so here's here's part of the issue so
let's say that you're you have a
computer yeah I have a story for this so
one time when I was in Montreal I was
using my computer as in my apartment and
I was typing out an essay and it crashed
and so what happens when your computer
crashes well you know usually you utter
some sort of curse and it's interesting
that you do that because the circuit
that you use to curse with is the same
circuit that monkeys used to detect
Eagles or leopards or snakes and so when
there's a bunch of monkeys together you
know they're not all preyed on by Eagles
and leopards and snakes but you know
there's usually a predator in that
category for every single monkey
population and so when the monkeys are
watching they have an an emotional
utterance that the most nervous monkey
might uh derp first that basically says
you know hide from the eagle get out on
the thin branch so the Cougar can't eat
you and look the hell out for the snake
but there's a circuit that's linked to
emotions that produces an instinctive
utterance that represents that category
and that's the same circuit that you use
when you curse and it's not the same
circuit that used for normal language
and we know that because that circuit is
activated in people who have Tourette's
syndrome because they preferentially
swear you think well why in the world
would you have a neurological condition
that makes you preferentially curse well
that's the reason you you don't just
have one linguistic circuit you have one
for oh my god there's a predator and
that's the one that will get activated
when something happens like your
computer crashing because you know
you're an evolved creature and so those
old circuits that were there say thirty
million years ago to deal with
exceptions are the same circuits you're
using now to deal with your computer why
else would you want to hit it right
because that's what you want to give it
a whack it's like it doesn't behave whap
aggression right away well that's some
clue as to the categories of categorize
category system that you're
automatically using to encapsulate the
event
okay so fine what do you do when your
computer crashes well first you curse
and then you do the stupid things that
idiot primates do when they're trying to
deal with something that's way too
complex and maybe you turn it on and off
right and that doesn't work it didn't
work and so then I thought well maybe
the power bar went so I checked the
power bar it I turned it on and off and
nothing happened so I brought a light
behind the computer the light wouldn't
go on so I thought aha I must have blown
a fuse so I went to the fuse box and
took a look but the fuses were fine and
so I thought oh the powers gone out so
then I went outside and the power was
out none of the streetlights were
working the power was out everywhere and
it was seriously out because this was
the time that the almost the entire
north east power grid in Quebec
collapsed and the reason it collapsed is
because there was a solar flare that
happens reasonably often and the solar
flare produced a huge electromagnetic
pulse because it's basically a you know
like a billion hi million hydrogen bombs
going off at the same time 93 million
miles away produces this tremendous
electromagnetic pulse
passes through the Earth's atmosphere
produces a spike in current in the main
power lines and blows the whole system
and so just so you know assists an event
like that happens about every hundred
and fifty years and if we had one now it
would take out all of our electronics
like one of the big ones there was a big
one back in the late 1800s everything
satellites computers cars everything
gone and so that's a big problem and no
one knows what to do about it one missed
us by about nine minutes I think two
years ago so so that's something else to
worry about if you're inclined to worry
about those sorts of things okay so what
what did I conclude from that well the
function of my computer was dependent on
the stability of the Sun it's not the
first thing you check out when your
computer crashes right you don't run out
and go hey well yeah the sun's still
Suns still there
no problems I can cross that off the
list but but it to me it's an
extraordinarily interesting example of
the invisible interdependence of things
you know and our tendency to fragment
thing what we
seem to do is to look at things at the
simplest level of analysis that actually
functions so for example when you're
interacting with your computer you're
not interacting with your computer at
all really
you're interacting with the keyboard
sort of one key at a time and you're
interacting with the symbols on the
screen but as long as the computer is
working you don't care about it at all
you don't give it a second thought and
you certainly don't care about the fact
that it's dependent on well the
electrical power for example and the
electrical power is dependent on you
know I don't know how many men are out
there right now or we're out there last
night when it was freezing rain fixing
power lines and freezing to death while
they're doing it so that your stupid
computer doesn't malfunction while
you're watching cat videos you know I
mean there's this incredibly dynamic
living system that's social and economic
and political that has to remain dead
stable in order for us to have access to
functional and like pure non-flush
waiting electricity 100 percent of the
time because you also don't think well
the stability of your computer is
dependent on the stability of the
political system but of course it is
because if the political system mocks up
and the economic system goes then people
don't go out and work to fix things and
things are breaking all the time that's
their normal state is broken not not
working and so and that's all in some
sense
fold it up not only inside your computer
but actually inside your conceptions of
of the your tiny conceptions of the
computer while you're using it and you
only get a glimpse of what the computer
is really like when it doesn't work then
it's when it becomes a complex object
right as long as it's working then
you're stupid perceptions are perfectly
fine to get the job done and that's
another indication that what you're
using your perceptions for is to get the
job done and how you specify exactly the
level of resolution that you should be
operating at I haven't sorted that out
but it's something like you default to
the simplest level that moves you to the
next step you know
so for example and generally that is
what you should do if you're having an
argument with someone that you have a
long term relationship with you can
start by arguing about what the little
argument is about or you can immediately
cascade into whether or not you should
have a relationship with this person at
all or even into whether or not you
should even bother with relationships
which is you know every time there's an
argument that question is a reasonable
question to have emerge or at least it's
in the realm of potential reasonable
questions but it doesn't seem useful to
jump to the most catastrophic possible
explanation every time some minor thing
goes wrong that's what happens to people
who have an anxiety disorder and that's
what happens to people who are depressed
right they can't bind the anomaly and so
what happens is it tends to propagate up
the entire system until it takes out
their highest order conceptualizations
you know so if you're seriously
depressed maybe you'll watch a news
article about something stupid and
you'll think Jesus why should I even be
alive you know I'm out I'm dead serious
about that if you score like 60 on the
Beck Depression Inventory which puts you
way to hell up in the depressed range
anything that happens to you that's
negative will trigger suicidal thoughts
roughly speaking and sometimes even
positive things will do it because there
are very few positive things that happen
that don't carry with them some threat
of change or transformation so you know
one mystery it's a big mystery is why
don't you fall into a catastrophic
depression every time something little
goes wrong because it it's not that
level of analysis it's not self-evident
and you see this with people who are
high in neuroticism too you know there
are trivial fluctuations at their
workplace or in their relationships or
in their health will produce a
disproportionate negative emotional
response but it's part of the range of
normal emotional responses some people
are very very high in neuroticism so
everything upsets them some people are
very low and the reason that whole range
exists is because sometimes you should
get upset when some little thing happens
to you because it's an indication that
the whole damn environment has got
dangerous on you and sometimes you
should just brush it off because you
know it's it's net
consequence is low but how do you
calculate that very very difficult
question so you know when your computer
goes wrong well you have to pick to the
proper level of analysis to fix it and
you could say well there's something
wrong with the circuit board and maybe
you know there's a crack and one of the
in one of the somewhere that it's
soldered and or you know sometimes now
when people are building microchips
they've run into a crazy problem you
know microchips keep getting smaller and
smaller and smaller right and so the
little wires now are down to atomic
width or you know the width of maybe 20
atoms or something like that but really
really they're really getting thin
and so that produces another problem
which no one would have ever know no you
wouldn't expect and that is you know
that at the quantum level there's
uncertainty about where electrons might
be normally out doesn't matter you the
degree of uncertainty about where your
electrons are is small enough at your
size so that it's basically irrelevant
but down at the subatomic level where
these microchips are starting to be
produced
sometimes the electrons will be outside
the wires and that means that they're
getting so damn small that they'll
short-circuit by themselves because the
electrons aren't stable enough to be
where they're supposed to be in the
wires and so well the reason I'm
pointing that out is because a problem
that exists in the system can exist at
any of the multiple levels of that
system and it isn't obvious where to
start and a lot of political arguments
are like that you know it's like well
maybe a company goes bankrupt and its
shareholders get or maybe a bank fails
and so people can't withdraw their money
and one response is well that just shows
you how rotten the capitalist system is
it's like well maybe that is what it
shows but it seems this it seems like
that might not be the most appropriate
level to start and so again it's it's
like Occam's razor in the scientific
world right you want to use the simplest
explanation that it's not that fits the
facts because you don't organize your
perceptions by facts
it's kind of like you want to use the
simplest tool you can possibly manage to
fix the problem so you don't when your
car has a flat tire you don't buy a new
car you you fix the flat tire if you can
figure out how to do it and so you go
for this thing that will put the tool
back together with the minimum
involvement of time and effort it's
something like that and you care about
that because you have limited time and
you have limited resources and so it
makes sense for you to conserve them and
I'm telling you that partly for
practical reasons too because this is a
very useful thing to know if you're
arguing with someone you want to argue
about the smallest possible thing that
you could argue about that might fix the
problem you want to really specify this
like what's going on at a micro level
and what's the minimum that I would
require to be satisfied with outcome and
if you're this is especially true in
intimate relationships is like if
someone's bugging you and you want them
to change you think well how can I be
minimally bothered by this
and what's the tiniest amount of change
I could request that might satisfy me
because otherwise the argument will come
unglued
and every time you guys try to discuss a
problem you'll start talking about
whether you should even be together and
then you're done because you'll never
solve a problem and then you won't be
together because you'll never solve a
problem so
you