Video Creator’s Channel Jordan B Peterson
The Last Time We Talked, I Started To Walk
you through the nervous system a little bit and we started with the monkey business Illusion, and one of the things that’s really remarkable about the monkey business Illusion is that–and change blindness illusions in general–is that demonstrate to you just to what degree you could either describe yourself as blind or focused. And I think focused is actually better than blind. You know, a laser beam doesn’t cover much area, but it really illuminates what it strikes. And people are sort of like that, we’re really beamed into a single point and there’s something metaphysically spectacular about that, I think, because that single point that we’re narrowed down to is in some sense the thing that writes the world, you know, because as we interact with the world we’re able to turn it one way or another in all sorts. I mean, I know our powers of doing so are obviously constrained to a substantial degree, but by the same token, that focal point of concentration enables us to interact with the world and then, at least seemingly, to change it.
According To Our Will.
IT’s like we take a future that’s potential, we interact with it at a focal point, and then it transforms itself into a past that’s in some sense fixed and real. So that’s pretty strange. So I guess you don’t want to underestimate the utility of a point. I want to talk to you a little bit first more about what you’re blind to and then what the consequences of that are.
So, This Here Is A Little Diagram Of
a computer., believe it or not–a conceptual diagram of a computer–and. It’s predicated on. . .
Ill Tell You A Quick Story.
If I’ve told you This story please stop me, but I don’t think I’ve told you guys this story. SO one day back in about 1987. I was working on my computer and I was typing some long essay inNK] and, you really had to back up in those days because the programs didn’t do any back up for you and so if the program shut off and you hadn’t been super careful you were just going to lose all of it. .
And So Thats What Uk Was Typing When
the computer went off and so, I had an emotional reaction to that. Right, now an emotional reaction to that is kind of an interesting event because, I would say that you’re not even working with the computer until it quits. And. The reason I would say that is because, if you think about it, when the computer is functioning. functioning the fact that it’s an extraordinarily complicated device is basically irrelevant to you.
What Youre Working With, Roughly Speaking,,
is the screen, but not really, not even the screen. You’re working with maybe a phrase or even the word that’s presented on the screen. You know, you’re typing the word/phrase/sentence/paragraph/essay, and only out past that domain of consideration Do you start thinking about the hardware technology that underlies what you’re doing. You don’t want to think about that at all. When something’s working, you don’t have to see it.
And So That Gives You A Clue As
to consciousness.. Consciousness is an error detecting and correcting phenomena, and you’re not conscious of things that are going well. . You know, which might explain to some degree why a lot of our life seems to be made up of suffering.
If Things Are Going Well, It Isnt
exactly like you’re happy. If things are going well, you just don’t notice when they’re going well. Sometimes if they unexpectedly go well, then that makes you happy. But otherwise it’s just the same old thing, even if it’s amazing. I UK was eating breakfast with my son and I was complaining about the fact that I had to eat canned-smoked tuna because I don’t really like fish, but I have to eat fish for a variety of different reasons.
.
And I thought, Jesus, what’re you complaining about I mean, really, do you know what a tuna is like Those Things are like small whales, right; they weigh like 600 pounds, they’re impossible to catch. So. There’s some poor characters out there hauling in tuna, which is impossible–and. Then they have to clean them and freeze them and smoke them and can them–and.
All I Have To Do Is
go to the store and pick up this can of tuna And then I can complain about it for breakfast. It’s really quite staggering, the fact that I can ever eat Tuna is a complete bloody miracle. But. It’s not the sort of thing that makes me happy because I just expect that. Which is very pathetic, but that’s how it goes.
So Anyways, Back To The Computer.
So, it stops working–well, and that’s what I would say I notice the computer. And there’s nothing more annoying then noticing a computer when you’re in the middle of writing an essay because, what the hell do you know about computers Nothing. What’re you going to do Turn it on and off Well that’s like problem solving process Number 1. IT usually works–thank God–but if it You’re into either the software or the hardware.
So Anyways, I Turned It On And
off and that didn’t work, and so then I turned on a light to see if I could see if something had happened at the back of it.. But the light didn’t go on. So I thought, Aha, the power probably went out or I blew a fuse, so I went out to see if the fuse was burnt out, but it wasn’t. And.
- illusion
- illusions
- blindness
- vision
- consciousness
Then I Noticed That All The Power In
the house was off, and then I noticed UK went outside to go to the corner store to get something,. I don’t remember what, and when I went outside. I noticed that all the streetlights were off. And then the entire power grid in Montreal was out. And then the entire power grid for like half of Quebec was out.
And A Big.
Chunk of Eastern North America. And do you know why Have I told you this story Good. Because. There was a solar flare.
And So The Sun Is A Big Hydrogen
bomb, right. So I don’t know if you guys know this–a cheerful piece of information for you if you need to be cheered up–but if you happened to have a hydrogen bomb and you exploded it–you know a hydrogen bomb has an atom bomb for its trigger, did you guys know that You need to know that because it’s important. Because. An atom bomb is a big thing,, but it’s just a trigger for a hydrogen bomb, so a hydrogen bomb is unimaginably bigger than an atom bomb. .
Anyways, If You Blew A Hydrogen Bomb
in the atmosphere over Central North America, you could probably wipe out maybe all of the electronic equipment in the entire continent permanently. Because. Bomb goes off, there’s an electromagnetic burst, and as the propagates. It. ‘ll hit your electronic equipment and propagate across the wires and produce a big spike in current, voltage I think, and it’ll just blow it.
So Your Cars Wont Work, Your Tractors Wont
work, your subways won’t work, your cars won’t work, your computers won’t work, your satellites Won’t work. It’s like, done. And also, just to cheer you up even more, back in the late 1800s. , I think it was the 1860s, there was this–oh let’s go back to the Sun. So.
The Suns A Big Hydrogen Bomb
and now and then it freaks out and emits a big solar flare, which is something that’s gone wrong on the Sun. And maybe it blows out this solar flare almost to the orbit of Mercury, and then that burst of radiation comes zooming towards Earth and then 9 minutes. Hits and, if it’s a decent electromagnetic pulse. It’ll wipe out the power grid in Quebec. And that’s what happened.
So The Reason My Computer Didnt
work is because the sun was misbehaving. And. So, I like that. It was very illuminating to me because it just shows you how many things need to be stacked on top of each other, working perfectly for some thing that you’re doing to actually function. SO anyways, back in the late 1800s.
In The 1860S, There Was A Massive Solar
flare and it produced a bust of power on telegraph lines and it lit some telegraph operators on fire. And. So this does happen–it happens about once a century, and we just missed one last year. So while You’re worrying about global warming. You can be considering the much higher probability that a solar flare will knock out all of our electronics and send us back to.
Like 1860.
SO. The point is that, first of all, there’s a lot of things going on to make up an object that you don’t detect with your vision. . You never think that the reason the computer works is because the sun is acting properly.
- monkey business illusion things really
- illusions general demonstrate
- illusion things really remarkable monkey
- think focused actually better blind
- blind focused think focused
But.
It is of course the case that endless number of things have to be stabilized that you don’t see. And you might say, well the sun isn’t part of the computer, but well, that’s wrong. It’s not part of the computer in some sense when it’s behaving, but as soon as it stops behaving it’s instantly part of the computer. SO here We’ve got–you might say, well Let’s say the power hadn’t gone out and the computer stopped working.
Well Then You Might Think, Well.
I’ll never buy that brand again. And maybe the brand is associated with operation in some country where corruption is rife and things are made improperly and the parts don’t work very well. So you might think, well I made a stupid purchase decision. .
And Of Course Thats Connected To
the political system of that place and the economy.. And then weird little things can happen down at the micro level as well as the macro level. . SO computer chips have now got so small–you know they have little wires in them right, the chips–the wires are now so small that because of quantum uncertainty.
.
SO quantum uncertainty basically tells you that you can’t really tell where an electron is if you want to know how fast. How fast it’s going if you want to know where it is. But more than that it says you can’t really know where the thing is, and so what that means is that once you get your wire short enough, some of the electrons might not be in the wires where they’re supposed to be, and they actually cause short circuits. SO that’s another issue.
Theres Other Levels Of Reality That Are
micro levels that you can’t detect at all. SO. There’s macro levels that are way beyond you. , you know, political systems, economic systems, biological systems, physical systems outside of that. And.
Then There Are These Microsystems Layered
all the way down, and things can go wrong at any one of those levels and a lot of that is invisible to us. The same thing happens when something goes wrong with you. . It’s like, what’s wrong with you Maybe. You’re malfunctioning at the molecular level.
Your Uk Isnt Working Properly So You
get cancer. Or maybe some virus which is even smaller than the UK comes in and takes up residence and that’s really not so good. Or maybe you’re eating something wrong and you have an organ malfunction. Or maybe your family’s screwed up and you’re stressed half to death and the reason they’re screwed up is because you live in, let’s say a society that’s not friendly to your particular immigrant type, and so the real reason that you’re sick is.
Summary
The last time We talked, I started to walk you through the nervous system a little bit and we started with the monkey business Illusion, and one of the things that’s remarkable is that–and change blindness illusions in general–is that demonstrate to you just to what degree you could either describe yourself as blind or focused . And I think focused is actually better than blind.& I guess you don’t want to underestimate the utility of a point, but by the same token, that focal point of concentration enables us to interact with the world and then, at least seemingly, to change it. According to our will.& IT’s like we take a future that’s potential, we interact with it at a focal point, and then it transforms itself into a past that’s fixed and real.& So that’s pretty strange. I’ll tell you a quick story.& If I’ve told you This story please stop me, but I don’t think I have told you guys this story ….. Click here to read more and watch the full video