A Glossary of Metadarwinism
Acceptance of Multiple Truths: A core practice of the Metadars which states that ‘Different people living in different realities have different truths that they hold sacred. As long as these truths are nonviolent, they must not be challenged and must be accepted as having a validity beneath their surface.’
B.B.Brice – Beans & Rice: A fat-free, salt-free restaurant/food cart franchise owned by Mendel Monastery and used to help finance their livelihoods and their Metadarian activities;
Blind Spot: An evolved capacity of the brain to block and distort reality so as to create the impression that a person has free will;
Bowling: The selfless act of doing something today that will help somebody else in the future;
Crazy Mirror: A Metadar technique used to extinguish someone’s behavior through embarrassment or shame by mimicking the behavior in a distorted or magnified way, making it appear worse than it normally is; (a variation of the Fountain-Flush);
Determinism: The understanding that behavior is determined by previous events and therefore could not have occurred differently.
Candelescence: The essence of a candle. After a candle has done its job, all that remains is the warmth and light it has given to others. The term is used by the monastic Metadars to mean: ‘working until there is nothing left – no name, no monuments, no wealth – only a better world’.
Ethics of Luck: The foundation of Metadarwinism; The understanding that in a determined world where everybody is equal and nobody has ultimate control over who they are or what they become, there are ethical limits to the amount of praise or punishment that may be exacted on those who exceed or fail in their lives.
Falling Dominoes Logo: A block image of three dominoes in the act of falling; the official trademark of the Metadars;
Fountain-Flush: One of the tools that the Metadars use to shape behavior in others. The attractive ‘Fountains’ model the behavior that is being promoted, while the repulsive ‘Flush’ models the behavior that is being extinguished. The Fountain-Flush is usually performed unannounced in front of as many people as possible.
Gamification: The tendency for people engaged in conflict to reduce their thinking by entering into ‘game mode’ where the only goal is to win.
Genocide Slide: A 4-step measuring stick for determining the severity of discrimination, with simple guidelines for responding appropriately;
Step 1: Grouping
Step 2: Negative Speech; Cooties
Step 3: Hate Speech; Dehumanization; Denial of Equal Opportunities
Step 4: Incitement; Physical Attacks
Goodify, Badify: To give something an aire of goodness, or to give something an aire of evil. The Metadars use these “engineering” terms when designing their Fountain-Flushes and their Bowling Ball Films.
Incompats: Short for ‘incompatible ideas’ or ‘incompatible memes’. A handy term used by those creating psychological antidotes to pathological ideas or memes.
Metadars: Science-minded pacifists who work to reduce violence and inequality in society; (the name is a shortened form of their abandoned original name ‘Metadarwinians’);
Metadar Vows: By definition, all Metadars have professed three pledges: the Vow of Nonviolence, the Vow of Acceptance of Multiple Truths, and a commitment to live by an Ethics of Luck.
Metadarwinism: The practice of the Metadars. Literally it means ‘beyond Darwinism’ and is given that name because Metadarwinism purposefully crosses the ‘is/ought divide’ of science; (see ‘Ethics of Luck’)
Vow of Acceptance: The ‘Vow of Acceptance of Multiple Truths’ is one of the three pledges that all Metadars take:
“I understand that different people living in different realities have different truths that they hold sacred. As long as these truths are nonviolent, I choose to respect these people by not challenging their truths and by accepting that their truths have a validity beneath the surface.”
Vow of Nonviolence: One of the three pledges that all Metadars take. The vow is a corollary to the Ethics of Luck. It contains three statements (the three D’s: Defuse, Defend, and Deglorify):
1. DEFUSE: “I understand that violence can be averted by communicating with the hurting parties and by working to meet their needs. I therefore vow to be the communicator and the worker.”
2. DEFEND: “I understand that nobody deserves violence. I therefore vow to nonviolently defend every target of violence.”
3. DEGLORIFY: “I understand that violence begets more violence. I therefore vow to deglorify and delegitimize every act of violence so that it won’t spawn or justify further violence.”