldt squid, cooperative hunt using binary digital communication through controllable colored skin cells, or chromatophores. What we are learning from the Humboldt giant squid, is that empathic neurons are in no way necessary for predatory cooperation; actually neither is intelligence. All that is necessary is rudimentary binary communication. And they consume each other, not much different than human organ-harvesters[10].
• Synthetic

If the reversal of the evolutionary base is synthetic in that it has been caused by humanity's departure from the natural course of life, then the solution should be natural, which is the social marginalization of the morally defective, or those missing the neurons that are the triumph of evolution.[11]

• Viral adaption of bias
  • Manipulative exploitation of empathy into bias [12]
  • Anti-bias leveraged as bias
• Exploitative
  • Competition
  • Hate
• Capital
• Intelligent in the sense of calculating

Emotional

• Directly communicated
• Genuine based on emotional communication connections and natural morality
• Emotional trust
• Collaborative
• Adaptive
• Natural
• "Uncomfortable" emotional communication
  • Anger [13]
  • Revenge
• Tribally Native
  • Native relationship with the environment
  • Synergy: Native society's construct
• Wise in the sense of broadly applicable understanding

Synergy and Constructivism

• Empathy for collaboration
• Collaboration as innovation
• Innovation as technology
• Digital technology devoid of empathy

Synergy

• Collaboration
• Generosity
• Tribal society (Benedict)

Community of Knowledge

• Leaving the family to entering into the community as a youngster
  • Joining the community group as a novice
  • Developing ideas that can be added to the community of knowledge
  • Becoming expert
• Entering a community as a newcomer
  • Learning about the community
  • Comparing experiences
  • Bringing and contributing knowledge
  • Gaining acceptance
  • Joining extended families
• Knowledge Construction
  • Contributing information components
  • Repairing existing components
• Surrounding Environment
  • Extended community of knowledge
  • Knowledge shared among animals
  • DNA as an information layer of the greater community of knowledge
• Religion
  • Community relationship with then environment
  • Disciplined development of the relationship into Science

Family

• Nurturing and support
• Leaving the family for the community

Societal Models

Chronological Nearly geological

Native

• Basic human society inherited from nature through evolution
• Emotional relationship is with the environment
• Community of knowledge extends into environment
• Collaborative development of resources
• Emotional Communication health

Capital

• Development of capital families
  • Family property, especially human and even family members
• Resource exploitation
• Violent annexation
  • Cooperative predation
• Detached relationships
  • Emotional Communication defective operators
  • Digital

Compassionate

• Revolutionary
• Restoration of historically natural communities of knowledge
• Reconstruction of the constructed knowledge

Evolutionary Modern

• Extends naturally constructed knowledge
• Develops technology through collaboration
  • Technology
  • Modern Communication

Self-defense

Self-defense

• Buddhist martial arts
  • "No-sword" technique, Yagyu Munenori, The Life-giving Sword [14]

Cultural defense

• National defense
• Defense of the historical and natural community of knowledge

Religion and Science

Tribally native

• Sacrifice I feel that sacrifice comes from the difficult relationship of the forest dweller with the animals that are within his the scope of his environment actually becoming his family, and he may have to eat them. Forest children keep the orphaned animals from the hunt as pets. Early innocent villagers whose animals evolved with him and are his friends, also sometimes has to eat them. [15]
• Evolved into modern communities of families and individuals
• Communities of Knowledge of a few to a few hundred people

Ancient empires

• Roman
  • Capital (Durant)
  • Colonialism
  • Capital construction
• Egyptian
  • Early Information Society (Mumford)
  • Command and control
  • Monument building

Compassionate and revolutionary

• Buddhism
  • Respect for life including animals
• Christianity
  • Equality under God
  • Forgiveness Haters are constantly aware that retribution for the pain they have caused may be around the corner, and the paranoia that this fear causes may raise their level of hate exponentially. Christ's approach of forgiveness is to diffuse the paranoia that hate causes; to forgive the actions caused by it and to reassure the paranoiac, reducing the fear the paranoia causes, reducing the chances of further painful actions. Empathy Model/Forgiveness
  • Love

Scientific method, or model

• Single Phenomena
• Unbiased
• Community contribution and review

Empathy support

• Creating technology to support empathy, collaboration, and innovation
• Writing to get past the digital numerical and character barriers

Mental Illnesses

Traumatic distress common (victims of ECD)

• PTSD, al-Qaeda attacks on military targets

Thinking disorders

Rare

• Psychosis

Depression

Common

• Glandular
• Environmental

Emotional communication dysfunction (ECD)

Less common

• Mental isolation
• Cruelty resulting from a disassociation from social reality resembling a thinking disorder
• Socially controlling

Hybrid Emotional Communication dysfunctions

Less common

• Part-time emotional communication isolation
  • Bi-Polar
  • OCD
  • ADD

Social disruption and empathic layers

People interrelate into their community by constructing knowledge. That knowledge is connective and largely shared, and it makes life meaningful. Social disruption causes hardship; without the social context there loneliness and desperation.Talk:Empathy_Model#Social_disruption_and_empathic_layers

Community destruction

Communities that have been disrupted often remain physically, even though the people of the community have been displaced, or eradicated. With the elimination of local peoples is the erasure of the community of knowledge. The natural context is replaced with a governance structure, where what remains of the original culture lives desperately under repression.

Digital facade

An information facade of synthetic emotional and societal constructs usually replaces the natural community of knowledge in the modern real estate development model. Often fictional representations of locally destroyed communities are represented to entertain those who have replaced them.

Social fracturing and the loss of health

As the quality of life decays, especially at the end of life, modern synthesis, especially medicine, is used to rationalize the social fracturing, by prolonging life through chemistry as in the case of medicine. As natural nurturing disappears so does the fundamental meaning of life, and with it the quality of life.

Exploitation and destruction of culture

Every emotional component of the original and natural community of knowledge disappears, except those that can easily be exploited. Historical structures are destroyed, though examples of culture may be preserved in museums.

The severing of the social connection with nature by resource "annexers"

With the disconnection from the environment, local humans loose their natural connection to their historical and evolutionary pasts. The very first step in the annexation of resources by invading outsiders is always the destruction of this connection.

Psychological layer

The psychological layer of this erasure model challenges the empathy model because emotionally connecting constructs are missing: nurturing, emotional communication, the construction of knowledge and the emotional aspects of communities of knowledge. Uncomfortable components are introduced: anger and vengeance. Some strong people turn inwards meditatively. The anti-empathic adapt virally and act through predatory cooperation. Those who have been displaced, or worse, may rebel violently; they are labeled violent and punished, or worse, by the most violent, the capital annexers. Meanings are reversed; the formerly invading outsiders become the genteel insiders, the former insiders become marginalized, and are forced to emulate the former outsiders.

Neural layer

Neural damage from the continual stress of societal erasure cannot be good; there cannot be any benefit from it despite the adage "what does not kill us makes us stronger." An alternate saying was created for the animated series, Eon Flux: "what does not kill us makes us stranger." While the results of trauma rarely lead to anti-empathy, though society's doctors have recently started to pretend it does after an eternity of ignoring the psychological effects of trauma, the initial information and other data of the natural community of knowledge will very likely be lost for all time, even if artifacts are preserved.

Cocaine and methedrine

Anti-empathic drugs: cocaine, methadrine.

To relive the pain of trauma drugs are used, and as it happens cocaine instantly relives the pain of the panic disorder suffered by those victimized with trauma, yet cocaine also destroys empathic neuron functionality, adding in recent years to the ironic aspects of the lives of the displaced whose communities of knowledge have been erased.

Political layer

In the case of criminals they money they receive gives them unlimited access to destroying drugs helping them continually destroy their empathy, allowing them to be free-er to commit crime. Lending contraction to politics, or the political layer socially liberal and libertarian are enjoined when they help empower those with terminal emotional communication dysfunction.

Empathy Acronyms

• E Empathy

Emotional relationships between higher organisms using advance neurons, including communication between higher species

• EC Emotional Communication

As differentiated from digital, or optionally genuine, communication

• ECD Emotional Communication dysfunction (defect, or defective)

Failure in higher animal communication neurons or neural constructs preventing emotional communication

• hECD Hybrid Emotional Communiction dysfunction

Part-time dysfunction that shuts down emotional communication neurons cyclically for days, hours, or minutes

• ECDPP Emotional Communication dysfunction per population