The article on mindbugs reminded me of some of the concepts that we talked about in leadership 102. It is clear that humans are basically incapable of seeing the full picture and that definitely worries me. I was thinking about how often members of my family and I remember the past differently. We are both positive that we are right, but tell different stories involving different people, places etc. It is clear here that we are filling in gaps in our memories, but doing it differently based on what is convenient for our brains. People always want to claim that they are in the right, but based on this reading it seems that both people might never be in the right.
The implications of these mindbugs are scary. We are making decisions with faulty information most of the time. This affects how we make choices all the time, even if we do not realize it. To me, it is frustrating that we can know that we make decisions using faulty logic all the time, but not really know how to stop that. It reminded me of the book Predictably Irrational which talks about how we know that humans make completely irrational decisions, but are comfortable that way. Certain decisions might make sense in our heads, but are completely not grounded in reality. It’s frustrating that even though I am aware of mindbugging and some of its implications, it would still be hard, and probably impossible in some cases, to train myself to think differently.
Ellen, I agree with you response and mentioned similar things in my blog post. I remember talking about unconscious activity of the mind and it also scared me to think about how often I unknowingly did such things. Similar to your account of your family having different memories, I described how I have had trouble remembering specific details about certain important or high pressure events in my past. I understand why you could get angry about the implications of mind bugging but I don’t think there is anything to do to combat it
I agree that the implications of mindbugs are scary. It reminds me of when we talked about conventional wisdom in 102, and how we go about life doing things a certain way because it’s generally accepted that that’s the right way. A tame example would be waiting 30-45 minutes after you eat before swimming. Who came up with that and why is that something everyone knows and possibly follows? It makes you wonder what other ideas we blindly follow and never question because society accepts them as true.
I agree that mindbugs are worrying when considering that neither person may ever be right. Your post reminded me of that saying that is something along the lines of “the truth lies between both stories” (I’m paraphrasing here). I think that that saying has more truth to it than I had ever originally thought. Like you said with your family remembering the past differently, I think that it is interesting (and terrifying) how two people could remember events and conversations completely differently.
Im not sure if I would call mindbugs concerning. I think it is more interesting than scary because in my opinion is is fascinating to learn about how people make choices. I see where you’re coming from when you say that because it almost feels like were not actually making good choices, but I think that we all make the best choices with the information that we have.
Mindbugs scares me as well. It makes me wonder what things that I think I remeber aren’t true. I wonder if I personally change my memories to be more appealing to me without noticing it. I also wonder if it effects my decisions and to what degree.