A Sociological Craving for Normality

KMO welcomes Nikki Olson and Nikola Danaylov back to the C-Realm to talk about technology and rationality. Nikola responds to a C-Realm listener’s comments about the diminishing returns of technology, and Nikki explains why she thinks calling a technological development like the iPhone a “mini singularity” is like calling a gentle breeze a “mini hurricane.” In the second half of the program, the conversation turns to the normality bias. Nikola says that we’re all lazy by nature and that in a constantly changing environment we must remain adaptable or perish. KMO ends the episode with a rant about how NPR presents vicious propaganda and pseudoscience under the genteel aegis of informed medical opinion.

Music by The Transpersonals.

Gerard  Sanacora, PhD, MD Professor of Psychiatry; Director, Yale Depression Research Program can be reached via email at gerard.sanacora@yale.edu