
Out-of-Sync ‘Loners’ May Secretly Protect Orderly Swarms - pseudolus
https://www.quantamagazine.org/out-of-sync-loners-may-secretly-protect-orderly-swarms-20200521/
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nitrogen
I've always felt that the oddballs and outcasts among us are like the
sentinels or vanguards of society. They detect problems before the majority
and try to warn others. It's a painful and unappreciated role, exemplified by
one of the major alien characters in Greg Egan's book _Incandescence_.

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thrower123
Cranks on Twitter are a fantastic early warning system. You start to suspect
that people who actually do know things are behind the racist beagles or the
shitposting norse god avatars...

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krapp
> You start to suspect that people who actually do know things are behind the
> racist beagles or the shitposting norse god avatars...

Like the Machines from the Matrix who learned to exploit humanity's inherent
mistrust of the status quo and created Zion as a cattle-pen to draw
"enlightened" humans who rejected the system into and periodically slaughter,
the powers that be have discovered that no mind is easier to enslave than the
one that believes itself free.

So yes, people who do actually know things are behind a lot of that, but not
for the reasons you might think.

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pinopinopino
Interesting, but I wouldn't draw too much out of the matrix. The matrix is a
nice movie, but made in Hollywood. So it is also part of the establishment. If
I were you, you should also distrust its message.

Who says its goal was not to demoralize the rebel from taking action?

I think the shitposters of the 'anime right' feel we are living more and more
in a dystopian corporate crime ridden hellscape. They want to go back to their
youth or to a fictitious past. If you ask them what they want, a lot of them
wants a traditional family, a farm and a nice green patch around them. It are
modern day romantics in their core.

They fear what is coming next. And you remember perhaps what is said about
fear: "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to
hate. Hate leads to suffering."

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aSplash0fDerp
Just watched this documentary about two interesting ladies (twin savants).

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0yetxU1Ji4I](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0yetxU1Ji4I)

For people that are not blowing through emotional capital online (or offline),
we probably see something similar with exponential growth in other capacities
that individuals nurture instead.

Saying something is impossible just means you can`t do it personally.

Those two are amazing!

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SenHeng
Wow, it’s been so long since I’ve heard referring to someone(s) as retarded
without it being an insult.

> in some ways, they’re retarded. And in some ways, they’re geniuses.

\- some guy that looks like a researcher.

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dorkwood
I've always felt like a bit of an outsider. The idea that my disposition may
be a result of mother nature hedging her bets, in case the rest of the swarm
is taken down, is oddly comforting.

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theseagin
Really, really good read. Natures way of also looking into wacky solutions to
problems. She does not put all her eggs in one basket.

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booleandilemma
I can’t wait to project these slime molds’ behavior onto human psychology!

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reedwolf
Someone's gonna make a metaheuristic algorithm out of this insight. Probably
call it "Swarm Sentinel Search" or something.

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Reelin
It seems conceptually similar to the firefly (and closely related particle
swarm optimization) algorithm
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_algorithm](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_algorithm)).

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Konohamaru
Loners are the kingmakers of humanity: they completely lost the game, but are
able to decisively determine who will win. And kingmakers are the real winners
anyway because everyone is at their mercy.

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ryanwaggoner
Pretty confused by what you mean here. Could you give examples of how loners
decisively determine who wins the game? Or what the game even is?

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Fjolsvith
Lord Varys from Game of Thrones.

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ryanwaggoner
If a character from a fantasy series is the best example one can come up with,
I'm not sure how much one should rely on this construct as an accurate model
of the real world.

Additionally, Varys is not a "loner" in any sense. The core of his power is in
the powerful network of relationships he wields.

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zeckalpha
Tuning the
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window)

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mikhailfranco
Like the Sigma Male

the introvert side of alpha

perhaps INTJ/P type ...

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i_USBo4vBs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i_USBo4vBs)

[https://hackspirit.com/sigma-male-11-things-they-do-and-
how-...](https://hackspirit.com/sigma-male-11-things-they-do-and-how-you-can-
become-one-too/)

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clairity
people who generally speak up for doing the right (pro-social) thing, even in
the face of gain from doing the wrong (anti-social) thing, or even just
letting others slide by doing wrong things, are such out-of-sync 'loners' who
are a form of bet hedging against social collapse.

it doesn't need to be many of us, but some of us have to pay the social cost
of keeping sociopathic behavior in check. it's often thankless and ostracizing
(whistleblowers, for instance), and why we often give those folks titles like
'hero', to provide some measure of social compensation most of us aren't
willing to take on.

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CameronNemo
>But previous work in game theory has shown that when individuals can “opt
out” of a collective activity for a few rounds, it can help maintain
cooperation and diversity in a population and protect the group against
parasitic individuals.

Would love to know what research they are referring to here. Sounds
fascinating.

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lookdangerous
It’s a noble function...

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darkerside
That must be performed periodically...

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corporateslave5
Please don’t turn this website into reddit

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Forge36
I've heard puns are the ultimate form of humor. I'll let this one slide

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fit2rule
Let us not incur dang's infinite wrath.

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magicsmoke
Sounds like the gay uncle hypothesis.

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gojomo
Sheepdogs & sheep herds?

