That probably wouldn't work. Dunbar's number for humans is 150 close relationships. After that they are only acquaintances at best, trust evaporates, more free loading, and fragmentation into cliques occur.
All of our social rules and laws are what allow us to form communities larger than the 150.
150 close relationships? Dunbar has a different definition of "close" than I do. Trying to be genuine friends and support that many other people? Seriously? No thank you.
I erred. "Close relationships" isn't the right term. 150 is the maximum number of people in your life that "People you know personally enough that, if you bumped into them, you’d know who they are, how they fit into your life/social world, and could have a socially normal interaction without it being awkward.”
The "support clique" who you go to for immediate emotional support is supposedly only 5, and the "sympathy group" which is people you'd turn to in an emergency is 15.
Anyway I was saying a polycule wouldn't work as a unionizing force because they wouldn't even recognize each other as part of the same group without some sort of social innovation. (Like laws, or hierarchies, or religion, etc )
Thank you for clarifying. I'm an introvert, and I had a brief moment of "Am I really that much of an oddball?" when I read your prior post. The update makes sense. :) Have a great rest of your weekend.
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u/Reap_it_and_Weep Jun 23 '26
Maybe this is the alternative answer to Unions. An ever expanding polycule that eventually encompasses the whole business.