Modified from the book Big Science, by Nick Downes
(click to enlarge)
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Trust in a Bottle
By Lawrence G. Downing
Under the headline “Researchers Find Trust to Be a Hormonal Affair,” Los Angeles Times staff writer Robert Lee Hotz (June 2, 2005, A18) reports that a team of researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and Claremont Graduate University in California have recently discovered that trust can be artificially generated by a nasal spry containing oxytocin, a hormone which, the article proclaims, evolved a hundred million years ago to aid mating among fish and breast-feeding among mammals. Oxytocin, the scientists found, also promotes trust between human beings.
Hotz quotes Paul J. Zak, director of Claremont’s Center of Neuroeconomics Studies and an author of the research paper, “’If I increase your level of oxytocin, I can induce you to overcome your anxiety in trusting a stranger. It is a [biochemical] signal we induce unknowingly all the time by looking people in the eye or shaking someone by the hand.”
The implications of this finding boggle the mind. Spritz a whiff of the magic hormone into a reluctant investor’s snout, Viola, a life-long buddy who will sign on the dotted line! Put mist of oxytocin in a politician’s hands and the sky’s the limit! Consider the unprecedented opportunity this finding has for the evangelist world! The possibilities are limited only by the number of imaginative delivery methods.
One or two obstacles remain before oxtyocin can be applied on a mass scale. Because the hormone is broken down in the stomach, reports the article, its effects are relatively short and must be administered by inhalation or injection. A thick fog of oxytocin will do the trick, says economist Ernst Fehr in Zurich. It is only a matter of time until a forward-thinking numbers-driven cleric learns to adopt an effective delivery system to his/her bag of manipulative paraphernalia, all under the guise of advancing the Work.
Humor aside, the ethical associated with oxytocin are significant. Unanswered in the article is whether certain individuals inherently have higher levels of the hormone than others. Does it follow that those who naturally evidence higher oxytocin concentrations in the blood stream are more trusting and hence more prone to accept religion than those with lower levels? Should religious professionals seek to establish an ideal oxytocin level and administer appropriate doses to maintain those levels?
Consider the possibilities that await the enterprising entrepreneur whose vision is cast to capitalize on oxytocin’s powers to promote immediate and lasting trust. Think of the potential that awaits the pastorpreneur who files a Religious 501 C 3 and becomes the founder of the “Trust Now True Believer’s Church.” We can only imagine the slogans: Let us Spay! Spray and Believe. It’s Only a Spray Away.
Under the headline “Researchers Find Trust to Be a Hormonal Affair,” Los Angeles Times staff writer Robert Lee Hotz (June 2, 2005, A18) reports that a team of researchers at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and Claremont Graduate University in California have recently discovered that trust can be artificially generated by a nasal spry containing oxytocin, a hormone which, the article proclaims, evolved a hundred million years ago to aid mating among fish and breast-feeding among mammals. Oxytocin, the scientists found, also promotes trust between human beings.
Hotz quotes Paul J. Zak, director of Claremont’s Center of Neuroeconomics Studies and an author of the research paper, “’If I increase your level of oxytocin, I can induce you to overcome your anxiety in trusting a stranger. It is a [biochemical] signal we induce unknowingly all the time by looking people in the eye or shaking someone by the hand.”
The implications of this finding boggle the mind. Spritz a whiff of the magic hormone into a reluctant investor’s snout, Viola, a life-long buddy who will sign on the dotted line! Put mist of oxytocin in a politician’s hands and the sky’s the limit! Consider the unprecedented opportunity this finding has for the evangelist world! The possibilities are limited only by the number of imaginative delivery methods.
One or two obstacles remain before oxtyocin can be applied on a mass scale. Because the hormone is broken down in the stomach, reports the article, its effects are relatively short and must be administered by inhalation or injection. A thick fog of oxytocin will do the trick, says economist Ernst Fehr in Zurich. It is only a matter of time until a forward-thinking numbers-driven cleric learns to adopt an effective delivery system to his/her bag of manipulative paraphernalia, all under the guise of advancing the Work.
Humor aside, the ethical associated with oxytocin are significant. Unanswered in the article is whether certain individuals inherently have higher levels of the hormone than others. Does it follow that those who naturally evidence higher oxytocin concentrations in the blood stream are more trusting and hence more prone to accept religion than those with lower levels? Should religious professionals seek to establish an ideal oxytocin level and administer appropriate doses to maintain those levels?
Consider the possibilities that await the enterprising entrepreneur whose vision is cast to capitalize on oxytocin’s powers to promote immediate and lasting trust. Think of the potential that awaits the pastorpreneur who files a Religious 501 C 3 and becomes the founder of the “Trust Now True Believer’s Church.” We can only imagine the slogans: Let us Spay! Spray and Believe. It’s Only a Spray Away.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
Reviewing the Review
October 18, 2007
Vol. 184, No.29
I wish I could recommend this issue in its totality. In many ways it’s great: its articles are thought provoking, intellectually and emotionally honest, and beautifully edited.
I can’t make that recommendation for two important reasons. While the cover is eye-catching, graphically excellent, and even daring, it is a misleading advertisement for the outstanding, groundbreaking feature article. I can only guess that the words “From Itself” and the subtitle, “How Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer may have led it astray” were a sop to reactionary readers who won’t be happy with the cover and the article anyway!
The cover should have proclaimed, “Saving a Seinfeld Generation”. Those words would have properly introduced the excellent piece by Shawn Brace. If I were he, I would be very upset!
The second reason I can’t make a blanket endorsement of this edition of the Review is “Kids View”. I’m sure it was a well-intentioned attempt to reassure kids about “The Impending Time of Trouble”, but it simply reinforces the fear that it is intended to relieve. Read the words of the kids that were interviewed. The following is just one example.
Noelle: “Sometimes knowing that He’s with us isn’t always enough because you can’t see Him. So it’s still kind of scary. It’s not like it still can’t happen because it will.”
In addition, this kind of “Final Days Fright” undermines the credibility of the Church. While it is my sincere hope that Christ’s return is eminent, this subject is, at best, tangential to the Gospel message, and at worst, a shameless scare tactic! This “talk” scared and scarred my five-year-old mother to back in 1905! Wilona Karimabadi, what were you thinking? Editors, isn't there a child psychologists on your payroll?
As I said previously, everything else, every editorial, article, book review, bit of medical information, and devotional expression of faith made me proud to be an Adventist. I was particularly moved by what our Church is doing in Mozambique as it works with the government and other religious groups to fight malaria and to drill a well in every village. “Kids View” editors, take note.
Vol. 184, No.29
I wish I could recommend this issue in its totality. In many ways it’s great: its articles are thought provoking, intellectually and emotionally honest, and beautifully edited.
I can’t make that recommendation for two important reasons. While the cover is eye-catching, graphically excellent, and even daring, it is a misleading advertisement for the outstanding, groundbreaking feature article. I can only guess that the words “From Itself” and the subtitle, “How Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer may have led it astray” were a sop to reactionary readers who won’t be happy with the cover and the article anyway!
The cover should have proclaimed, “Saving a Seinfeld Generation”. Those words would have properly introduced the excellent piece by Shawn Brace. If I were he, I would be very upset!
The second reason I can’t make a blanket endorsement of this edition of the Review is “Kids View”. I’m sure it was a well-intentioned attempt to reassure kids about “The Impending Time of Trouble”, but it simply reinforces the fear that it is intended to relieve. Read the words of the kids that were interviewed. The following is just one example.
Noelle: “Sometimes knowing that He’s with us isn’t always enough because you can’t see Him. So it’s still kind of scary. It’s not like it still can’t happen because it will.”
In addition, this kind of “Final Days Fright” undermines the credibility of the Church. While it is my sincere hope that Christ’s return is eminent, this subject is, at best, tangential to the Gospel message, and at worst, a shameless scare tactic! This “talk” scared and scarred my five-year-old mother to back in 1905! Wilona Karimabadi, what were you thinking? Editors, isn't there a child psychologists on your payroll?
As I said previously, everything else, every editorial, article, book review, bit of medical information, and devotional expression of faith made me proud to be an Adventist. I was particularly moved by what our Church is doing in Mozambique as it works with the government and other religious groups to fight malaria and to drill a well in every village. “Kids View” editors, take note.
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