empathic failures

[noteris]

i've often been struck by the point raised in "Why Geeks will save the earth" ( via dr bunsen) - see for example one of my first posts here.

Comments

[moomlyn]

I don't think that the environmental movement is as free from the curse of charismatic leaders as that second article would like ot suggest.

[drbunsen]

The answer lies in the psychology of numeracy - how we understand numbers. / geeks are incredibly good at thinking concretely about giant numbers / because their jobs demand it.

/ We tend to think that the way to address disease and death is to have more empathy. But maybe that's precisely wrong. / What we need are more / people with / ability to understand what a million means.

I think you've misread the article.

I don't read it as claiming that geeks are more able to empathize with "huge" numbers of victims. Instead the inference is clear (false though it may be) that defective empathy combined with an ability to process large numbers may allow them to take the necessary "cold", "calculating". "dispassionate" action of which you speak.

Even a highly rational person with poor people skills can arrive at a moral philosophy of the greater good from purely intellectual reasoning ( :P )

. We look at the huge numbers and go numb. Gates looks at them and runs the moral algorithm: Preventable death = bad; preventable death x 1 million

[drbunsen]

Although admittedly I have only briefly skimmed the linked article about the research.

[noteris]

1. My understanding of what the Wired article was saying is the same as yours - that the phenomena is due to numerical comprehension rather than empathy. The focus of my sentence about it was meant to be on their reference to Asberger's which suggests a lack of empathy but my wording may have been clumsy

[drbunsen]

7. At leat with my account at the City Library, you can access journals at home through the library's website.