In this episode, I speak with Gurwinder Bhogal about the ways tech is hurting our mental health, how to make better choices, and the gamification of humanity
this conversation started out to be about peoples' rejection of reality -- as Gurwinder spoke about his computer days with bing and his desire to give people factual information. he then mentions boredom and goes into a lengthy discussion of young Moslem men in the U..K. and in general the growing misogyny because these men feel that women have taken over the world. I hope this discussion gets back to why people reject facts. The really blatant "analysis" that most people have it so easy makes me wonder if he lives in the real world himself. Everyone I know is struggling to survive.
My argument is not that people have it easy, but that the most basic demands of existence, such as food, shelter, and orgasm, can now be (relatively) easily met, and this detachment of reward from effort has made many people listless and restless. In response, people invent new
struggles to give them a sense of purpose and accomplishment: sports, video games, social media beauty pageants, global conspiracies to uncover, holy wars to fight. Again, as I mention, this isn't the only cause of the current unrest, just one that I thought was under-discussed.
Interesting hypothesis, but articulated at such high levels of abstraction that cause and effect seem tenuous.
Bhogal first describes, then trivializes, then decries 'immersive fantasy' and it's impact on human reality, which currently manifests as... what exactly?
Holy wars and most varieties of human conflict have been around a LONG time.
Here's a start...transgenderism! (Credit Kathleen Stock for a lucid analysis of this phenomenon.)
But 'woke' is not just a game. If it is the stakes are mighty high... and THEY are playing for keeps.
And tho one's locus of control may be within, the locus of this threat is external.
So forgive me if I don't treat the the culture wars like an academic, lightly.
Haven’t people always invented struggles to give their lives purpose? Now it is sports, video games and social media, and a thousand years ago it was the bottom two steps of Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs. Early humans didn’t have a leisure class or incels, or young bored Muslims living in countries where they don’t belong.
I think people's lives kinda just *did* have purpose in the past, because survival was more work and there was more value placed on, say, reproducing, family, religion... Today people don't seem to have a guiding purpose, so invest in things that are pointless and unhealthy....
well, we didn't get really back to why people reject reality; however, after the gaming distraction discussion, we did finally get to what I think is a reason people are not acting in their own behalf, and that is the seemingly pervasive feeling of lack of control over our lives. this has a basis in reality, vis a vis economic deprivation of most people, but also a root in the way people are raised to believe that the world owes them something. boredom? how can this be in a world which is literally dying? work needs to be done in so many areas. well, maybe we did get back to why people reject reality: cause it's just to tough? :)
yes, I think that the rush to video games, et. al. is more a question of anxiety than boredom. it is giving up reality and a regression into infantilism. (a regression in service of the ego is the psych term I recall) playing games, playing with ones genitals is the behavior of 5 year olds. and of course all media encourages infantilism because it serves those in power.
this conversation started out to be about peoples' rejection of reality -- as Gurwinder spoke about his computer days with bing and his desire to give people factual information. he then mentions boredom and goes into a lengthy discussion of young Moslem men in the U..K. and in general the growing misogyny because these men feel that women have taken over the world. I hope this discussion gets back to why people reject facts. The really blatant "analysis" that most people have it so easy makes me wonder if he lives in the real world himself. Everyone I know is struggling to survive.
My argument is not that people have it easy, but that the most basic demands of existence, such as food, shelter, and orgasm, can now be (relatively) easily met, and this detachment of reward from effort has made many people listless and restless. In response, people invent new
struggles to give them a sense of purpose and accomplishment: sports, video games, social media beauty pageants, global conspiracies to uncover, holy wars to fight. Again, as I mention, this isn't the only cause of the current unrest, just one that I thought was under-discussed.
If you're more interested in my thoughts on why people reject facts, I write about that here: https://gurwinder.substack.com/p/introduction-my-origin-story
thanks for your contribution, but 1-1/2 hours was enough
Interesting hypothesis, but articulated at such high levels of abstraction that cause and effect seem tenuous.
Bhogal first describes, then trivializes, then decries 'immersive fantasy' and it's impact on human reality, which currently manifests as... what exactly?
Holy wars and most varieties of human conflict have been around a LONG time.
Here's a start...transgenderism! (Credit Kathleen Stock for a lucid analysis of this phenomenon.)
But 'woke' is not just a game. If it is the stakes are mighty high... and THEY are playing for keeps.
And tho one's locus of control may be within, the locus of this threat is external.
So forgive me if I don't treat the the culture wars like an academic, lightly.
Haven’t people always invented struggles to give their lives purpose? Now it is sports, video games and social media, and a thousand years ago it was the bottom two steps of Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs. Early humans didn’t have a leisure class or incels, or young bored Muslims living in countries where they don’t belong.
I think people's lives kinda just *did* have purpose in the past, because survival was more work and there was more value placed on, say, reproducing, family, religion... Today people don't seem to have a guiding purpose, so invest in things that are pointless and unhealthy....
well, we didn't get really back to why people reject reality; however, after the gaming distraction discussion, we did finally get to what I think is a reason people are not acting in their own behalf, and that is the seemingly pervasive feeling of lack of control over our lives. this has a basis in reality, vis a vis economic deprivation of most people, but also a root in the way people are raised to believe that the world owes them something. boredom? how can this be in a world which is literally dying? work needs to be done in so many areas. well, maybe we did get back to why people reject reality: cause it's just to tough? :)
yes, I think that the rush to video games, et. al. is more a question of anxiety than boredom. it is giving up reality and a regression into infantilism. (a regression in service of the ego is the psych term I recall) playing games, playing with ones genitals is the behavior of 5 year olds. and of course all media encourages infantilism because it serves those in power.