Nice post - heard of this magical 150 number before. No wonder big cities like London can feel a tad unfriendly and overwhelming. I just subscribed for more insights.
Overwhelmed is the best word to describe the mental weight of urbanization. City structure is important too here. Cities with semi-independent neighborhoods might feel less overwhelming and it wouldn't surprise me that these neighborhoods 'feel' best at a couple hundred residents.
This is an important article because it gives us a missing piece of the puzzle of why civilizations collapse. Professor Dunbar has given us the most stable group number or congregation possible conducive to harmonious living and sharing. Yet we live on a planet of 8 billion. This is like saying the most stable form of uranium is 238, but what if we add a proton or minus a neutron-what then? The great mystery of the Bronze Age collapse is just that-it happened suddenly. Was the collapse due to Dunbar’s numbers and by adding language we also add the ability to increase that number dramatically, and by adding diversity, we increase that number much further, until we hit a tipping point called the “babbel capacity” beyond which the entire cultural enterprise collapses. What influences the babbel capacity? Diversity, tolerance, free trade and skill set training, religious freedom and much more. Underneath Dunbar’s number is the zeitgeist that supports the cognitive heuristic that took us out of the jungle and forged our cultural enterprise.
"The cognitive heuristic that took us out of the jungle and forged our cultural enterprise." I like that framing, Geoffrey!
The good thing about a heuristic is that, once we're aware of it, we can dismantle it. (Not to mention that Dunbar's number is pretty handwavy with big error bars.) As Jeremy mentioned in another comment, we're part of several, often nested social groups, which makes me think it's not so much about the absolute number of people, but rather the social organization of them.
The evolutionary psychology of crayons; I like it.
Also, this is wonderful: "I recently came across a study that said when two people look up a hill, they each don’t think it’s as steep as when looking alone."
Nice post - heard of this magical 150 number before. No wonder big cities like London can feel a tad unfriendly and overwhelming. I just subscribed for more insights.
Thanks, JFT, and welcome!
Overwhelmed is the best word to describe the mental weight of urbanization. City structure is important too here. Cities with semi-independent neighborhoods might feel less overwhelming and it wouldn't surprise me that these neighborhoods 'feel' best at a couple hundred residents.
This is an important article because it gives us a missing piece of the puzzle of why civilizations collapse. Professor Dunbar has given us the most stable group number or congregation possible conducive to harmonious living and sharing. Yet we live on a planet of 8 billion. This is like saying the most stable form of uranium is 238, but what if we add a proton or minus a neutron-what then? The great mystery of the Bronze Age collapse is just that-it happened suddenly. Was the collapse due to Dunbar’s numbers and by adding language we also add the ability to increase that number dramatically, and by adding diversity, we increase that number much further, until we hit a tipping point called the “babbel capacity” beyond which the entire cultural enterprise collapses. What influences the babbel capacity? Diversity, tolerance, free trade and skill set training, religious freedom and much more. Underneath Dunbar’s number is the zeitgeist that supports the cognitive heuristic that took us out of the jungle and forged our cultural enterprise.
"The cognitive heuristic that took us out of the jungle and forged our cultural enterprise." I like that framing, Geoffrey!
The good thing about a heuristic is that, once we're aware of it, we can dismantle it. (Not to mention that Dunbar's number is pretty handwavy with big error bars.) As Jeremy mentioned in another comment, we're part of several, often nested social groups, which makes me think it's not so much about the absolute number of people, but rather the social organization of them.
There are numbers below Dunbar’s 150 that he also discovered. Interested enough, they align almost exactly with boxes of crayons. https://kathekon.substack.com/p/on-crayola-friends
The evolutionary psychology of crayons; I like it.
Also, this is wonderful: "I recently came across a study that said when two people look up a hill, they each don’t think it’s as steep as when looking alone."
Thanks! Yes, I can’t recall where I read it. But there’s truth in it even if it doesn’t exist.