Episode 08 - System 2, Superman, & Simulacra: Jeff's Amateur Philosophy

Jeff and Darron talk about the evolution of Jeff’s amateur philosophy and the development of his Beautiful Illusions concept- the ongoing exploration of which is the foundational idea behind this podcast. Jeff walks through some experiences that changed his thinking, they discuss some of the key ideas that led to further construction and refinement of the bigger idea, and how this exploration ultimately opened up new avenues of thought to pursue. A quick content warning, there is a bit of mild swearing in this episode, so if that kind of thing bothers you please take note.

Notes:

• 2:03 - Existentialism entry from the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy and Existentialism: Crash Course Philosophy #16 (YouTube video)

• 2:20 - Atheism (IEP)

• 2:56 - The Law of Conservation of Mass (TED-Ed YouTube video)

• 5:10 - Holden Caufield from The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger 

• 6:07 - The Quran, The Book of Mormon, The Bhagavad Gita, Buddhism, Daoism

• 10:41 - The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow

• 14:18 - Grand Central Station in New York City

• 14:46 - Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior by Leonard Mlodinow 

• 15:13 - See “Why People Choose Coke Over Pepsi” and “How the Brain Reveals Why We Buy” 

• 15:45 - Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman 

• 15:54 - Douglas Vigliotti

• 17:40 - Keith Stanovich and Richard West coined the terms System 1 and System 2 in their work on dual process theory, as noted by Kahneman in the first chapter of Thinking, Fast and Slow entitled “The Characters of the Story”  - Psychologists have been intensely interested for several decades in the two modes of thinking evoked by the picture of the angry woman and by the multiplication problem, and have offered many labels for them. I adopt terms originally proposed by the psychologists Keith Stanovich and Richard West, and will refer to two systems in the mind, System 1 and System 2.

• 18:15 - Neuroscience book by David Brooks?

• 18:16 - Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman

• 18:34 - Thus Spake Zarathrustra by Friedrich Nietzsche

• 18:55 - See “What Did Nietzsche Really Mean When He Wrote “God Is Dead”? (Open Culture, 2016)

• 19:10 - The Overman 

• 20:03 - Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey TV Series w/Neil deGrasse Tyson 

• 20:18 - See “Tool-Making Crows Are Even Smarter Than We Thought” video from National Geographic regarding the New Caledonian Crow

• 20:22 - See images of bowerbird nests and  “What Makes Bowerbirds Such Good Artists” (Scientific American, 2015) “Bowerbirds, Art, and Aesthetics” (Communicative & Integrative Biology Journal, 2012)

• 20:28 - The Guggenheim Museum designed by the famous and influential architect Frank Lloyd Wright

• 21:05 - To be clear the “lizard brain” idea has been disproven by neuroscience, but remains one of the most enduring myths about the brain. Originally developed by the neuroscientist Paul MacLean between the 1960s and 1990s, the triune brain theory asserts that we have a “lizard brain” under our “mammal brain,” and that our “mammal brain” is itself under our primate/human brain. Our lizard brain, as the theory goes, is a small, primitive part of our brain that functions entirely on instinct. Through the course of evolution, that little lizard brain was enveloped in a more sophisticated but ancient cortex, the limbic system, which is the source of our emotions. Then that was enveloped in an even more sophisticated neocortex that is unique to humans. The only difference between humans and other vertebrate animals, according to this theory, is the existence of these newest layers of our brain that allowed humans to make rational, intelligent decisions. But according to neuroscientists Daniel Toker, the triune brain theory is completely wrong, most notably for the simple reason that our brains aren’t fundamentally different from those of reptiles, or even from those of fish. Every mammal has a neocortex (not just the really intelligent ones), and all vertebrates, including reptiles, birds, amphibians, and fish, have analogues of a cortex. Neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Baarrett notes that the lizard brain idea became wildly popular in the 1970s with the publication of astronomer Carl Sagan’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Dragons of Eden, right around the same time that neuroscientists disproved the lizard brain theory as advances in gene sequencing techniques allowed them to discover that most vertebrate brains are made of the exact same ingredients; that there weren’t “new” parts of the brain and “primitive” parts of the brain. Still, the idea of the lizard brain has proven stubbornly persistent, frequently showing up today in media articles, pop psychology, self help, and occasionally even more scientifically reputable sources, but as Barrett notes “The problem here is that it takes 10, 20, sometimes 50 years before discoveries in science make it to the public.” - For more on the lizard brain myth see “You Don’t Have a Lizard Brain” and “It’s Time To Correct Neuroscience Myths” and “A Theory Abandoned But Still Compelling”

• 23:32 - See “The Evolution of the Human Brain” (YouTube video from BrainFacts.org), “A natural history of the human mind: tracing evolutionary changes in brain and cognition” (Journal of Anatomy, 2008), and the “evolution of the brain” Wikipedia entry

• 23:43 - Kingdoms in taxonomic classification - humans are classified in the Kingdom Animalia

• 24:00 - See “Unraveling the Evolution of Uniquely Human Cognition” (PNAS, 2016)

• 24:23 - Self-Consciousness gives us an ability to reflect on our experience and project into the future and recognize that we exist

• 25:23 - Animal consciousness - Do animals have subjective experience?

• 26:50 - Simulacrum and Simulation by Jean Beaudrillard

• 27:13 - Hyperreality

• 27:17 - The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

• 27:20 - Postmodernism

• 28:12 - Flow

• 30:04 - BeautifulIllusions.org - “Today abstraction is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror, or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.” -Jean Beaudrillard

• 30:08 - Read “On Exactitude in Science” by Jorge Luis Borges

• 31:32 - See “Baudrillard’s Thoughts on Media” (Philosophical Society.com)

• 31:47 - The Drive-By Truckers at Infinity Music Hall in Hartford, CT (7/26/17)

• 32:02 - See “A Journey to the Oldest Cave Paintings in the World” (Smithsonian Magazine, 2016) and the cave painting Wikipedia entry

• 32:12 - See “Ziggurats and Temples in Ancient Mesopotamia” (History on the Net) and the “ziggurat” Wikipedia entry

• 32:22 - See “Egyptian Pyramids: The Capstone Pharaoic Power” (History on the Net) and the “Egyptian pyramids” Wikipedia entry

• 32:24 - See “Art of the Americas Before 1300” (SlideShare presentation based on “Art of the Americas Before 1300” from Art History Teaching Resources)

• 33:10 - See “Modern human brain organization emerged only recently” (Science Daily, 2018) - “The Homo sapiens fossils were found to have increasingly more modern endocranial shapes in accordance with their geological age. Only fossils younger than 35,000 years show the same globular shape as present-day humans, suggesting that modern brain organization evolved some time between 100,000 and 35,000 years ago.” 

• 33:13 - See “The (Violent) Origin of Sports” (Psychology Today, 2008) and the Wikipedia entry on the history of sport - “It is likely that after the switch from hunter-gathering to farming becoming the primary means of providing food became dominant, those individuals who had previously been assigned to the Hunter role- and were likely naturally more physically built for the purpose- had little way to utilize their skill sets in a practical setting anymore, so instead entered a form of perpetual preparation for hunting and practicing the skills required, which then let to competitive bouts intended to indicate whomever was the most "prepared" for the different elements of the hunt- for example the speed to chase down, strength to wrestle down or accuracy to rapidly dispatch the prey and associated wagering on the outcomes of contests, which them evolved gradually into what we would recognize as sports as we would know them today.” 

• 33:35 - See “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs: A Work Rant” by David Graeber (STRIKE! Magazine, 2013), and this 2018 Vox interview with Graeber about his book Bullshit Jobs: A Theory

• 33:59 - See “How Can Scientists Create New Elements?” (Discover Magazine), the “Island of Stability” video from PBS Learning Media, and the Wikipedia entry on synthetic elements

• 34:07 - George Carlin on “natural” (YouTube video, definitely NSFW)

• 35:22 - See “What is the Universe Made Of?” (Science Magazine, 2005)

• 36:38 - See this discussion on social reality and this post on causal reality vs social reality from LessWrong, and the  Wikipedia entry on social reality

• 36:58 - It’s generally understood that biological life is made up of cells that are themselves comprised structurally and functionally of interacting molecules and elements (chemistry) which take place according to the laws of physics - see “Life is Physics” (Physics, 2019) for an interesting discussion of trying to understand “life” as an emergent phenomenon of a physical system

• 38:35 - Can we overcome our cognitive biases? See “Your Lying Mind: The Cognitive Biases Tricking Your Brain” (The Atlantic, 2018) and this 2015 interview with Daniel Kahneman (The Guardian)

• 43:20 - Do humans have agency? 

• 44:01 - Freaks and Geeks (TV Show)

• 46:50 - In Buddhism, enlightenment is when a Buddhist finds the truth about life and stops being reborn because they have reached Nirvana. (Wikipedia)

In today's episode "System 2, Superman, and Simulacra" we talk about the evolution of Jeff's amateur philosophy and the development of his Beautiful Illusions concept - the ongoing exploration of which is the foundational idea behind this podcast.

Episode 06 - What We Talk About When We Talk About Politics

Jeff and Darron discuss how difficult it is to discuss politics and political issues, particularly with our friends and loved ones who might have views different than our own. Jeff relays a story of a recent conversation among friends gone awry, and they consider the role that emotions, identity, and cognitive biases play in our political conversations. Lastly they consider some ways in which we might have more productive conversations that help build understanding and hopefully don’t harm our relationships. This conversation was recorded a few days before the 2020 presidential election.

Notes:

• 5:01 - See “What Happens to Your Body During the Fight or Flight Response?”

• 5:53 - See “This is why you get worked up about politics, according to science” (CNN, 2017)

• 7:35 - Emotional Hijacking

• 7:58 - Difficult Conversations by by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen

• 10:03 - Confirmation bias

• 10:44 - Motivated reasoning

• 11:04 - “According to Peter Ditto, a psychology professor and researcher who studies motivated reasoning and what he refers to as “hot cognition” - the interface between passion and reason,“People think that they think like scientists, But really they think like lawyers. Scientists don't care what the answer is: they look at the data and draw a conclusion, Lawyers know the conclusion they want to reach, then they harness a bunch of facts to support that conclusion.” And this is how we construct our political facts, whether we realize we’re doing it or not.” - For more on this, confirmation bias, motivated reasoning, and other cognitive biases see “When It Comes to Politics You’re Not As Rational As You Think” (University of California News, 2016) and “Cognitive Biases Cheat Sheet” from writer Buster Benson, author of Why Are We Yelling? The Art of Productive Disagreement

• 12:02 - Loss aversion

• 12:54 - See effects of stress on memory and  “Your Brain on Stress Fails to Learn Properly” (Psychology Today, 2018)

• 13:46 - Illusion of validity 

• 14:42 - See “This Article Won’t Change Your Mind” (The Atlantic, 2019) or “Why Facts Don’t Change Our Minds” (James Clear)

• 15:25 - See “Why Won’t They Listen?” (New York Times, 2012) and Jonathan Haidt interview with Tamler Sommers 

• 17:12 - See A Theory of Justice (John Rawls) and the “Original Position” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

• 17:49 - See “The Psychology Behind Why Politics Can Get So Heated — and How to Show Up Differently” (Healthline)

• 18:29 - “Due to this overlapping of identities, political identity is now sometimes referred to as a mega identity. According to political psychologist and author Liliana Mason, people have a huge number of different group identities, any of which might seem the most salient at any given time. In general, the identity at the top of your mind at any given moment most likely will be the identity facing the most pressing threat. But over the past few decades, the parties have become increasingly aligned with other social identities including race, religion, and rural or urban location. And when these links start connecting our parties and other parts of our social identities, then all of this gets drawn into that one particular political competition. once these mega-identities get formed, we start to think of out-group partisans as quite different from us — not just in terms of their political views, but also racially, religiously, and with any number of overlapping categories. We feel ever more socially distant from these out-group members, which makes it easier to dehumanize them, to think about them with less generosity.” - See “As the Rhetoric Escalates: Talking with Liliana Mason” an interview with Lilliana Mason, political psychologist and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity

• 22:40 - The exact lyric is “Scotty liked all of the books that I recommended even if he didn't I wouldn't be offended........” in the song “Tire Swing” by Kimya Dawson, which appears on the Juno movie soundtrack 

• 20:54 - Social Identity Theory

• 23:03 - See “Nirvana Vs. Pearl Jam” (Noisecreep, 2013) 

• 23:52 - “For people who pay attention to such things, New Haven is widely regarded as a pizza mecca, and is home to a few locations, most notably Pepe’s and Sally’s, that frequently appear on best pizza lists. Locals not only identify as being defenders of New Haven pizza, or more appropriately “apizza,” against other cities such as New York and Chicago, but also within New Haven everyone has a particular place that they argue is the best. For what it’s worth, and although I’ve certainly softened in my stance, I still happen to be a Pepe’s partisan, and won’t really argue unless you try to tell me that Modern is better.” For more on the New Haven pizza scene see Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, and “The Definitive Guide to New Haven Pizza” (Eater, 2014)

• 25:08 - See Negative Partisanship, “Negative Partisanship Explains Everything” (Politico, 2017), “How Hatred Came to Dominate American Politics” (FiveThirtyEight, 2020), and “The rise of negative partisanship and the nationalization of U.S. elections in the 21st century” (Electoral Studies, 2016)

• 27:35 - “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (YouTube video) by Nirvana

• 28:55 - See Dehumanization, “What Is Dehumanization Anyway?” (Psychology Today, 2018), “The 5 Steps of Dehumanization” (Psychology Today, 2018) and “Dehumanizing Always Starts With Language” (Brene Brown, 2018)

• 30:33 - Tribalism

• 30:48 - See “The Age of “Mega-Identity” Politics” (The Ezra Klein Show) - an interview with Lilliana Mason, political psychologist and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics Became Our Identity

• 30:52 - Minimal Group Paradigm 

• 30:57 - See “Robbers Cave Experiment” (Simply Psychology) and “Revisiting Robbers Cave: The easy spontaneity of intergroup conflict” (Scientific American, 2012)

• 35:02 - See “How Filter Bubbles Distort Reality: Everything You Need to Know” (Farnam Street Blog, 2017)

• 40:55 - “I’m trying to make a nuanced point here about how we conduct our group politics versus how we discuss politics with people in our lives - and it is not to say that people in a democracy bear no responsibility for the actions of elected leaders. Nor is it to excuse hateful, derogatory, or dehumanizing rhetoric. As it is famously stated in the Declaration of Independence, “...Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” politics and elections absolutely do have consequences, and plans, policies, and legislation implemented or not implemented do have impacts in the world, as do the words and ideas expressed by elected leaders. That being said, people’s identities are complex, and their perception of the world and how they see things in any given situation equally so, and I do not believe there is a 1:1 correlation between individuals and the governance of a particular politician or party. If we disagree then it is our job to continually do the work, as hard as it is, to understand multiple perspectives, even if they seem inimical to our own, and we must never forget our shared humanity. As the philosopher John Stuart Mill said “He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side, if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion... Nor is it enough that he should hear the opinions of adversaries from his own teachers, presented as they state them, and accompanied by what they offer as refutations. He must be able to hear them from persons who actually believe them...he must know them in their most plausible and persuasive form.”

• 43:08 - “Six of One - Obamacare vs. The Affordable Care Act” (2013  video clip from Jimmy Kimmel Live)

• 44:00 - See “Party Over Policy: The Dominating Impact of Group Influence on Political Beliefs” by Jeffrey Cohen (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2003)

• 49:06 - The Beatles vs. The Stones (Ultimate Classic Rock)

• 51:48 - “Don’t put too many onions in the sauce” (video clip from Goodfellas)

• 54:52 - See “Masks Work. Really. We’ll Show You How.” (New York Times, 2020)

• 55:52 - See “Teresa Bejan on Free Speech, Civility, and Toleration” (Episode 116 of the Mindscape Podcast) - an interview with Teresa Bejan, political scientist and author of Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration 

• 56:45 - See “Managing Conversations When You Disagree Politically” (American Psychological Association)

Jeff and Darron discuss how difficult it is to discuss politics and political issues, particularly with our friends and loved ones who might have views different than our own. Jeff relays a story of a recent conversation among friends gone awry, and they consider the role that emotions, identity, and cognitive biases play in our political conversations.

Episode 00 - Introducing Beautiful Illusions

Jeff and Darron ponder the intersection of reality, consciousness, and culture through conversations that comprise an ongoing attempt to construct meaning by exploring art and science, develop understanding of the context underpinning our current moment in time, and imagine possible futures for human civilization. No expertise here, just two guys who enjoy learning, thinking, and talking about big ideas, deep questions, and the “beautiful illusion” that is the subjective human experience. In this introduction to Beautiful Illusions we lay out some of the major ideas, questions, and thinking that have led to the development of the project, discuss what Beautiful Illusions means to us, and we introduce a few areas of thought that will be further expounded upon in future episodes.

Show Notes:

• 1:46 - Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the Overman (Superman, or Ubermensch) as presented in the prologue of Thus Spake Zarathustra: “I TEACH YOU THE SUPERMAN. Man is something that is to be surpassed. What have ye done to surpass man? All beings hitherto have created something beyond themselves: and ye want to be the ebb of that great tide, and would rather go back to the beast than surpass man? What is the ape to man? A laughing-stock, a thing of shame. And just the same shallman be to the Superman: a laughing-stock, a thing of shame.”

• 2:40 - Jean Baudrillard , Hyperreality, and Simulacra and Simulation

• 4:56 - “Of 2 Minds: How Fast and Slow Thinking Shape Perception and Choice” from Scientifc American, excerpted from Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (book overview from Wikipedia)

Jeff & Darron ponder the intersection of reality, consciousness, and culture through conversations that comprise an ongoing attempt to construct meaning by exploring art and science, develop understanding of the context underpinning our current moment in time, and imagine possible futures for human civilization.