Occasionally Moose have some interesting ideas; I write them down...
How do you know that you exist? OK, I’m not going down the hackneyed “are you a brain in a box?” or “are we in a simulation?”. Better thinkers than myself have addressed these (actually serious) questions better than I ever could. What I’m talking Read More …
Modern freedoms are remarkable; it’s unlikely that there’s ever been a time in which individuals in the first world have had so much latitude. We have access to more than ever before: information, employment, education, luxuries, food, and choice. Alongside this growth in freedom is Read More …
Over the last 18 months, I’ve written a fair bit on the concept of self, and the various issues with being human that get in the way of our mental wellbeing. Today, I’d like to revisit that theme, tying together a few of the various Read More …
Last week, I wrote about some basic things that we are all supposed to know about (but not that many of us do anything about) regarding our health. This week, I’d like to continue the theme with some stuff that’s equally important to your physical Read More …
So, last week I wrote about how we can protect ourselves from the consequences of memetic hacking (if not the hack itself) by learning to distrust the consistency of the self, and being suspicious of our urges – rule of thumb: if it feels “right” Read More …
A while back I wrote about memes and how they can ‘hack’ past our consciousness (here). I suggested that some concepts, like religion, are particularly effective at getting past our conscious defences because, as ‘sticky’ memes, they are able to trigger a wide range of fundamental human Read More …
Last week I wrote about my spaniel, Moose, and how he’s dependent on a ‘blankie’ to help him regulate his emotions (here), mostly because he’s lacking development in the part of the brain that we use to focus our attention. Because of this limitation, his Read More …
The more I practise as a psychologist, the less I’m convinced that humans are everything we think we are. In fact, I’m more and more sure that we’re a walking bundle of illusion. This notion has been worrying me lately, because the fact that we Read More …
This entry, I’d like to talk about why most of us (myself included) take so long to figure out how to be human. In previous posts, I’ve talked a lot about the “inner monkey” (here)– the fact that it’s particularly difficult to be human when Read More …