In a recent online poll of 1,009 individuals, over 60% of each age category said they prioritize life experiences over possessions. Whether “experiences” are more damaging to the environment than possessions depends on the experiences and the possessions.
The thing about monopolies is that they are mostly harmful when they are truly monopolies - that is, there is no real competition for the product/service they provide and the price of entry is steep for potential competitors. But what constitutes the competition is not always obvious. Take Greyhound. Greyhound could be considered a monopoly in some areas of the country, but only when competition is defined as other companies of the same kind, i.e., other bus companies. We know that’s absurd. Greyhound’s competitors are also other forms of transportation: cars, planes, trains.
Cognitive decoupling happens when we distinguish what we suppose to be true from what might actually be the case.
Type 2 processing involves experiencing beliefs as beliefs, as windows-in-themselves and not windows-on-the-world. So, when we are coupling cognitive-wise, we are considering cognitions as objects of attention – much like when we are “observing thoughts”.
The content of our resting states is mostly something else, like a sensory impressions, visual imagery, waves of emotion, or unsymbolized thinking (wordless and imageless, but there doing something - like wondering or questioning or realizing – but without words). So if our “task-independent” experience doesn’t involve words most of the time, what does it mean to “observe thoughts as they unfold”? What are we observing when the mental activity does not include words? And when they do, how do we mark the boundary between one “thought” and another?
Is it possible for human societies to achieve or maintain a high standard of living without causing significant environmental harm? As a first step in this exploration, I’m going to define a high standard of living as a situation where the basic needs of the population are taken care of and about 50% of income can go to discretionary spending.
We’re in a resting state when we’re not performing a task, when the brain is “at ease, sir”, doing its thing in the default mode. Hurlburt and colleagues just published a paper comparing “resting state” in two conditions: in an MRI scanner and the natural environment of the subjects. They found that resting states have five characteristics: inner seeing (visual images), inner speaking, sensory awareness, feelings (i.e., emotions), and unsymbolized thinking (wordless, imageless, but there doing something - like wondering or questioning or realizing – but without words).
Hope springs eternal, especially the having your cake and eating it too variety. One example is the idea of increasing environmental protection without sacrificing economic growth. Can it be done? Hardcore environmentalists tend to say no, economic activity is the main way humans hurt the environment.
BIG would be funded through the portion of government budgets devoted to safety net programs (about 11% of the federal budget, with states contributing matching funds). Let’s see if we can cobble together a decent BIG budget through the elimination of the programs that BIG would replace, plus selective reductions in other programs.
Years ago I went to a meeting. People were talking about moments of feeling bad about themselves. When recounting these episodes, there was this pained look on their faces, as if the experience of being self-critical was a type of suffering, for which they required years of therapy. I kept on thinking: Oh, pleeeease!
If only more people were aware of their dark potential, the world would truly be a better place. Accepting that all of us are inherently flawed would make it harder to dismiss or dehumanize anyone in particular. It would also make it harder to believe in utopian ideologies, which bring out the worst in our species.
Short answer: no. There is no way a reasonable Basic Income Guarantee (BIG), be it $700 a month or $1500 a month, would eliminate poverty. For one thing, there will always be people who are bad with money, whose budgeting skills leave much to be desired - the net result being their checks run out before the basic necessities are provided for, even if they had even money to begin with.
In “Ten Commandments of How to Fail in an Environmental Campaign”, Avner de-Shalit discusses the various ways environmentalists alienate potential supporters. The Second Commandment is my favorite: Always Use the Terminology of Despair.
“The word thinking is arguably the most problematic word in the exploration of pristine experience.” (Hurlburt and Heavey, 2015, p. 151).
University of Nevada Las Vegas psychologist Russell T. Hurlburt and his colleagues have been engaging in a series of studies involving beeping subjects randomly to have them jot down whatever they are experiencing at the moment of being beeped.
“The word thinking is arguably the most problematic word in the exploration of pristine experience.” (Hurlburt and Heavey, 2015, p. 151).
University of Nevada Las Vegas psychologist Russell T. Hurlburt and his colleagues have been engaging in a series of studies involving beeping subjects randomly to have them jot down whatever they are experiencing at the moment of being beeped.
Cultivating a kind of watchful, disengaged awareness isn’t just for special occasions, like when we’re feeling sad or angry; it’s for all our waking hours, regardless of mood or thought content.
Mind wandering is the brain exploring the problem space. It’s where the brain goes when we are not intentionally focusing on something (or, to be precise, when those parts of the brain are not engaged in processes that are experienced as intentionally focusing on things, with the understanding that “experiencing” is also a product of the brain). Problem spaces being what they are, the human animal is not always in a cheerful mood when its mind is wandering.
...the size of the BIG can’t be determined by the expenses of a subset of the whole, or the temporary circumstances of given individuals. BIG should not be conceived as the exclusive remedy covering all contingencies.
We are animals with brains. Awareness evolved because it helped our ancestors survive and reproduce. Brains produce awareness. Awareness tracks attention, most of the time. Awareness is a constantly updated experience of our dynamically changing state of attention. Attention enhances signals and reflects competition among signals in the brain.
While organic farming methods can be as or more productive than conventional methods, for many large scale crops, organic just doesn’t compete. For instance, in the US, organic corn, soybean and wheat crop yields are much lower than conventional yields.