Even small cults are a serious cost on the world economy, to victims, their families, employers, friends, and credit-card companies.

I much prefer the modern world.

Trying to control information in the network age is about as successful as pissing into the wind.

People repeat behaviour that leads to flooding their brains with pleasurable chemicals. The short-term reward loop acts over hours to years, and the long-term reproductive success loop over generations.

Cults, or related social movements such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, result in massive military expenses.

Children do not have to learn that streets are dangerous places by potentially fatal trial and error.

Lie detection is like language; there is a learning window. Telling whoppers to small children seems to be a family tradition in many families.