Does writing about culture tend to change or accelerate culture?
This would be like if studying physics could change the laws as a result (and now you have to study those new laws of physics). The more you learn the rules of the game, the more the rules change https://x.com/DefenderOfBasic/status/1776442773891121448
James says “the observer effect applies in social science AND physics”. I want to take this further: can we study things in the ways we want them to change?
Like debugging a system, but changing it to make it easier to debug. It is no longer just an objective scientist studying a system without changing it. it is in not possible. it is not possible for collective sentience to study itself without affecting itself
but it is ok. you don’t have to fully understand it, really. You can change it in predictable ways. Just like a mind does when focuses attention on itself.
I think this is where science & religion meet.