wikimedia commons: Iracaz ( talk ). Original uploader was Iracaz at en.wikipedia In the March 2012 Wired, an article on the Jerusalem syndrome, the religion-related psychosis associated with visits to Jerusalem ( "The God Complex" ). The article doesn't really develop any new angles on this culture-bound syndrome, but its appearance in Wired is important. My thought: while we may never travel to Jerusalem, our future will be the Jerusalem Syndrome. Now that we have crossed the tipping point of urbanization (over 50% of the world's population as of 2007), all of us have an opportunity to be overwhelmed and enraptured by our urban lives: the Baltimore syndrome. Generally speaking, discussions of the Jerusalem syndrome devolve into a discussion of religion, psychology and (more recently) neuroscience. That's certainly the case with the Wired essay (it's the limbic system!), but there are several interesting asides here, especially those moments tha...
Occasional posts on anthropologically interesting science fiction, anthropological futures and my own future as an anthropologist.