31. Social Immunological Systems

There are two principal ways that a model can be selected against: it can be largely ignored or it can be attacked. If a model is ignored, it goes extinct through being infertile: it leaves no descendants. If a model is attacked, it goes extinct through being killed off. If a model is ignored, it is regarded as being inconsistent with models about which users are more certain, but as being no threat to those models. If a model is attacked, it is perceived as being both inconsistent with, and a threat to, those models used with more certainty. Such attacks can be understood as (social-semiotic) immune responses by the community organised by the models perceived to be under threat, as will be explained below.

ChatGPT revised:

There are two principal ways that a model can be selected against: it can be largely ignored, or it can be attacked. If ignored, a model goes extinct through infertility: it leaves no descendants. If attacked, it goes extinct through violence: it is actively killed off.

When a model is ignored, it is perceived as ideationally inconsistent with other models about which users are more certain, but it is not seen as a threat to those models. When a model is attacked, by contrast, it is perceived as not only ideationally inconsistent, but also as threatening to the stability of more certain models.

Such attacks can be understood as social-semiotic immune responses — reactions by a community organised around the defence of the models perceived to be under threat. These immune responses, and their mechanisms, will be explored further below.