> Bryan Moss wrote:...Might we have a large number of
> abnormal mental architectures on this list because such
> anomalies force us to learn cognitive 'tricks' thus creating
> an interest in our own abilities, their limits, and their
> potential for improvement?
YES! I have been thinking this way for some time, but
Bryan's insightful question succinctly states the matter. We
must have a waaay larger than random concentration of
minds on this list that have spent much time and effort
examining themselves, or looking around inside their
own brains, wondering what is there and why.
Consider: when people relate to others, we try to
map our own feelings on theirs, so that we can relate
and understand each other. I am one who discovered
at an early age that my own reasoning patterns do not
map well onto other's feelings and reasoning patterns.
So I try to compensate by various means.
For instance, my brother is a normal person. He relates
so well to others. I watch him and try to figure out how he
does it. He can meet a new person and within minutes
can understand and relate. I simply cant do that. His thought
patterns seem utterly bizarre to me, yet he is the social butterfly.
Im the social... cockroach. I do fine at the nanoschmoozes,
but at a neighborhood party, forget it! I can meet a random
person, talk for five minutes, at the close of which we both
are thinking: What is the MATTER with you? {8^D
Surely this extro-group has spent serious time with introspection.
Why are we so 3 sigma NT-ish? Why can we discuss such
things as uploading, uplifting, singularity, space cables,
qualia, cryonics, nanotech... well pretty much all the
bizarre stuff we talk about, and none of us even thinks it
the least bit... strange? Its this, friends: most all of us here
must have some mental architecture that is wired seriously
different, yet we have all become quite skillful in compensating,
in *acting like* normal humans, in order to get along in this
century on this planet where we are trapped, this world filled
with huuuumans. spike
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:04:34 MDT