Value Replicators: The Values That Spread vs. The Values That Work

Values do not merely sit inside human minds waiting to be chosen. They replicate. They compete for hosts, defend themselves against critique, and win by transmissibility: low cognitive load, emotional arousal, identity fusion, present rewards, and social punishment of defectors. But the values that spread best are not necessarily the values that help a civilization persist. This episode synthesizes the value-replicator essays: viral values, democratic preference aggregation, immune systems, egregores, containment patterns, and the physics-based test for whether a value configuration builds or consumes its host.Values Are ReplicatorsValues Aren't SubjectiveSurviving is Fundamental, Values Are EcologyWhat "Vote on Values" Actually Does