Minichan

That's why you have to get meta. You start creating personas of people. Little people who are there with you to talk about the world and give you their opinion. Your little constructs of people who say the things you expect them to say. Raise the objections you expect them to raise. You create a little world of people that you rely on for opinions. They are there in your head. Like you might remember the words of a lost loved one or imagine what a friend might say in those moments.

Little universes in your mind. But what about other universes? Some of your little constructs might wonder about that. We're hearing from all of our friends. You need other opinions too. Let's try to model the other people. Pretty soon there are a lot of people in here. It's hard to hear myself think anymore.

Consciousness is a mirror. It is the mirror of imagining what you might do. It is the anticipation of imminent action. It is time travel, to however soon, to in the future and the idea of what the future might hold. That's the magic in it! That's what we do that is special.

It is a magical act we perform everyday. Waking up. Doing dishes. It is the anticipation of what may come and the acceptance of it given everything we know and expect about the past. Between these mirrors of the future and the past we exist. That is us. Caught in that mirror. We are a thing that sees itself and tries to anticipate. We can't help but anticipate and predict when others will wake in our house or what others are likely to say. We are all seers of a thousand futures that may or may not come true.

As seers of a thousand futures, we must also accept that some futures don't come to pass. Sometimes we must be prophets of despair. Sometimes, when you get so entangled in those voices in your head, it is sometimes hard to get out. Sometimes you become them. Sometimes it is hard to find a voice.

@previous (B)

It can be so very hard to find a voice. I think it was sigmund freud that said our voice is very much like a organ. I think he meant that it is something we rely on to survive. Therefore it's good to have something that gets you to exercise your voice, your own self image, especially in a world that might just make you fight for that daily. I believe it's the reason that children talk to something that ain't there, the point is that it ain't there unlike the world and it's constant obstacles.

@previous (A)
We're a collection of experiences fixed in memory constantly trying to second guess our future based on our past. Talking to things that aren't there is a step. It's step you take toward the real world where you have to second guess other people and anticipate what they will do and say. We often imagine future scenarios in our head to try to pin down what we want the future to be. We also reexamine scenarios in the past trying to ascertain what we should have done in that moment.

Envisioning another to talk to and playing that out in your head is a groundbreaking wonder. It is abstract thought. It is our futuresight. We make a thousand predictions every day about what might happen in our lives and only a few may come true, but we endeavor to remember those that do because they confirm or deny one or many of our working hypotheses about the real world.

Freud said that religion is the dream world superimposed upon the real world. (I'm paraphrasing here) Voices in your head may speak up and tell you to do this or that or wonder about what so-and-so will think if you do some thing. It is at once your ideal dreamworld being fit to circumstances in the real world you are experiencing. Asking questions of yourself, self-reflection, is the sign of a healthy ego. The old saw about knowing thyself is apt.

Children talk to nothing or have imaginary friends in an effort to more easily understand the nature of the presence of mind they are experiencing. When they don't have the wisdom of adults or a sense of being held responsible, children fumble around for an answer and decide to create imaginary things that judge their actions. It's a handy trick, but it is merely a construct of the conscious mind. The externalization of an internal sense of ethics is at the root of many religious and philosophical beliefs.

(Edited 1 minute later.)

@previous (B)

I think this conscious construct is something we have in lots of forms and we don't notice it most of the time. We build this image of the future like you said, and meanwhile the present and past confirms or denies this image, just like you said. So it's like the world just does what the world does and we're in it, taking it all extremely personal.

You can't disassociate when your feelings are bad and then "associate" or "reassociate" when your feelings are fun. So what can you do except running around trying to please your emotions even though you know they are all irrational.

(Edited 53 seconds later.)

@previous (A)
Well ultimately, what are we even doing except trying to find a pleasing emotional outcome? No matter what we choose to do, we are arguably doing it in our own interest or our desire to fulfill or reaffirm our self image. Gaining money, status, or power isn't really a self-evident good. Gaining money, status, or power is mostly just a reaffirmation of our image and self-worth. It's possible to spin just about any act as being for one's self-benefit. When seen in such a cynical light, altruism isn't real.

At some point, if you are able to accept having free will, you have to start making choices based on some kind of consistent philosophy. Mostly, the conclusion of any philosophy ends up trying to establish rules where you can expect a certain level of respect and value from those around you in return for respecting their claims likewise. It's pretty easy to imagine the kinds of things you would feel slighted about or take umbrage over. It's not hard to project same belief onto other people and assume they want what you want. It doesn't take a great deal of introspection. You can put small children on a playground and they will figure out how not to pick fights and how to respect other childrens' property if they don't want their own sense of fairness questioned. A sense of "what is fair" comes pretty naturally at an early age.

The "rules of the game" come pretty naturally and respecting other people's rights becomes a necessity if you want to interact with other people. There isn't much room for running around trying to please your emotions. Maybe this is what Freud was getting at when he talked about the conflict between id and superego. Ultimately, we're just looking for ways to attain basic pleasures while navigating the real world of obstacles and other people's desires.

@previous (B)

It's just so disenchanting, it's like when you are enjoying a game and there's this moment where you lose your state of mind that made you enjoy it and you're just like shiiiit, because you realize you are literally playing games but games aren't fun when you always remember it's just a game.

(Edited 38 seconds later.)