‘Social contagion’ here being a metonym for all environmental factors, I think… For example, face-swapping apps: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-lucy-sante-became-the-person-she-feared This is an environmental effect which basically could not have existed until about 10 years ago at best. (What were you going to do in 2014, when face-swapping ML didn’t exist? Hunt down a surviving oil portrait artist and pay them hundreds or thousands of dollars to paint you as if you were a woman, for no particular reason you’re willing to admit to consciously?)
‘Social contagion’ here being a metonym for all environmental factors, I think… For example, face-swapping apps: https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/how-lucy-sante-became-the-person-she-feared This is an environmental effect which basically could not have existed until about 10 years ago at best. (What were you going to do in 2014, when face-swapping ML didn’t exist? Hunt down a surviving oil portrait artist and pay them hundreds or thousands of dollars to paint you as if you were a woman, for no particular reason you’re willing to admit to consciously?)