Mentatul

Tag: mind

  • Ignorance as Mental Defense

    Ignorance as Mental Defense

    It is said that „ignorance is bliss”. It’s a well-known and controversial saying. Ignorance, by most current definitions, is a bad thing. The dictionary definition is “the condition of being uneducated, unaware, or uninformed.” But this definition covers a very wide range of conditions. Being uneducated is, admittedly, not a good thing. However, the state of being uninformed or unaware may, in some cases, be helpful towards one’s life. How so? Read on.

    In one of my favorite articles, I explained how “just like the body is what it eats, the mind is what it experiences^”. Very importantly, experience is created by more than just new external events (those coming from the surrounding world). Experience is also built up by new thoughts and internal images. So, the mind is also what it thinks.

    New information can seriously disturb the balance and tranquility of the internal world. It can simmer inside, creating unrest and, thus, decrease the quality of life.

    A few examples

    Let’s analyze some cognitive processes, with the purpose of showing how ignorance can be used as mental defense. To set the stage, consider the following two examples. To be clear, these are slightly exaggerated with the purpose of highlighting a middle way.

    1. There’s always some political figure that does things that one doesn’t agree with. The more one learns about that person’s statements, the more information about their political direction (or rather misdirection) one gets. This is the opposite of ignorance. Often, new statements and information surrounding that person shows up on a daily basis. Indulging in this torrent of information reinforces the mental image of that politician in one’s mind.
    2. There are still wars on Earth. Sometimes, we follow a conflict’s events on a daily basis. We live under a constant bombardment of terrible news. We are informed and aware. Again, we are not ignorant.

    The rest of the article will focus on highlighting a middle way that finds itself between a state of increased awareness and a state of ignorance. Clarification: this article does not promote ignorance, but the mastery of wielding it.

    Inner storm to inner peace

    For about 16 years straight, I’ve been reading mass-media coverage of various geo-political events. I became over-saturated with information. This took an enormous amount of memory space. Countries and politicians became as intimate as family, sapping my emotional budget.

    This January, I decided to not read my favorite news aggregator for 1 year. This doesn’t mean I went and buried my head in the sand. I continued to listen to local news, for no longer than 10 minutes per weekday (whereas before I would spend more than 60 minutes reading news, 7 days a week). Important events continued to reach me through friends and I manually searched for any other topic that interested me.

    Almost 11 months later, I find myself in a state of clarity and tranquility unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in my adult life. Even better, if news about some politician I disliked reaches me, I interpret it without any negative feelings. I can even respect good things said by the worst leaders in the history of mankind, alive or dead. When I hear bad things, I take them in a much less personal way. And, of course, I realized just how horribly controlled and polarized by over-information our society is.

    Over-information

    The deluge of information eventually leads to reinforcing cognitive biases^. The effect is compounded by the increasing popularity of “AI” algorithms^ used by news aggregators and social networks, which specialize in feeding people exactly what they way to hear (because it makes them happy (ab)users). Why do you think flat Earth’ers have conventions^ now-a-days?

    We are experiencing dangerous and ever-increasing levels of social polarization. Social groups (be it political, religious, cultural or economic) focus more and more negative energy on other social groups which they see as enemies. And each moment, the mass-media and entertainment industry is busy creating more enemies. To not generalize: there are some good publications out there, but in the age of the sensational and “AI”-curated content, quality and truth are not having an easy ride.

    It has become difficult to separate the important from the meaningless, the true from the sensational, click-bait and outright lie. All this makes it very hard to take the vital decisions that a society runs on (such as voting).

    Selective exposure to information

    As I detailed, I expose myself selectively to information. I carefully listen to local news and receive other important news from friends. I pick my own information menu based on my current direction in life. This is not hard to do at all.

    The benefits are immense: an instant increase in time and a prolonged release of mental pressure. 10 months after my self-imposed “(excess) news embargo”, I feel lighter with every passing month. It looks like a second year of fasting will follow.

    Eventually, I shall desire to be more helpful towards the world through some other role that requires me to expose myself to more information again. I shall then tune in to sources that should be as diverse and contradictory as possible. Not because I hunger for gossip and bad news, but because I see the beauty of diversity and the fact that everybody’s right.

    I’ve accepted the progresses we’ve made and understand that many of the crises we’re going through are part of an intelligent species’ evolution. I wish we will be able to continue on this journey. And, if a certain theory is right, the very reason why we exist is because at some point down the line, our grandchildren’s grandchildren have done something amazing. It will be well. The show will go on.

    Pardon the surge of positivity, but this is precisely the result of clearing a massive amount of brain-space by cutting useless information, toxic news and toxic people.

    I am still well informed about the topics I care for (trade wars, semiconductor technology, AI and the environment, to name a few). But I do this with a fraction of the time I was spending last year.

    And I have the society I live in to thank for all this. In most countries, it would have been pretty damn difficult to handle selective isolation with such surgical precision (I live in Sweden).

    Selective memory

    I’m going to give a third example.

    1. I recently saw a (horror) movie trailer that seriously disturbed me. It went straight for some inner sanctuaries, risking to dirty them. Not only was I careful to reinforce the areas it attacked, I also decided to avoid that movie and am currently in the process of deleting this event from memory, save for a BOLD RED WARNING to not see anything related to that movie ever again.

    My inner world is quite solid, but some of the offensive methods used against the intellect are incredibly well crafted. I’m actually thankful for having seen that movie trailer. It presented a new sort of attack. It made me stronger and showed me how dangerous some of the “entertainment” out there can be.

    So did I just say that I am deleting, at will, something from my memory? Yes, it’s somewhat possible^. It’s not easy and sometimes “complete” deletion is difficult to achieve. For example, writing this article has re-invigorated my memory about that trailer. But it was definitely an already wrinkled memory. After just 6 months I felt it like 6 years ago. Well, now it’s stronger again but hey, I did it for science!

    Try this exercise: never, ever, from now on, think about a pink elephant. You will soon get the hang of it. Memories are deleted by forgetting them. Forgetting means not thinking about a certain thing for a long period of time. And it can be done. After all, the brain does this automatically when it blocks memories.

    Not-thinking about something is a skill that involves focusing on everything else in one’s life except that thing one wants to forget. And, like any skill, the more often one uses this process, the better one becomes at it. Sure, stray thoughts will come haunting for a while, but the will of silence is strong.

    Brain pilots

    A calm and happy existence doesn’t mean controlling life or the environment. It’s mastering how one deals with that environment and the challenges it brings. Are we to be piloted by our brains, or are we to be brain pilots?

    Our mind is only partially known to us. It’s full of hidden universes and unexpected surprises. Mysterious processes are often at play. Time spent understanding all this is the best investment one can make.

    I use ignorance to free up space and protect my core. I use ignorance to delete useless references and, with the space so created, fill my brain with diverse knowledge from the weirdest of sources. I use ignorance to destroy rules and patterns that harm me. Ignorance is my mental defense. My delete button. My “please move away from here” spaceship.

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  • Smartphones, Tablets and How Social Media Hijacks Our Minds

    Smartphones, Tablets and How Social Media Hijacks Our Minds

    It’s no news that the use of smartphones and tablets has been found to be detrimental for the usual brain development of children. I’ve placed emphasis on the word “usual” because even though children that are allowed to use smartphones and tablets end up having a different brain structure (both physical and operational), this may not be detrimental for them in a possible future where a whirlwind of interaction with robots and multiple various forms of AI at the same time might become a part of the daily routine. But that’s a risky bet to make. It is now quite well recognized (also by neuroscientists) that these devices are harmful for children^.

    Recent studies, however, have shown that the exaggerated use of smartphones is causing damage in adults too. One of the most serious effects of smartphone abuse is social retardation, which has grave repercussions across a wide spectrum of behaviors:

    http://www.highsnobiety.com/2017/04/06/technology-addiction-mental-health/^

    But wait, there’s more. The “hardware” side of the problem is further compounded by the software that we use. According to Tristan Harris, a former Google product manager, our minds are being hijacked by social media (and other similar online products). Here’s an excellent interview with Tristan where he explains how and why this happens:

    https://www.wired.com/story/our-minds-have-been-hijacked-by-our-phones-tristan-harris-wants-to-rescue-them^

    There is also a TED talk by Tristan where he describes the tactics and purposes of the corporations that profit from hijacking our time and attention:

    https://www.ted.com/talks/tristan_harris_the_manipulative_tricks_tech_companies_use_to_capture_your_attention^

    The smartphone is not only made to capture our attention, but also to encourage changes in how our brain works (neuroplasticity^ plays a huge role in this). As a result of these changes, our attention is easier to capture and once baited, it can be manipulated so that it doesn’t escape the trap. It wouldn’t be so bad if our attention and time would be invested in something useful, but many times this is not the case.

    Social media excels at propagating cheap thrills and “harmless” pleasures. Tempting us to divide our attention and scatter it across the endless assault of notifications, these websites and applications offer little more than a specter of happiness –it’s all that’s necessary in order to keep users satisfied and hooked on a certain platform. Unfortunately, social media has started to play an increasingly important role in who people vote for. Spreading knowledge this way has started to seriously harm our culture and society not only by allowing the rampant spread of false information but even more importantly by isolating social groups and preventing the spread of correct information.

    This is where things start to become very dangerous, because dis-informed voters are what dangerous individuals use to grab the leadership.  Power-hungry manipulators might be able to advance their interests and the interests of those they collude with, but this usually comes at a steep cost for humanity as a whole.

    It’s impressive how far these manipulation techniques have gotten. What’s a bit scary for me is that even with the army of psychologists and researchers at their disposal, the corporations are still barely scratching the surface when it comes to the intricacies of how the brain works. As the knowledge about our psyche advances, so increase the ways it can be exploited. Perhaps as an informed adult you can now take measures against this sort of manipulation. That’s the optimistic outcome when it comes to adults. However, take a deep breath now and think of the children^.

    Update: And then, of course, there’s the Trojan horse aspect these devices pose. Privacy? What privacy?

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  • How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

    How Technology Hijacks People’s Minds

    Let’s have a look at a very interesting article that shows how the choices we have in our daily life are limited and controlled. It’s written by a Design Ethicist at Google:

    https://medium.com/swlh/how-technology-hijacks-peoples-minds-from-a-magician-and-google-s-design-ethicist-56d62ef5edf3^

    In a nutshell, the article explains how our choices are constrained by poor design or clever manipulation techniques that aim to hide those options that are not favorable to certain commercial interests. Being aware that this happens is important knowledge. A quick fix is to always dig deeper and try to look beyond “what’s on the menu”.

    Update: in 2017 I wrote a more detailed article^ on this same subject.

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  • Ravens Might Have a Theory of Mind

    Ravens Might Have a Theory of Mind

    Another month, another revelation about the intelligence of other beings sharing the ride here with us, on Earth. Especially during the past couple of decades, our understanding of the various creatures inhabiting this planet has advanced formidably, not only as a result of technological progress but also due to our maturing as a species. We’re starting to awaken to the fact that we should perhaps take more care of our ecosystem and the beautiful planet we live on. With this step forward, comes a perpetually-renewing interest in other forms of life.

    This recent discovery is about the Theory of Mind^, which is the ability to attribute mental states – beliefs, intents, desires, pretending, knowledge, etc. – to oneself and others and to understand that others have beliefs, desires, intentions, and perspectives that are different from one’s own. It’s one of the building blocks of consciousness. And ravens appear to have it.

    Here’s the article where you can read more about the discovery:

    http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0202/Ravens-might-possess-a-Theory-of-Mind-say-scientists^

    After reading about various such discoveries in the past decade, I can’t say I’m surprised. We’re slowly waking up to the fact that intelligence cannot be defined or constrained by our anthropomorphic boundaries. Life is an incredibly diverse and complex process. Rather than dominating and abusing it, I hope we will continue on our path towards respect, knowledge and awareness.

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