[design219]

Inside the Monkeysphere

This is an interesting read. Basically, we have a limit to how many people we can have a social relationship with and feel empathy for. It is estimated to be about 150, also known as Dunbar's number.

This seems like a logical way to keep us from going crazy as we hear about human tragedy around the world...more deaths in a third world country, wow, too bad. What's for dinner?

So does this sound right to anyone? And do people you get to know on an Internet forum count in your monkeysphere?

[Cold Warrior]

I've seen the 150 number before as well: discussed in The Tipping Point (wiki) (which I've read).

[subego]

Am I the only one who saw the title of the thread and thought "if you don't care about the monkeysphere, why are you starting a thread about it?"

[Chuckit]

Geez, that number is several times what I'd estimate for myself.

[Shaddim]

For me I'd say it's about 80, if that many.

[Tiresias]

For me it's just 1. Me.

[design219]

So you people saw that it's based on brain size, right?

[sek929]

Originally Posted by Shaddim 

For me I'd say it's about 80, if that many.

Same here, I doubt I can be bothered to care about any more than 80 people, in fact, that number seems a bit high too.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Geez, that number is several times what I'd estimate for myself.

Agreed.

[Uncle Skeleton]

I first read about it in The Tipping Point also, and I think it's pretty accurate for me. Of course, I also got the distinct impression it was the sort of self-fulfilling pseudo-insight of fortune cookies (the good ones), horoscopes (the bad ones) and airport novels (the tipping point).

Some people have jobs that require social groups hugely larger than 150, like sales reps or agents, and I highly doubt they have significantly larger neocorteces.

[design219]

This is an old thread, but man, the disaster in Haiti got me thinking about this again. There could be upwards of 500,000 dead, and I go on to work and have a normal day. I'm very sorry for the deaths, but shouldn't this sort of thing affect us more?

I've also started in facebook and noticed how this concept of monkeysphere sort of works there too. A few "friends" have many hundreds and even thousands of "friends." Could they possibly give a damn about that many "friends"? It must be more about them being seen than keeping up with so many other people.

[smacintush]

Originally Posted by design219 

This is an old thread, but man, the disaster in Haiti got me thinking about this again. There could be upwards of 500,000 dead, and I go on to work and have a normal day. I'm very sorry for the deaths, but shouldn't this sort of thing affect us more?

Why should it?

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by design219 

Could they possibly give a damn about that many "friends"?

Actually, yes, I think they do. They give a damn, not more, not less.

-t

[Doofy]

Concept sounds good. Number sounds a bit off.

With regard to the actual number, here's a nice little quote:

Man's tolerance to noise is in inverse proportion to his intelligence

Ever noticed how stupider people have more MySpace/Facebook buddies? That's because they can tolerate more social noise.

[Shaddim]

Originally Posted by design219 

This is an old thread, but man, the disaster in Haiti got me thinking about this again. There could be upwards of 500,000 dead, and I go on to work and have a normal day. I'm very sorry for the deaths, but shouldn't this sort of thing affect us more?

In contrast, my wife can't stop crying over it. She's a redhead, though, so she's more emotional than most.

[ort888]

If we stopped to really care about these things... as in... really really care... we would all go insane.

It's kind of like how no one really thinks about where their meat comes from, or doesn't care why they can get a t-shirt at Wal•mart for $4.

We have to disconnect... because life on planet earth is about misery and death... and our job is to distract ourselves enough from the suffering of others to try and enjoy ourselves a little but before it's our turn to die.

[design219]

Originally Posted by ort888 

...life on planet earth is about misery and death... and our job is to distract ourselves enough from the suffering of others to try and enjoy ourselves a little but before it's our turn to die.

I'm going to put that on a t-shirt.

[Doofy]

Originally Posted by ort888 

If we stopped to really care about these things... as in... really really care... we would all go insane.

It's kind of like how no one really thinks about where their meat comes from, or doesn't care why they can get a t-shirt at Wal•mart for $4.

We have to disconnect... because life on planet earth is about misery and death... and our job is to distract ourselves enough from the suffering of others to try and enjoy ourselves a little but before it's our turn to die.

There's a paradox, right there.

If our intrepid male continues to distract himself and try to find enjoyment, he finds a little.

If our intrepid male actually stops to think about things like this and lets it be known that he's doing so, he becomes inundated with tang, thus providing severe amounts of enjoyment.

Strange how that works, ain't it?

[smacintush]

Originally Posted by ort888 

…life on planet earth is about miserable people who only want to see misery and death... and our job is to distract ourselves enough from focusing only on the suffering of others to try and enjoy to notice all of the wonderful things about the world a little bit before it's our turn to die.

Fixed™