Episode 32: Our Brains Are Context Making Machines

SUMMARY:
In this episode, JD and Mordecai continue their discussion on things we think we see and we really don't.  They discuss how we are improving every day and how our brain processes stories based on our past.

TIMESTAMPS: 

0:00 - The meaninglessness of meaninglessness

0:50 - What’s it like when you wake up and you’re on vacation in your dream?

1:09 - Much of the work our brains are doing is kind of backfilling and trying to make sense of what it is

2:20 - What do you think about the idea of our brains as “brains?”

2:40 - What’s it like when you’re tired?

4:33 - When you’re in a hotel, it’s like you have to run a show

7:28 - "It's like being in a movie where there's always something else."

9:30 - How long does it take to get to the point where you’re saying “everything is meaningless?”?

11:23 - What does it mean to be “effective?”

Transcript

Mordecai Rosenberg: 0:00

Hey, JD here we are, still purplexed for another episode of shorties with Morty,

JD Stettin: 0:04

Yeah, drop us a line, let us know if you like the new format, and if you don't, we'll just be better about time management see if we can make them longer.

Mordecai Rosenberg: 0:12

We get too into our own explorations, you know, when we start talking and then all of a sudden, we're 30 or 40 minutes in. So this week, I wanted to continue around this discussion of meaninglessness. Last time, we talked about how our thoughts do not mean anything. One thing that comes across in the Course of Miracles is that everything we see like that nothing has inherently meaning. And the reason why this less than 12 and lesson 13, is that well, it says the reason why it works is because we see a meaningless world. But really,

JD Stettin: 1:09

So much of the work our brains doing is kind of it's because we're ascribing our own meaning to what we think is inherently is maybe meaningless. There's something that brought to mind that I want to try out on, you. You know how, like, when you wake up, you have this dream, and the dream is all the sudden, you were like you're on vacation, in the ocean, and you were swimming, and then all of a sudden, and this is going on for a week, and you're on this great vacation in your dream, right? And all of a sudden, you hear this, like blaring horn from a boat. And then you wake up and you realize, oh, that's my alarm clock. So within kind of like a split second, your brain created this whole narrative to explain what this alarm clock is. In your dream and feels like it could be going back weeks or months, right to get you to that moment of that blaring horn, backfilling and trying to make sense of what it is we're thinking, feeling, etcetera. This past week, I've been right, which is actually just an alarm clock, right? Like, what's sleeping very well, the week before, I was not. It's interesting. how ok maybe the first day or two, you know, I the meaning of an alarm? It's like, No, there's no, there's no notice I'm tired and things are a little different. By the third or fourth day, so many things feel like shitty, whatever it is meaning to it, you know, what's more meaningless than an alarm things that I otherwise had been looking forward to, people I otherwise wanted to talk, to hobbies I otherwise enjoy doing. clock. Other than that, it's time to wake up. But that's what What's my brain doing? My brain isn't going oh, JD, you're just tired. So everything you're seeing with these whatever, our brains do, right? Our brains like look at something, and then tired colored glasses, my brain is making up stories, but maybe you don't really like cooking. Maybe this person really isn't create an entire narrative that creates context literally so much fun to talk to; maybe you really need to do something creates, right, just imagine context for what you see in Right? Right, right. I'm not maybe the therapy isn't front of you. And I wonder if like, if that's what our brains working. Maybe I haven't been doing the right things. I need do when we're sleeping? Perhaps that's also what they do when we to work out more, I need to work out less. I'm not eating enough. are awake. Someone says something to us something at work, for example, like, oh, you know, like, you really, you Not drink, like, all this stuff. And it's just like, Oh, I've really could have done a better job in that negotiation. And all just been sleep deprived and that compounds over the course else for work because you don't enjoy it anymore. And it's like, of a sudden, like, Where does your brain go? It goes all the

Mordecai Rosenberg: 4:00

you're depressed. of a few days. And it's amazing how like, two, three days into So, funny. Yeah, so there. So every once way back to the past. Right? So like, all the time, starting, every now and again, you have to look and see like, is this sleeping well, all of a sudden those very same things are like, from, you know, when you were in grade school or high school and design still serving the purpose that we want it to? And some Oh, I really do love cooking. Yeah, this is so great. I have a how you didn't do that. It's like, oh, yeah, they're right. things you're gonna say like, no, that iPod docking station, It creates this whole narrative to create context for the night to myself. This is awesome. Oh, this friend from iPods aren't made anymore would that work? It doesn't make statement when really like, maybe there's no, there's no Austin called cannot wait to talk to him or her or whatever. sense. It occurred to me that maybe the way we look at the inherent meaning in it at all. I don't know what what do you world also is with glasses that we should we need to reevaluate Like, in her words, I see a meaningless world. It's we're think about that idea of like our brains as kind of meaning from time to time. There glasses that we've used, like our entire just weaving. We're doing improv all the time is what we're doing. and context creating, when sometimes like, there really is life, you know, we think, I don't know some of the things none inherently that we even think are good, like, we're offended by people's behavior, on on on a on an airplane, like, we're just like, we get upset because we've learned that there's a right way to act and a wrong way to act. Right. And so like we get personally upset, like when we see something, maybe that's a bad example. But it's just one that comes to mind. Are those glasses still serving us? Is that context still helpful for us? Or does it make sense to discard those glasses intentionally realize that the reason why we're seeing that context is because of an old, outdated pair of glasses. And now look at it differently, right? And now, when we see someone being rude, if we say, instead of the offense, being offended by it, we think, wow, like, I wonder what's going on in that person's life that would cause them to be rude. It must be something else. It's not the best example. But I think about that.

JD Stettin: 6:37

Well, to your point about kind of the both sides of it that on the one hand, things that are bad, it seems somehow obvious to us sometimes that oh, that's just because I was tired or grumpy, as opposed to the things that that feel good or fun. It's like, oh, that's just because you're well rested, and you didn't enjoy anything. And I said, you know, we're kind of it is sort of improv or making this stuff up on the spot. It does remind me of another sort of rule of improv, which is really like, after the scenes done, it's done. I mean, okay, sure, if you're learning if you're a student, maybe your teacher will, you know, give you some correct, what do you perform, there's no improv performers that you don't like, go back over and like play with the threads. Like, it was fun. And some of the scenes are better than some of the scenes or worse, some of them gel, and people are doing things and it's great. Some of them drag and people aren't listening. And the audience is looking confused. And, and, and it always ends and there's always something else. And there's always a break between it too. And in a way of remembering that in our experience, as well of like, oh, this is really fun. That's great. So nice that I enjoyed it. And no need to like cling to that either or assume that that's like, oh, that's the real thing, or that's the identity of whatever of the friend, the practice that whatever, it's okay, that was great. How nice. How lovely that that worked well. And when it doesn't go well. Ooh, that was uncomfortable. I was scared. I was nervous. I didn't communicate or I felt like I wasn't being heard. I did not enjoy that. Okay, well, that's good. noted, received, and you're somewhere else already, by the time that thought has been processed. And they're sort of you know, that kind of dynamic model maybe of life and dynamic and so far as the changing and also not holding on to not pushing away the bad or overly like clinging to or pulling towards oneself the good too feels like one of the lessons I think in this the world being meaningless, right? Because she doesn't say that the world is like double champions, like fundamentally good. The world is meaningless in itself. We talk about good weather. Like, what does that mean? There's no such thing as good weather. There's weather.

Mordecai Rosenberg: 8:54

Yeah, for a tree. Is there good weather and bad weather? Right? Ever? You know, when you as a kid, they look at their rings, when trees cut down, and you'll see it it's very dark and one area and say, oh, yeah, that's where there was a fire. Right? And then it was okay. So there was a fire. Right? Does that mean that that was bad? Like, if that impacts the rest, you know, okay, therefore, I'm not going to grow the next year. And sometimes there's storms and the tree falls. And that's the end of that tree, but then it gives nourishment and it can, you know, and feeds the rest of the forest and turns into something else. Yeah, I mean, this is something that is also brought to mind. Yeah, Ecclesiastes Kohelet. Right? Which starts with saying, ??????????? all that everything is meaningless. sounds depressing. It feels depressing. But it's it is kind of true. You know, and recently, I've been having this reaction when I'll see you on LinkedIn or whatever. Like just a big announcement of like someone I don't know, they bought $800 million of apartments or they closed you know, $200 million deal. And in the past, I'd be like, Wow, that's amazing. It's like imagine what that would be like to buy a billion dollars apartments. And more recently, I just went, I see that my reaction is like select, but doesn't go with you when you die, right? The person like No, like no matter what, we're all going to die, and we're all going to lose loved ones, and then we die. And people will mourn for us, hopefully. But it's like 100, I mean, how long does it take before No one remembers you ever existed? Not that long to me with the internet, it'll be a little longer. Yeah, but it's 100 years, 150 years like it's nothing like it really is meaningless and we just create these dramas to ascribe meaning. In lesson 13, she says that the recognition of meaninglessness arouses intense anxiety in all the separated ones, represents a situation in which God and the ego challenge each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty space that meaninglessness provides it that we get anxious, because if it's meaningless, then what am I doing here? Like what's the what is like you were saying before, like, when there's a health crisis, that you know what to do, when there's no crisis? And you're just spending time together? It's like, well, what, what is this? Yeah, but I think maybe what that means is that you can just there's no meaning other than just being where you are, and being present in that it doesn't have to be about getting to a goal or some imagined future. It's like, what would it be like to just what would it be like to live in the moment like, without meaning? To me, it's like a scary off putting thought, because I like both. And I like pushing myself, and I like thinking, but I'm not doing enough. Yeah, but I don't know. I think this is like a really profound idea.

JD Stettin: 11:26

Yeah. And I totally identify with the anxiety or the fear, sometimes confronting that notion that like, oh, right, doesn't mean nothing means anything in a certain way. Like if we think of anything that we so often, or I so often, certainly hear and use terms good and bad, right? This is good. This is good for that, oh, that's bad. I don't want I do want. What does that even mean? I've been reading this. I just finished this book on Effective Altruism by will McCaskill which I recommend anyone who's interested in exploring the ways that volunteerism as well as charitable giving have impacts and systems impacts. And I think it's really interesting0. You know, his goal in writing the book, and he has a website and a research institute that's supposed to really help again, Effective Altruism help you give to charities that are really serving particular ends. And it's interesting in kind of reading through his book and looking at the way these things are ranked that, you know, we think like, okay, so there are certain charities that save, let's say, and prolong human lives. On the other hand, though, by saving and prolonging more lives, we create further issues of overpopulation, which is devastating to the climate and it's just recognizing the kind of inherent like, Okay, if we really took climate focus, then honestly, the more humans that die, like, in theory, the better right, like Why stop a pandemic? It's, you know, cull the herd, and it's just, it's a, it's a perspective thing. Is it good for the mosquitoes that we use DEET? No. But is it good for us to be bitten by a mosquito carrying West Nile virus? Probably not. I wouldn't want that or I wouldn't, right? I don't think that would be fun for me. But if a mosquito carrying West Nile virus, bit, let's say Putin, and killed him and ended the war for Ukraine, that would be good for a lot of people and maybe bad for others, like, right and just kind of obvious as you really adopt all these perspectives and unravel like really like the constructs and concepts of good and bad, like really just deteriorate and are eroded at every level of inquiry, which, again, sometimes is a little scary, even as they say it now. It's like fun to talk and joke, but to really sit with and be like, so.... So then what you know, okay, okay, we have our lesson say it's all Meaningless, meaningless. World engenders fear, I'm afraid, where, where do we go from here? And that, by the way, trying this out, that's sort of a teaser for next week, or next, or next Shorty, or Longly for lesson 14 because our author says in the next lesson, God did not create a meaningless world. So just when you thought nothing meant anything you guys have to tune in next week to see what what that statement means.

Mordecai Rosenberg: 14:30

And be I think, be gentle with it, right? Like without exercises that they say it's like, yeah, just do it. Like for a minute at a time, three or four times a day. Don't get too caught up in it, you know, so just try out the idea and have faith that God did not create a meaningless world.

JD Stettin: 14:44

Yeah, good luck. Have fun. Have fun, chewing stewing on that? Yeah. All right.

Mordecai Rosenberg: 14:53

All right. Until next time, JD

JD Stettin: 14:54

Yes. Until next week. Thanks Morty. See ya. Bye, everybody.