03.27.09

Do Cats Dream?

Posted in Biology, Ideas at 10:27 am by Michael

Partition two areas. Allow cats to sleep in either, but wake the cats who sleep in one of the areas midway through sleep. Also partition the cats into two groups: a group that is woken during REM sleep and a group that is woken during non-REM sleep.

As time passes, observe avoidance behaviors. If the cats woken during REM sleep more readily avoid the area in which they are awoken, then it is likely that not only are the cats dreaming, but that these dreams serve a training function.

03.21.09

To take the "communities behave like packs" idea a bit further…

Posted in Sociology at 11:06 am by Michael

There are two special social standings within a wolf pack: alpha and omega. Alpha wolves determine the course that the pack takes and maintain their status primarily by psychological and physical intimidation (but rarely actual force). Omegas, by contrast, are the pawns: the lowest-ranking wolves in the pack. They receive a great deal of aggression from the other wolves. When resources are scarce, they have the lowest priority on feeding (this is significant because feeding is otherwise rather egalitarian within the pack). Sometimes they are shunned or even driven out of the pack.

Here’s where it becomes interesting, though: the omegas that are driven out of the pack may establish new packs of their own, establishing themselves as the new alphas – the pawns can be promoted.

As it is with wolves, so it is with humans. In communal settings, such as schools and workplaces, there is at least one individual who is singled out to be the “omega”. Some individuals are naturally popular and charismatic; these are the individuals at the opposite end of the spectrum. People may be uncomfortable around them, and may ostracize, shun, or behave aggressively towards them. Some omegas will learn to live in this station. Others, however, will detach themselves from the community entirely and begin to build a new one.

This is an integral and powerful component of disruptive leadership. The existing “alphas” are firmly entrenched in the existing social systems; those that they develop have a high probability of perpetuating only incremental improvements to it at best. Omegas, on the other hand, have garnered an active dislike of the system that has excluded them, and will design their systems on a new ideal, and very likely a highly original (individualistic) one.

03.04.09

Almost done.

Posted in Personal, Research at 11:14 pm by Michael

15 pages left to go in my dissertation. I may be able to finish the first draft within the week…

"Seed Users"

Posted in Sociology at 10:04 pm by Michael

When growing a community on a social networking site such as Facebook, I’ve noticed that the majority of users perform little recruiting. There are, however, a small number of users who contribute greatly to the overall population of the group, and these users form the hubs around which the group eventually grows.