1/ THREAD: Emotional Intelligence Nuance: A crucial indicator of a person's over-all empathy level is the degree to which they will sacrifice and feel for others who they don't know. 
2/ Most everyone will show more emotion and do more for people who they know compared with people they've never met or who they don't know very well.
3/ The frequency and depth to which we routinely put ourselves in another's shoes (and hopefully take action) is a measure of our empathy.
4/ However, if you cry often for people you've not met (and probably never will meet) and frequently laugh *with* (but refrain from laughing *at*) people you don't know — your empathy quotient is higher than average.
5/ This is related to the phenomenon of 'Object Permanence'. Object permanence is the developmental psychology concept that people and objects continue to exist even when they cannot be perceived (seen, heard, smelled, touched, or sensed in any way).
6/ It's somewhat debatable when exactly a healthy child will develop object permanence (3 months old to approximately 2 years).
7/ Empathy, however, can be thought of as an extension of object permanence — in that some older children, teens, and adults will only feel empathy for those who are close to them in time, space, or relation.
8/ This is in strong contrast to others who feel empathy for people who are not family, who live thousands of miles away — and even for those who died many years in the past (Do you cry for holocaust victims?).
9/ If 10,000 people die in a flood in Pakistan, Americans barely blink — but they'll respond much more if Canadians have drowned.
10/ Overlaid upon this phenomenon are influences of ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, etc. Given average empathy levels, people will sacrifice deeper & shed more tears for those w/ the same skin color, custom of worship, & political ideology versus those who are different.
11/ If you only have 'empathy' for people who are in your group/tribe/same color skin/same religion/same country - you can stop deluding yourself. That's not empathy - it's just an extension of your ego.
12/ When predicting most human behavior, this extended ego/blunted empathy pattern holds. And while humans shouldn't be this way nearly as much — sadly, they are.
13/ As we merge further with AI and one day receive our Neuralink implants (it's not an 'If?', but a 'When?'), we must also substantially increase our empathy.
14/ For if humanity is to survive, it will be because we upregulate our empathy. And if humanity comes to an end, it will be because our empathy decays and fails.
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