No escape from rational thought

wherever I look I see rational thought. In my own way of thinking, in story books, on TV, in everything other people have to say. Even when people show faith in God (an otherwise irrational behaviour) each of them has a rational basis for believing in God, there is a thought pyramid (with layers of logic on top of each other, or a chain of logic) in their head.

I don't mean that all thought is universally rational. I only mean that in the head of the person thinking, there is a thought pyramid (chain of logic), whether it is objectively valid or not or whether other people agree or not.

I am a bit uncomfortable with basing all thought on rationality. This is because if you observe yourself you see that parts of the thought pyramid or chain of logic change over time. Which then rationally (ironically) leads us to the question -- “what is the significance of any conclusion that I come to?” (If the basis for that conclusion keeps changing over time)

Why is this the only way we are able to think? Why is the force of rationality so strong?

Child custody battles

All these years I have heard about couples fighting over child custody after the breakup. But I used to wonder why no one would just let the other take care of children. Why this great desire to raise children, especially given how hard it usually is. This morning I woke up at 3:30 AM, as usual, I saw the news about A-Rod and and his children and a possible explanation came to mind. When they fight over child custody parents are really fighting over (trying to secure) elder care for themselves. It's all just selfish.

Our tendency to make models

When I observe how I think, how common normal people think, I see that we do a lot of model making and use those models to predict outcomes. Example: financial stability in a man implies good husband, good school implies good career, a job candidate with good grades implies good employee (I was recently reviewing resumes for a position in our office). Another type of example is: I am very interested in understanding how and why we are afraid of spiders and cockroaches, regardless of what the actual answer is, it is going to be a model of how our mind works for the specific topic (e.g. answer could be that “we are genetically programmed to react this way” - which is a small model for how we work)

I have become quite sensitive to this process over the last few weeks. I don't know how long this sense will last but it is fun.

These models in our mind are very important for us, they are the only basis for action and all decisions we make are based on predictions we make using these models. I see two problems with this:

The models do not past the test of time. This is both good and bad. On the one hand it means we learn and revise our models based on new experience. On the other hand it also means that the confidence that we normally have in them at the time of making decisions is not well founded, over time we will probably revise the models we used to make the decision. Which leads us to the question, what is right action and what is the basis of right action?

How can we observe, analyse the models and the process of modelmaking? I see no other way than to use models to understand models. There is this cycle, a trap I am not able to get out of.

What does it mean?

So much of what I see around me I find absurd, this elaborate dance of human life, the protection of honour, ambition, pride, and glorification, deception, the illusions, and delusions; the large amount of things that don't exist but our mind creates for us and then plays with them, protects them, breaks and fixes them.

What does it mean that I find so much and so many things, very important for so many people, absurd? What am I going through, how can I get out of it? There must be other people who went to the same thing, what did they do?

No, I am not miserable, even though it may sound so from my questions above. This is just a thought exercise.

While I feel this way I am also bound to follow the same people and do the same things (job, friends, family, etc. etc.). It is very hard to be different.

Update ( February 20, 2008):
my mind is cunning, it makes it very difficult for me to find fault with myself. At present I do not see too much absurd with my own life : )
I can only find fault with other people (real or in stories). For example some of my friends believe they have an inner voice that helps them to choose between right and wrong, I find that funny.

video: city planning and suburbia

sorry for posting so many videos. i have been watching them while having dinner, don't know what else to do [don't watch TV].

why do i like this video?
it's sarcastic, the presenter makes bitter comments about common people, e.g.
the common man according to him is saying "i am normal, please respect me".
the presenter also makes what seems to me a reasonable claim about the environment problem.

don't tell me to reduce my carbon footprint

I am on the wrong side of the debate about the environment and despite a lot of effort, mostly my own, I am unable to get on the right side. Please help me if you can (I will watch the inconvenient truth movie when I am able to get a copy from the local library).

In my opinion, the only really environmentally sustainable way of life is that of some tribe from 6000 years ago (warpaint not required). But nobody wants to live like that. Every other promise from any environment group is a joke, a fantasy. We may at most postpone the problems by a few years, which is not sufficiently attractive to me.

What is wrong with my attitude?

video: real impact in bangladesh

great talk about a successful project to reduce poverty. helps understand why OLPC could have an impact.

I don't know any more about this project than what is presented in the video. sounds very impressive, presenter seems a to humble man humble man.

TED video

for the last 2-3 weeks i have been watching these videos while having dinner, link to some good of the good ones:



1. A bit of a discovery channel video: Checkout the octopus at the end.

2. by the guy created the Lost TV show. I have never watched any of the show, but I like this video, so I will try to watch the show:

The trick of selective amnesia

This is the well known human tendency to be blind to one's faults (or other unpleasant facts). If you look carefully the amnesia happens quite often and I find it both amazing and scary how efficient we are at it. The blindness is quite complete, there is no awareness of it and hence no guilt. Can you think of any good everyday examples? I can't think of any right now, will add later if I find one.

Looking for: a catalog of the tricks our mind plays with us

Some of the philosophical books [Buddhism, etc.] I have been reading make brief references to the tricks our mind plays with us. I did not make note of a clear concise example I could use to explain in conversation and have been looking for one. One occurred to me this morning.

The trick of fantasy:
Our mind plays this trick with us and warps our expectations even from the real world [e.g. sex with a supermodel, etc. the fact that a sexy image of a super model can make you buy a bottle of perfume [real life, real world action] shows that you are connecting the two, and that while you know that 'sex with a supermodel' is a fantasy, it is affecting your expectation of the real world.]

While fantasy is creative and fun we are not always careful with out attitude towards it.

I am so excited about this these ideas that I am now looking for a catalog of all the tricks our mind plays with us. Do you know of any such book or website?