"Emergent Evil", and other shtuffs

I really, really thought my first project with PBS Frontline would be out this month. It's a Parable of the Polygons-esque explainer on the social psychology of terrorism. However, given the recent tragedy in Orlando, (on which I wrote some pissy, ill-advised reflections) that project's going through a re-write, and won't be out for a while.

So instead of that, I'll share the related work I've done in the last two months.

While reading the social-psych literature on terrorism, genocide, and other mass atrocities, I discovered something disturbing. The scientific consensus seems to be that the people who are capable of committing such horrific crimes, are mostly...

...normal.

Emergent Evil is a short essay I wrote, mixing complexity science with social issues, about an idea that's been brewing in my head ever since Parable of the Polygons – why, and how, do harmless people create harmful societies? How does "evil" emerge?

A Problem With Emergent Evil is my follow-up essay after that. It has a dark, personal story that I hadn't shared with anyone up until then. Y'see, because I thought "oh, everyone's a product of their society", I ended up forgiving a creepy, abusive person over and over and over, way past the point I should've left. (...sigh. I'm still processing all this.)

These two essays made up my talk at EyeO this year. I gave the opening keynote, whoo! And then immediately fell sick and missed most of the conference. Alas. Anyway, the video isn't up yet, but I'll also post it here once it is.

In that EyeO talk, I also showed off a sneak peek, of my upcoming explorable explanation on terrorism. I can't give you a preview link, sadly, but I can give you these screenshots! (of course, these will most likely change.)

Speaking of explorable explanations, I've gotten back to work on Improv.js! Last I shared it here, it was mostly a tool to allow end-user programming. I'm reworking it to be more general, kind of to be like Bret Victor's Tangle, but with more features. And my tool will be open source, of course!

Finally, (whoo this is a long Patreon post) I'll be writing a mega-essay on all the books & papers I've read about mass violence, from an "emergent evil" lens. The books I read were Becoming Evil (2007), The True Believer (1951), and The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011). This first mega-essay won't be interactive. But in the future, I'd love to make an explorable explanation on "emergent evil".

. . .

After my run-in with that creepy abusive person, emotionally processing the Orlando shooting, and reading academic books/papers on all the atrocities that human beings do... I've not been in a good place, mentally.

But it was my friends & coworkers who got me out of that creep's place. It was the LGBTQ community who donated tonnes of blood & money to the Orlando victims. And as The Better Angels of Our Nature showed, the long-term trend is that violence has been declining, worldwide, even if it doesn't feel like it.

So, when I say thank you for your support, financial and emotional, I really mean it. It means a lot to know that people care, and like the shtuff I do.

Thank you. <3

~ Nicky Case