ExXception Draft
Cognitive dissonance is a discomfort caused by holding conflicting cognitions (e.g., ideas, beliefs, values, emotional reactions) simultaneously. In a state of dissonance, people may feel surprise, dread, guilt, anger, or embarrassment.[1] The theory of cognitive dissonance in social psychology proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by altering existing cognitions, adding new ones to create a consistent belief system, or alternatively by reducing the importance of any one of the dissonant elements.[1] An example of this would be the conflict between wanting to smoke and knowing that smoking is unhealthy; a person may try to change their feelings about the odds that they will actually suffer the consequences, or they might add the consonant element that the smoking is worth short term benefits. A general view of cognitive dissonance is when one is biased towards a certain decision even though other factors favour an alternative.
The phrase was coined by Leon Festinger in his 1956 book When Prophecy Fails, which chronicled the followers of a UFO cult as reality clashed with their fervent belief in an impending apocalypse.[3][4] Cognitive dissonance is one of the most influential and extensively studied theories in social psychology. Cognitive disequilibrium is a closely related concept in the cognitive developmental theory of Jean Piaget: the inevitable conflicts a child experiences between current beliefs and new information will lead to disequilibrium, which in turn motivates the child’s progress through the various stages of development.
Cognitive dissonance theory warns that people have a bias to seek consonance among their cognitions. According to Festinger, we engage in a process he termed “dissonance reduction”, which he said could be achieved in one of three ways: lowering the importance of one of the discordant factors, adding consonant elements, or changing one of the dissonant factors. [5] This bias gives the theory its predictive power, shedding light on otherwise puzzling irrational and even destructive behavior. But it doesn’t tell us if the ufo behind the comet Hale-Bopp was picking up travellers and just forgot to ‘spade under’ the earth on its way, because it was in a hurry, because of trouble with the comet’s tail, or what.
The future has me smitten
(via bulletproof2k)
Book- free to read online. Over 150 pages.
One psychological defense mechanism against danger is to forget about it. This attitude is as common as it is disastrous. It may turn a limited danger into a fatal difficulty.
The last and most important reason is that the world has become thoroughly interdependent and the time has come for the positive use of this interdependence. International cooperation is obviously difficult. It lacks any tradition. It is best started by modest activities that are obviously in everyone’s interest. War-prevention by defense seems to be a good candidate for such cooperation. This would be particularly true if the effort would be both modest and effective. This book is an excellent example of an international initiative that with a minimal effort could have a maximal beneficial effect. It describes simple procedures of individual defensive measures which should be used in many areas of danger including those where it is wrongly believed that defense is impossible. It can be used in advanced countries and in countries at an early stage of development. Electronics makes the book available throughout the world.
This book will not satisfy the demands of those who are interested only in final solutions. Indeed, I do not believe that final solutions exist. The more important and difficult a problem is the more it becomes evident that the answer lies in a careful development consisting of small steps. This book prepares us, throughout the world, for one of the small steps that must be taken if the twenty-first century is to escape the curse of war.
(via industrialpunk)
The (arguably) most disturbing part of the Fallout universe: Vaults.
Here are just a few of the super fun social experiments designed by the government for the post-apocalypse survivors!
Vault 11:
First seen in Fallout: New Vegas. Vault 11 dwellers were told to sacrifice one of their own each year or the entire vault population would be killed by the vault computer system. If they refused, the vault door would open and an automated recording telling them they were paragons of society would play. Unfortunately, Vault 11’s residents did not refuse. By the time the player encounters Vault 11 everyone is dead by sacrificial chamber, coup, or in the case of the single (assumed) survivor, time.Vault 12:
Fallout. Vault 12 was an experiment to see the effects of radiation on a population. This resulted in a city of ghouls, Necropolis.Vault 13:
Fallout. Designed to stay closed for 200 years, Vault 13 was a study of isolation. This was the home of the Vault Dweller.Vault 15:
Fallout. Filled over maximum capacity, and with groups with radically different ideologies, Vault 15 resulted in a mass exodus. Three of the groups that left founded the Khans, the Vipers, and the Jackals, all raiders. The fourth group went to found Shady Sands (the capital of the NCR).Vault 27:
Fallout Bible only. This vault was overcrowded- maximum capacity of a vault is 1000. Vault 27 had 2000 occupants.Vault 29:
Fallout Bible/Van Buren (also mentioned as 31). Vault 29’s residents were all under the age of 15. Instead of a human adult overseer, the vault was led by a ZAX super-computer. The computer was taken over by Diana (a human), by linking her brain to it, thereby allowing the children to be raised by humans- albeit by proxy.Vault 68/69:
Fallout Bible. One thousand occupants, 999 men and one woman (68)/999 women and one man (69).Vault 92:
Fallout 3. Led to believe Vault 92 was a haven for elite musicians, vault occupants were exposed to white noise and subliminal messages meant to create super soldiers. At least half of the vault’s residents became crazed and violent, possibly killing the other half of the vault (frag mines can be seen placed in an attempt to stave off the violent vault dwellers).-
and then you have the non-canon (i.e. Tactics, BoS) vaults, like Vault 0 (meant to keep US pre-war genius in cryogenic stasis), and the Secret Vault meant to protect important members of Vault-tec, and you see that the vaults aren’t meant to protect humanity at all, rather, they’re meant to test the presumably doomed residents with terrifying social experiments designed by the US government- who built their own bunkers and vaults to keep them safe.True, the divergent Fallout future is characterized by paranoia and fear (of communism!), but is our own world really that different? I don’t know… I think I’d rather take my chances in the wastes. Of course, we’ve all seen how well that works out for people.
Can’t leave out Vault 112, the best of the bunch! It was basically an excuse for one man to mentally torture a bunch of people for the rest of eternity, all while they were completely unaware there was even anything wrong until they were already dead and being resurrected for more “fun.” Image having that as your fate.
I’d rather be the one woman in vault 68.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Vault 101 used to test the effects of incest over time?
Lol, that would be ALL the vaults with the incest idea. 101 had to deal with a dictatorship and were told they could never leave or they’d die to the environment. aside from that, I want to make a 68 cosplay suit ;DVault 101 was all about blindly believing the overseer (all hail the overseer) and about making a better genetic generation ( i think you can discuss that with the overseer when you return to vault 101)
(via velvetcyberpunk)
Surely SOPA will only censor things in our own interest…
like that law they passed which made it illegal to post obscene images in certain states…
Technology, our mother… and our oedipal impulse to fuck ourselves…
Which leads us gouging our own eyes out..
Is also the impulse to fight against our dear leaders, when they draft laws to destroy us all…
In the name of freedom…
In which we end up eating the flag to show how much we love the world…
But who are these assholes who are trying to run the world?
