Some day, probably sooner than you think, someone will figure out (with the aid of experimental cognitive psychology and advanced computer modeling) what charisma is and learn how to custom-tune their behavioral outputs to be super-charismatic to a given target audience. Custom-tuning the outputs alone would likely require some advanced form of brain self-control, perhaps possible with the assistance of brain-computer interfacing. A very good actor wouldn’t be enough because they’d actually need knowledge, spontaneity, and genuineness.

When we have a “grand unified theory of charima” we’ll be able to figure out roughly how charismatic certain historical figures were relative to their reference audiences. Cognitive psychology has already borne out that we empathize with certain faces, like that of Ronald Reagan’s, whether we like him or not. He smiles, we feel slightly happier. He’s angry, we feel a little ticked. The first major internet meme of 2009, boxxy, also demonstrates how certain faces induce strong empathic effects.

I like to call such fascinating investigations “techno-philosophy”.