Valentine wrote an important message in a metaphorical language that will rub some people the wrong way (that includes me), but it seems like the benefit for those who need to hear it may exceed the annoyance of those who don’t. Please let’s accept it this way, and not nitpick the metaphors.
As a boring person, I would prefer to have a boring summary on the top, or maybe something like this:
If X is freaking you out, it is a fact about you, not about X. Read how this applies to the topic “AI will kill you”...
The longer boring version is the following: Human brain is an evolutionary barely-functioning hack. Emotions are historically older than reason, and sometimes do not cooperate well. Specifically, the emotional part of the brain fails to realize that some problems cannot be solved by an immediate physical action (such as: fighting back, running away, freezing...), and insists on preparing your body for such action, which is both mentally and physically harmful when you do too much of it. Therefore, calm down. Yes, you are probably going to die, but it is not going to happen immediately, and there is no immediate physical action that could prevent it, therefore calm down. If you are still obsessing about the “probably going to die” part, you are still not calm enough. You are properly relaxed when your emotional reaction to your horrible fate is “meh”. Ironically, that might be when your brain is most capable of considering the alternatives and choosing the best one.
I’d add that there’s a very specific structure I’m trying to point at. Something I think is right to call an addiction, and a pathway out of said addiction.
I’m pretty sure that could be said in detail in a “boring” way too. I just really suck at creating “boring” versions of things. :-D
In Transactional Analysis there is something called “racket” (not mentioned on its Wikipedia page), a concept that people have their habitual emotion… not meaning that they like it or approve of it, just that for many things that happen they will find an excuse to translate them to that emotion.
As usual, the psychoanalytical explanation is that your parents paid to you attention in childhood when you exhibited that emotion, and ignored you when you exhibited other emotions. Thus, converting every experience to given emotion is how you unconsciously pay for being paid attention to.
Valentine wrote an important message in a metaphorical language that will rub some people the wrong way (that includes me), but it seems like the benefit for those who need to hear it may exceed the annoyance of those who don’t. Please let’s accept it this way, and not nitpick the metaphors.
As a boring person, I would prefer to have a boring summary on the top, or maybe something like this:
If X is freaking you out, it is a fact about you, not about X. Read how this applies to the topic “AI will kill you”...
The longer boring version is the following: Human brain is an evolutionary barely-functioning hack. Emotions are historically older than reason, and sometimes do not cooperate well. Specifically, the emotional part of the brain fails to realize that some problems cannot be solved by an immediate physical action (such as: fighting back, running away, freezing...), and insists on preparing your body for such action, which is both mentally and physically harmful when you do too much of it. Therefore, calm down. Yes, you are probably going to die, but it is not going to happen immediately, and there is no immediate physical action that could prevent it, therefore calm down. If you are still obsessing about the “probably going to die” part, you are still not calm enough. You are properly relaxed when your emotional reaction to your horrible fate is “meh”. Ironically, that might be when your brain is most capable of considering the alternatives and choosing the best one.
This is really good. Thank you.
I’d add that there’s a very specific structure I’m trying to point at. Something I think is right to call an addiction, and a pathway out of said addiction.
I’m pretty sure that could be said in detail in a “boring” way too. I just really suck at creating “boring” versions of things. :-D
Thank you for this.
In Transactional Analysis there is something called “racket” (not mentioned on its Wikipedia page), a concept that people have their habitual emotion… not meaning that they like it or approve of it, just that for many things that happen they will find an excuse to translate them to that emotion.
As usual, the psychoanalytical explanation is that your parents paid to you attention in childhood when you exhibited that emotion, and ignored you when you exhibited other emotions. Thus, converting every experience to given emotion is how you unconsciously pay for being paid attention to.