Consensual Boredom and Nausea

Some discussion of the way that the ettiquette of common situations is constructed to maximise boredom rather than achieve the supposed objectives, and the sleepiness and nausea experienced by some natural immunes when the hypothesis states their peers are getting dopamine hits.

From: Alan Carter

Hi All,

I was watching the TV news the other night, and a guy from the Russian Embassy was being interviewed about the planned military action at Grozny. The details don't matter - it could have been any political interview or "professional" meeting. The dialogue went as follows:

Journo: Question
Diplomat: Answer
Journo: But blah blah blah
Diplomat: But blah blah blah
Journo: But blah blah blah
Diplomat: But blah blah blah
Journo: But blah blah blah
Diplomat: But blah blah blah

and on and on for about 10 minutes, without any conclusions drawn. You've seen this many, many times.

I noticed that I was feeling nauseous while watching this carry-on. I've noticed this effect before. Just when things start to get stupid beyond words, I start feeling sick. I conjecture that just when most people are getting massive dopamine hits that make them into total idiots that feel like living gods, all that my raised dopamine does when it hits my defective receptors is make me feel literally, sick. Has anyone else had the experience of feeling sick in very boring circumstances?

This was interesting. I was watching a dopamine orgy. The underlying assumption that both parties were making was that each time their "but" denied the correctness of the other's previous statement. The whole thing occured with an attention span of not more than 2 statements, so they both contradicted themselves during the butting. With so short an attention span, it isn't possible to verify the internal consistency of either party's statements, or check the correctness of any statement and then proceed.

It's easy to see how this could be a very comfortable way to carry on for people who feel that thinking is hard, difficult and unpleasant because they are doped up on their own boredom products, but there must be more to it than that, because this futile behaviour is the way that all debates are always conducted.

Why do politicians and/or journalists never use little diagrams with arrows on them, showing steps in logic? Why do they never use spreadsheets? Why do they cheerfully respond to one "but" with another "but" that might be about an effect several orders of magnitude smaller than the first "but"?

Simple answer: Pointless, circular, dysfunctional joke dialogues like this are in themselves a content free dopamine raising ritual! It's rather like the way ISO9001 sites quickly degrade into the meta-ritual of "arguing" around in circles about the definition of the rituals! Perhaps this is why public policy debate is forever stuck in endless dysfunctional nonsense about tactics, and the objectives of the society (that presumably the tactics are intended to accomplish) are never addressed.

If people didn't just love these silly butting rituals, perhaps something like VisiCalc (1978?) might be used instead, and the tactical planning would become a triviality. Then the debate might move onto the real issues: what are the objectives of society?

Of course, that would expose the horrible truth: The objectives of society are following procedures - any procedures - for the sake of it!

It will be a very much better world with M0 broken.

From: William Wechtenhiser

Has anyone else had the experience of feeling sick in very boring circumstances?

Yes, all the time! I also find that I will literally start falling asleep. You should understand that I never fall asleep if I don't want to (i.e. if I am doing something interesting). Reading some technical books (usually Windows related) can induce this effect as well.

From: "Joss Earl"

Has anyone else had the experience of feeling sick in very boring circumstances?

I've never felt sick, for me its more like a pain inside my head. I used to get this in meetings at my previous company. I thought of it in terms of fighting to keep my brain supplied with oxygen. There was a definite feeling of asphyxiation. I used to get something similar in school before I learnt to block things out and go into a completely oblivious trance.

Why do politicians and/or journalists never use little diagrams with arrows on them, showing steps in logic? Why do they never use spreadsheets? Why do they cheerfully respond to one "but" with another "but" that might be about an effect several orders of magnitude smaller than the first "but"?

'Serious' jornalists never properly analyze anything. The only time you'll see a logical deconstruction of a politicians statements is by comedians. Political journalists are on the same wavelength as the politicians. I would far rather see Jack Dee interview Tony Blair than Paxman.

Now, its interesting to watch how people respond to this kind of comedy. The absurdity is pointed out, people laugh, but the notion that these are actual policies being justified by ridiculous distortions never enters their heads. Heaven forbid that a 'serious person' would let the demonstrated insanity of the arguments influence their belief in these arguments.

I think there's something quite significant going on here. For M0 inflicted people laughter is a last resort defence mechanism when presented with any notion that poses the danger of inducing thought. It's just a joke, I don't have to think about it, laugh and then quickly forget it. This is an easily testable hypothesis. Most people can watch good poltical comedy for 15 minutes, laughing the whole time. Immediately afterwards ask them to repeat anything they heard. If they can remember any of the more accurate lines of reasoning they laughed at, then I'm wrong.

Next time you're laughed at for some serious suggestion or argument, try this: "what was so funny" "Oh, you're being ridiculous" "Are you sure my line of reasoning was ridiculous" "absolutely" "what was it ?"

I bet they won't be able to tell you.

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