The Problem with Online Social Networking

Give humanity anonymity and see the true potential of its depravity.

— Xenocrates

We are repeatedly trying to simulate human behaviour online, with dramatic results.

Social networking has changed humanity forever. I began to realize this when I discovered a frightening trend in the news about how kids were killing themselves over things done online. Why would someone do that? I thought. That is when I decided to embark upon an ambitious social experiment two years ago to see the true depth of how social networking has changed the human animal. This post documents my findings in grave detail. Note well: you may find the contents of this post either deeply upsetting or deeply disturbing. You have been warned.

Read more…

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■ E-mail: accordingtoxen[at]gmail[dot]com

Contemplating Suicide (1 of 2)

There is a certain amount of cowardice that is indistinguishable from madness.

— Xenocrates

Suicide, from a concatenation of the Latin words sui (self) and caedere (to kill) is perhaps the most tragic form of death known to man, largely because it’s performed by one’s own hands. When someone takes their own life, there are powerful psychological processes at play as it involves denying our natural instinct to survive. So how could anyone override that instinct?

The Science of Beauty

“While beauty may be skin deep, ‘pretty’ is still a very compelling argument.”

– Xenocrates

What is beauty? How do we know when someone is beautiful? Is it really in the eyes of the beholder? Is it specific to individual preference? Is beauty something that is culturally indigenous? Is one race naturally more beautiful than another? Are beautiful people better than the rest of us? Are beautiful people naturally shallow? These are all valid questions that most people tend to make incorrect assumptions about. The answers may surprise you (as they did me). As it turns out, a lot of what is commonly associated with beauty is largely based on bias and a lack of understanding of the factors that make someone beautiful. In this post, I explore all of these in great detail. So whether you’re beautiful or aesthetically challenged, you may find this post of great interest.

Useless DNA

“Modern civilization has rendered much of our genetic code obsolete.”

– Xenocrates

I'm pretty sure Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979) was inspired by this surgery...

Have you ever considered that you can save yourself the pain of appendicitis by simply having your appendix removed before it ever occurs? The only problem is that appendicitis is not an illness that would necessarily occur in everyone and so most people would be paying for surgery they do not absolutely need. The appendix is one of many genetically predicated aspects of our being that has been rendered outdated by evolution – yet we are all still being born with one. Currently, the appendix serves no useful purpose. But if it becomes inflamed, it can incite septicemia which almost always leads to death. In this post, I examine four notable psychological characteristics we still have that we no longer need. Their continued presence causes a great more harm than good. However, unlike an appendix, these destructive psychological propensities cannot be removed so easily as they are all hard wired into the brain by now useless genetic code. Why do we still possess these useless characteristics? I suspect that the only reason why we even notice them is because we are on the brink of the next phase of human evolution.

Damaged Goods

“Good girls are loved by the bad boys whom they seek as much as a moth is embraced by the flame to which it flies.”

– Xenocrates

This goes out to all the women out there chasing after bad boys:

One of single most profound things that I’ve discovered about women is the amazingly shallow perceptive capability that many of them are naturally born with by default.

Most women do not develop highly perceptive cognition with respect to the opposite sex until their late twenties. This I’ve found is largely as a result of how women think.

I have always found it strange how women seem to become irresistibly magnetized to men who are conspicuously bad for them. This is especially true for young women.

While pondering the cause of this rather perplexing puzzle, I recalled the works of the father of psychology, Sigmund Freud. He offers a series of intriguing clues that culminated in the obvious solution for this frustrating problem among women.