2017 Maps of Meaning 05: Story and Metastory (Part 1)

Introduction

The speaker introduces the topic of conceptualizing a solution to the complexity of the world.

Simplifying the World

• The world is too complex to properly perceive.

• There's more of everything else than there is of you, including parts of yourself that you don't understand.

• We simplify the world as a place in which to act rather than a place in which to perceive objects.

Stories and Meta-Stories

The speaker discusses stories and meta-stories as units of useful information for action and perception.

Structure of Stories and Meta-Stories

• A story is the simplest unit of useful information with regards to action and perception.

• A meta-story is a story about how a story like that transforms.

• Concentrating on the structure of stories first before getting into the structure of meta-stories.

Model of the World

The speaker talks about how we make models of the world and act based on them.

Complete Model vs Simplified Model

• It was presumed that we make a complete model of the world then act in it, comparing what happens to that model.

• If our model mismatches with reality, our emotions become uncontrollable.

Psychophysiological Measurement

The speaker discusses psychophysiological measurement and how it is used to infer brain function.

Psychophysiological Measurement

• Psychophysiological measurement is a way of inferring brain function.

• Skin resistance changes with the amount that you sweat, which can be measured accurately by measuring the electrical resistance of the skin.

• Skin conductance increases when exposed to something threatening, like a picture of a snake.

Habituation

The speaker talks about habituation as the simplest form of learning.

Habituation

• Habituation is the simplest form of learning and can be seen in snails.

• Human beings also manifest responses that could be modeled by simple organisms.

The Orienting Reflex

In this section, the speaker discusses the orienting reflex and how it is a fast-acting reflex that helps us respond to external stimuli.

The Spinal Cord and Fast-Acting Reflexes

• The spinal cord can mediate a reflex by itself, indicating that our brains are distributed throughout our body.

• We have conserved fast-acting reflexes at various levels of our nervous system that help us match with the demands of the external environment.

Sokolov's Experiment on Orienting Reflex

• Sokolov conducted an experiment where he varied tones on many parameters to see if perceptible changes would produce an orienting reflex.

• Sokolov concluded that we must be producing a complex internal model of the world in concordance with every perceptible dimension to know when something has changed.

Complexity of Orienting Reflex

• The orienting reflex is not just an alteration in skin conductance but rather, it is the manner in which we start to unfold our response to the unknown.

• The orienting reflex can manifest itself over an extraordinarily long period of time as it is part of what can be a very complex learning process.

Betrayal and Learning

In this section, the speaker uses betrayal as an example to explain how learning occurs after experiencing a shock or trauma.

Initial Response to Betrayal

• When someone experiences betrayal, the initial response is reflexive and akin to the response one would manifest if they saw a predator or a snake.

• The body reacts first, followed by an emotional response that can extend over days, weeks, months, or even years.

Adjusting to Betrayal

• As someone responds emotionally to betrayal, they start to re-sort out their interpretive schema so that it can adjust to the transformation caused by the event.

• The orienting reflex can manifest itself over an extraordinarily long period of time as part of what can be a very complex learning process.

Internal Model and Perception

In this section, the speaker discusses the theory of an internal model and how it relates to perception. The speaker explains that the hippocampus watches for mismatches between the external world and our internal model, which triggers an orienting reflex. The difficulty of perceiving the world is discussed, as well as how this observation led to problems in creating artificially intelligent systems.

The Theory of Internal Model

• An internal model is produced by our senses to create a representation of the external world.

• The hippocampus watches for mismatches between our internal model and changes in the external world.

• If there is a mismatch, an orienting reflex occurs, and our body prepares itself for whatever that mismatch means.

Perception Difficulties

• Perceiving the world is much more difficult than people had guessed.

• Even seemingly simple tasks like walking are difficult for robots because perceiving objects in different contexts can be challenging.

• Detecting changes in perception is not as easy as previously thought.

Difficulty of Perceiving Objects

This section delves deeper into why perceiving objects can be so difficult. The speaker uses examples such as chairs and paintings to illustrate how complex perception can be.

Complexity of Perceiving Objects

• It's hard enough to see a normal object like a chair because it looks different depending on its location or lighting.

• Painters like Monet explored how radically different objects could appear under different conditions of illumination.

• Our perception of an object depends on its context and relationship with our body.

Interpreting Texts

In this section, the speaker discusses how interpreting texts can be even more challenging than perceiving objects. The complexity of interpretation is explored through examples such as novels and Russian literature.

Complexity of Interpreting Texts

• The meaning that manifests itself out of a book is a consequence of all the complexity of the book plus all the complexity of the reader.

• Interpretations depend on factors such as the author's intent, time, place, culture, and language.

• Re-reading a book at different times in your life can result in vastly different interpretations.

• Postmodernists concluded that extracting a canonical meaning from a text was an error because it's so dependent on the situation.

Counting the White Team

In this section, the speaker describes an experiment where participants are asked to count the number of times a white team throws a basketball back and forth.

The Experiment

• Participants are asked to count the number of times a white team throws a basketball back and forth while ignoring the black team.

• A person in a gorilla suit walks through the scene, but many people do not notice it.

Change Blindness

In this section, the speaker discusses change blindness and how it affects human perception.

Change Blindness

• People often miss significant changes in their environment due to change blindness.

• Even if people see one change, they may miss other changes that occur simultaneously.

• Psychologists previously believed that humans were attuned to changes in their environment, but experiments like the gorilla video show that humans are much blinder than we think.

Vision and Perception

In this section, the speaker talks about how vision works and how humans perceive their environment.

Foveal Vision

• Humans focus on specific parts of their visual field using foveal vision which is incredibly high resolution.

• Peripheral vision is better at detecting movement than still objects because it evolved as an early warning system for potential threats.

Selective Attention

• Humans have limited attention resources so they must selectively attend to certain stimuli in their environment while ignoring others.

• Deciding what stimuli to attend to is an insanely complicated problem known as the problem of relevance.

Perception

• Humans create a model of the world based on objects and their interactions, but this model is not always accurate.

• Perception is a complex process that involves comparing this mental model to the actual environment and making sense of any discrepancies.

Cybernetic Theory and Perception

In this section, the speaker discusses how cybernetic theory assumes a complete model of the world, but in reality, our perception of the world is also a model. The speaker explains how we compare our partial model of the world to a desired or expected model and how anomalies can upset our current pursuit.

Models of the World

• Our perception of the world as it unfolds is also a model.

• We have a partial model of the world that we compare to a desired or expected model.

• Anomalies can upset our current pursuit when there is a mismatch between these models.

Value Structure and Perception

• Our value structure determines what we perceive in the world.

• We see only what is necessary for us to undertake the next sequence in our plotted movements.

• The nested levels of meaning in literary works are similar to those in our actions and perceptions.

Ultimate Values

• Our ultimate values determine why we do what we do, but they may not be consciously known to us.

• Understanding these values can help us make sense of why we are doing something at any given moment.

Basic-Level Categories

In this section, the speaker discusses how children learn basic-level categories and why they use short words to represent them.

Children's Language Acquisition

• Children learn basic-level categories first.

• Short words are often used to represent these categories.

• These short words reflect the natural level at which people perceive the world.

Category System

In this section, the speaker explains how it is difficult to specify meaning levels and figure out how we categorize things.

Categorization of Animals

• It is difficult to specify meaning levels.

• People automatically use a category system to encapsulate events.

• The same circuit that produces an emotional utterance in monkeys when detecting predators is activated when cursing due to a computer crash.

• There are different linguistic circuits for different situations.

Dealing with Complex Situations

In this section, the speaker talks about how humans deal with complex situations like a computer crash.

Computer Crash Example

• When a computer crashes, people curse using the same circuit that monkeys use to detect predators.

• People tend to hit their computers out of aggression because they are using old circuits that were there 30 million years ago.

• People tend to look at things at the simplest level of analysis that actually functions when dealing with complex situations.

Solar Flares and Electronics

In this section, the speaker discusses solar flares and their potential impact on electronics.

Solar Flares and Electromagnetic Pulses

• A solar flare can produce a huge electromagnetic pulse that can take out all electronics if it hits Earth directly.

• An event like this happens about every 150 years.

• If an event like this happened now, it would take out all electronics, including satellites, computers, and cars.

• There is no known solution to this problem.

The Complexity of Our Electrical System

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the complexity of our electrical system and how it is dependent on various factors such as the stability of the political and economic systems.

The Dependence on Stability

• Our electrical power is dependent on various factors such as the stability of the political and economic systems.

• The stability of our computer is also dependent on these systems.

• When things don't work, we get a glimpse of how complex our electrical system really is.

Choosing the Proper Level of Analysis

In this section, Dr. Peterson talks about choosing the proper level of analysis when fixing problems in our lives.

Choosing Your Battles

• When having an argument with someone, it's important to choose your battles and not jump to catastrophic conclusions.

• People who are depressed or high in neuroticism tend to propagate negative emotions throughout their entire system.

• It's important to calculate whether something should upset you or not, but it can be difficult to determine what level of analysis to use.

Fixing Problems at Different Levels

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses fixing problems at different levels and how microchips are becoming so small that they're causing new problems.

Fixing Problems at Different Levels

• When fixing a problem with your computer, you have to pick the proper level of analysis to fix it.

• Microchips are becoming so small that they're causing new problems, such as electrons being outside the wires and short-circuiting themselves.

Perception and Games

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the importance of using the simplest explanation to fix a problem and conserving limited time and resources. He also talks about how to argue effectively by specifying what's going on at a micro level and identifying the smallest possible thing that could fix the problem. Additionally, he explains the concept of perception and how our senses filter information from us.

Using Simplest Explanation to Fix a Problem

• Use the simplest tool possible to fix a problem.

• Identify the minimum involvement of time and effort required to put the tool back together.

• Argue about the smallest possible thing that could fix the problem.

Perception

• Specify what's going on at a micro level.

• The "thing in itself" is an old philosophical concept that refers to what you could see if you could see everything about something.

• Our senses filter information from us, simplifying our perception of things.

• We simplify our perception of others by agreeing to play the same game while we occupy the same space.

• Culture is mostly a game that people are actively engaging in.

Importance of Identifying Games

• If you're well socialized, you're awake enough to identify games wherever you go.

• Culture is only secondarily a belief system; mostly it's a game that people are actively engaging in.

The Complexity of the World

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the complexity of the world and how it can be conceptualized using different models.

Models for Understanding Complexity

• The world is complex and can be conceptualized using different models.

• Music is a good model for understanding complexity because it shows a multi-level reality that unfolds and shifts across time within some parameters.

• A cube is a more accurate model than a rectangle, but even a cube has three dimensions instead of four.

• Different ways to look at an object depend on what you want to use it for.

Simplifications of Complex Objects

• A rectangle may not be an accurate representation of an object, but it could be useful as a functional simplification.

• Piaget showed that children automatically simplify complex objects by perceiving them as bars or collections of dots.

• Perception of individual dots versus perception of the shape that the array of dots makes can affect judgments about quantity.

Ideology and Complexity

• Disagreements about facts are not just disagreements about opinions; people can disagree about facts themselves due to the complexity of the world.

• Naomi Klein's movie about workers in Argentina only presented half-truths because she did not consider the complexity behind why the factory owner shut down his business.

Overall, Dr. Peterson emphasizes that understanding complexity requires multiple models and perspectives, and that oversimplifying complex objects or situations can lead to misunderstandings.

Perception and Truth

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how our perception of reality is simplified due to its complexity and how it is dependent on our aims. He also explains how we compress complex reality into a simple perception and then into a word.

Perception Simplification

• Our perception of reality is simplified due to its complexity.

• Perceptual simplification depends on our aims, which can pull the value structure we are ensconced within into our perceptions.

Compressing Reality

• We compress complex reality into a simple perception by blurring across details, resulting in a low-resolution representation.

• This low-resolution representation is then compressed further into a word, resulting in twofold compression.

Unpacking Words

• When someone receives the word, they unpack it into a low-resolution perception that requires similar experiences for reference.

• The only way to unpack words is if you have enough similar experience so that you have the reference for the word already in your experience.

Science vs Religion

In this section, Dr. Peterson compares fundamentalists and atheistic scientists' approach to truth and explains why their arguments are flawed.

Fundamentalists' Proposition

• Christian fundamentalists make the proposition that biblical stories are literal representations of truth and should be treated as scientific facts because they don't have different ways of approaching truth or definitions of "truth" as tools rather than ontological statements about the world's reality.

• They believe that God created the world in six days five thousand years ago based on genealogies from the Old Testament added up by hypothetical ages.

Atheistic Scientists' Proposition

• Atheistic scientists argue that the fundamentalists' propositions are empirical truths, but they're just wrong.

• The only difference between the two is that the fundamentalists say those are fundamental scientific truths, and they're right, while scientists say they're scientific truths, but they happen to be wrong.

Flawed Arguments

• The people who wrote ancient stories were not scientists and did not think like modern-day scientists.

• Confirmation bias characterizes thinking of non-scientifically trained individuals. In contrast, a scientist looks for ways to prove their theory wrong in their narrow domain of expertise.

• The philosophical axioms of the scientific method weren't developed until Descartes and Bacon in the last thousand years or so.

The Scientific Method and the Nature of Reality

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the scientific method and its impact on our understanding of reality. He explains how the scientific method has become so powerful that it is difficult to dispute the validity of scientific facts.

The Plausibility of Pre-Scientific Stories

• Aristotle did not have access to modern scientific methods.

• It was never self-evident to anyone five hundred years ago that we should compare records and extract what was common.

• Fundamentalists and atheists both believe in scientific facts, even if they don't agree on everything.

The Problem with Scientific Viewpoint

• People who hold onto a way of looking at the world that appears to contradict scientific claims find it problematic.

• Science doesn't tell us anything about what we should do with our lives or solve the problem of value.

• Every fact is considered equal from a scientific perspective.

Two Different Viewpoints

• There are two different questions: What's the world made of? How should you conduct yourself while you're alive?

• Physics, chemistry, and biology each have their own methods for obtaining truth.

• Maybe we need two different viewpoints instead of trying to use one approach for both questions.

Value System

• You need a value system to conduct yourself in the world.

• Emotional health and interactions with others depend on a value system.

• No justification for any value system from a scientific perspective leads to no rationale for living.

The Importance of Stories

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of stories and how they help people understand how to live properly.

The Significance of Shakespeare's Plays

• Shakespeare's plays capture something essential about human behavior that is still relevant today.

• People watch Shakespeare's plays because they outline how people should and shouldn't act.

• Good and bad characters in stories help people understand how to live properly.

Why Stories are Compelling

• Stories are compelling to everyone because they help people understand how to live properly.

• Understanding stories is fundamental to figuring out how to get along in the world.

The Relationship Between Stories and Behavior

• There is a tight relationship between the story that you inhabit and your behavior.

• People can organize their behavior because they accept a shared value system.

• Investigating the world to acquire knowledge is worthwhile, which is why we're all here in the classroom.

Complexity as a Fundamental Problem

• Complexity causes suffering if it's uncontrolled, which can lead some people to seek death through suicide.

• The complexity problem is more fundamental than the problem of death.

The Relationship Between Mental Illness and Complexity

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how people come to psychologists not necessarily because of mental illness but because their lives are too complicated to manage.

People Come to Psychologists Because Their Lives Are Too Complicated

• People come to psychologists not because they have a mental illness, but because their lives are too complicated.

• Adding complexity on top of someone can cause them to collapse in the direction of their biological weakness, resulting in symptoms such as physiological illness, anxiety disorders, OCD or depression.

• Mental illnesses almost never happen by themselves; usually people have been hammered two or three different ways before collapsing in the direction of their biological weakness.

• Complexity is almost always the root cause of psychological problems rather than mental illness.

Walls and Boundaries: Simplifying Life

In this section, Dr. Peterson talks about how building walls around your space can help simplify your life.

Building Walls Around Your Space Can Help Simplify Your Life

• Building walls around your space is a practical way to simplify your life by keeping out things you don't need to think about.

• Old cities were walled for protection against theft and violence. Similarly, having borders between categories or rooms in your house helps keep things organized and simplified.

• The fundamental political difference between people is how many walls should be around their stuff. Liberals tend towards zero walls while conservatives prefer more boundaries.

Temperamental Factors That Influence Politics

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the temperamental factors that influence political beliefs.

Temperamental Factors That Influence Political Beliefs

• The biggest predictors of political allegiance are conscientiousness and openness.

• Liberals tend to be low in conscientiousness and high in openness, while conservatives tend to be high in conscientiousness and low in openness.

• Open people like to live on the periphery of boundaries and break boundaries between things. They think outside of the box, no matter what box they are put in.

• Orderly people like to have everything in its separate place and properly structured. Their world is a box inside a box, inside a shelf of boxes, all nice and neat.

The Role of Boundaries and Discrimination in Society

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the role of boundaries and discrimination in society. He explains how we use walls to simplify the world and create safe spaces for ourselves, but also how discrimination is a fundamental aspect of human behavior.

Boundaries and Walls

• Disgust indexes a boundary violation, which is why we use walls to separate ourselves from others.

• Walls make part of the world simpler by creating safe spaces for us to modulate information flow.

• We set up rules with others that allow us to have our own walls while paying them for the privilege of having their own walls.

Discrimination in Relationships

• Discrimination is a fundamental aspect of human behavior, especially when it comes to choosing sexual partners.

• People discriminate based on age, physical attractiveness, health, strength, wealth, education, etc.

• Discrimination is fair because everyone gets to do it; it's like saying "no" to someone if they get to say "no" to you.

Simplification and Dramatization

• We carve off little bits of the world that are simple enough for us to live in without too much danger.

• We set up rooms as little dramatic spaces by furnishing them with things that tell us how to behave in that room.

Simplification and Boundaries

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how simplification and boundaries help us navigate the world around us.

Setting up Stages

• When we invite someone over, we set up little stages with rules that apply.

• This creates a bounded place where exploration can occur within a set of rules.

Segregation into Microgroups

• People segregate themselves into microgroups based on temperamental grounds.

• These groups produce games that everyone knows how to play, which simplifies the world.

Procedures in Place

• There are procedures in place at political conventions that have historical justification and are embedded within a shared cultural belief system.

• Everyone agrees to play by these rules, which allows for power transitions without chaos.

Power Transitions

• Power transitions are rare and difficult to achieve but are necessary for stable societies.

• A tyrant can be stable for a while, but usually when they die all hell breaks loose.

Limitations of Perception

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how our physiological structure limits what we perceive in the world around us.

Evolutionary Determined Perception

• Our perception is evolutionarily determined; we can only see things that are in front of us and a narrow chunk of the electromagnetic spectrum.

• Objects manifest themselves as things because they have some relationship to our capacity to use them as tools.

Filtering Information

• Our body filters out the world for us and provides access to some information and not others.

• Being connected to technology opens up our senses beyond their normal limitations, making it easy to drown in information.

Distributed Brain

• Our brain is distributed throughout our whole body, not just in our head.

• We have an awful lot of neurological tissue distributed through our body that controls voluntary movement.

The Role of the Body in Thought

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how the Enlightenment idea of separating thought from the body has led to a view of rationality as being separate from emotion and motivation. He argues that this view is limited and that thinking should be seen as part of the body's function.

The Body and Rationality

• The Enlightenment idea separated thought from the body.

• Rationality was seen as separate from emotion and motivation.

• Freud's idea of a properly functioning ego also saw rationality as suppressing irrationality.

• However, if we see the brain and nervous system as part of the body, then thinking becomes something different.

The Brain and Nervous System

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how different parts of the brain are specialized for different functions. He explains how these divisions were first developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Divisions in the Brain

• Different parts of the brain are specialized for different functions.

• The frontal cortex is concerned with organizing motor action.

• The prefrontal cortex helps plan voluntary actions.

• It generates avatars to figure out how they would survive if implemented into action.

Conscientiousness vs Intelligence

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how conscientiousness and intelligence are not correlated despite both being associated with planning and forward thinking.

Conscientiousness vs Intelligence

• Psychometrically, there is no correlation between conscientiousness and intelligence.

• Both are associated with planning and forward thinking.

The Relationship Between Dreaming and Action

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the relationship between dreaming and action, and how they are tightly allied with each other.

Dreaming and Paralysis

• When you dream, you're paralyzed.

• The little part of the brain that produces that paralysis can be taken out of a cat or person.

• Dream thinking is so tightly allied with action that there's no separation between them.

Abstraction and Thinking

• If you couldn't abstract, you wouldn't be able to think.

• There's very little correlation between conscientiousness and intelligence.

• You have to be able to think about things that you wouldn't do if you're going to think.

Brain Functionality

• A huge part of the brain is devoted to sensory processing while another part is devoted to planning.

• As far as your evolved body is concerned, the reason that you think is so that you can act better.

Memory as Pragmatic Information Mining

In this section, Dr. Peterson talks about memory from a pragmatic perspective and how it helps us bring information forward into the future.

Memory as Pragmatic Information Mining

• Your memory of the world isn't an objective record of events but rather mining your experience for information that you can bring forward into the future.

• Memory serves a purely pragmatic purpose in helping us act better in the future by providing relevant information from our past experiences.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Situational Analysis

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how to deal with post-traumatic stress disorder and the importance of situational analysis.

Dealing with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

• People with post-traumatic stress disorder want to retool their perceptions and actions so that the probability of having the same experience again is minimized.

• A situational analysis can help people understand that not everything that happened was because of what they did or didn't do.

• Trauma is like 80 million snakes all at once, making it impossible to go through all the material.

Personality Compatibility

• Temperamentally incompatible partners can cause problems in a relationship.

• Highly conscientious people may have trouble working things out with partners who are very low in conscientiousness.

Extracting Information from the Past and Present

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how to conduct oneself properly in the future by extracting information from past and present experiences.

Conducting Oneself Properly

• Conduct oneself properly by extracting information from past and present experiences.

• Situational analysis is necessary to extract relevant information.

The Pragmatic Element of Thought

In this section, Dr. Peterson talks about the pragmatic element of thought and describes minor subdivisions within the brain.

Minor Subdivisions Within the Brain

• The cerebral cortex is a huge part of the brain that's about a square meter if unfolded.

• Most processing occurs on the surface of the cerebral cortex.

• The thalamus appears to be where a lot of information in the brain is integrated.

• The cerebellum helps with balance and sequencing complex motor activities.

• The hippocampus compares your model of the world as it's unfolding with your desired model, keeping track of mismatches and disinhibiting emotional centers when detecting a mismatch, which leads to response to unknown situations.

Importance of Hypothalamus

In this section, Dr. Peterson explains why hypothalamus is an incredibly important part of the brain.

Hypothalamus

• Hypothalamus provides major psychological frames for regulating body temperature, eating/drinking, defensive aggression, mating behavior (in females), etc., even if other parts are removed or damaged (e.g., decorticate cat).

• Hypothalamus is a small part of the brain located at the top of the spinal cord.

Curiosity and Ignoring Things

In this section, Dr. Peterson talks about how curiosity works in relation to investigating things.

Curiosity and Ignoring Things

• A cat with no brain except for hypothalamus can still function reasonably well, but it's hypercurious because it hasn't learned to ignore things yet.

• Investigating something builds a functional representation that stands for the thing itself, which leads to ignoring it.

• Great artists remind us that there's more to things than what we see now that we've learned to ignore them.

Complexity of Analyzing Body Parts

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how analyzing body parts doesn't seem to get less complex as you go farther down.

Analyzing Body Parts

• Going down the body from an analytic perspective doesn't seem to get less complex as you go farther down; some parts are made out of even more bunches of things, which makes analysis difficult.

The Physical Nature of DNA

In this section, the speaker talks about the physical nature of DNA and how it is replicated.

Unzipping DNA Strands

• When the double helix of DNA is unzipped, you can see the letters of the genetic code.

• The two strands of DNA run in opposite directions, which creates complications during replication.

DNA Replication Machine

• A miniature biochemical machine pulls apart the DNA strand and makes an exact copy.

• One strand can be copied directly while the other must be copied backwards, creating two new DNA molecules.

• Billions of these machines are working inside our bodies right now with exquisite fidelity.

Chromosomes

• To keep DNA organized and regulate access to genetic code, it's wrapped around purple proteins and packaged up in bundles called chromosomes.

• The kinetic core is a structure made up of about 200 different types of proteins that broadcasts chemical signals to tell the rest of the cell when it's ready for separation. It also senses tension and couples onto growing/shrinking microtubules.

Molecular Eye Candy

In this section, the speaker talks about kinesins and dyneins, which are molecular courier molecules that carry out various functions in the body.

Kinesins and Dyneins

• Kinesins are orange-colored molecular courier molecules that move in one direction.

• Dyneins are carrying a red broadcasting system and have long legs to step around obstacles.

• These structures are derived from science but cannot be shown any other way.

Eradicating Disease

In this section, the speaker talks about how discovering new things is just a step towards eradicating diseases and eliminating suffering.

Eradicating Disease

• Discovering new things is just a step towards eradicating diseases.

• The ultimate goal is to eliminate suffering caused by disease and lift people out of poverty.

Hypothalamus: The Most Basic Frames

In this section, the speaker discusses the hypothalamus as the most basic framing process for human behavior.

The Hypothalamus

• The hypothalamus sets up the most basic frames for human behavior.

• There are complicated subsystems within the hypothalamus that contribute to motivation and emotion.

• Motivation and emotion are not uniform sets of structures; they're made up of qualitatively different structures.

• Shorthands used to divide up emotions and motivations become awkward as resolution increases.

• Motivation seems to be the initial framing process for human behavior.

• Babies come into the world with pre-packaged categories for existence, including hunger, thirst, pleasure, pain, anxiety, and emotions like sadness and joy.

• Babies also have more complicated systems in place for exploration and play.

• The operation of these subsystems can be thought of as games with an aim or subpersonalities.

Skinner's Rats and Motivation

This section discusses how Skinner's rats were used as a model for simple behavior learning, but they were not an accurate representation of real rats. The section also introduces the concept of motivation and how it sets goals.

Skinner's Rats

• Skinner could get rats to do almost anything by rewarding them with food.

• His rats were starved down to 75% of their normal body weight, making them genetically altered from wild rats and not as complex as real rats.

• A starving rat is a good model for a person, but many models of simple behavior learning are based on starving, isolated rats.

How to Think About Motivation

• Motivation sets goals and emotions track progress towards those goals.

• When hungry, you aim at something to eat which organizes your perceptions towards that task.

• Positive emotion arises when things align themselves out that facilitate movement forward while negative emotion arises when encountering obstacles.

Hypothalamus and Basic Motivations

• The hypothalamus pops up micro-goals that are directly relevant to biological survival producing a frame of reference.

• Basic motivations are regulated by the hypothalamus.

The Role of the Hypothalamus in Emotion Regulation

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses how to prevent falling under the control of the hypothalamus and how we regulate our emotions by avoiding situations that require its action.

Avoiding Situations Controlled by the Hypothalamus

• To avoid falling under the dominion of your hypothalamus, never be anywhere where its action is necessary.

• Basic motivations such as hunger, thirst, pain, anger/aggression, thermoregulation, panic/escape, affiliation/care, sexual desire, exploration/play are regulated by different circuits in the hypothalamus.

Motivational Categories and Conflict Resolution

• These basic motivations can be categorized into self-maintenance (survival), ingestive and defensive systems for self-maintenance (hunger/thirst/pain/anger/thermoregulation/panic/escape), reproductive system (affiliation/care/sexual desire), and exploration/play.

• The rest of the brain is needed to solve conflicts between these systems that can arise from present or future needs or conflicting desires with others.

• The rest of the brain regulates these systems and integrates them into a personality that interacts with other personalities through an emergent process.

Piaget's Theory on Value Systems

• Piaget's theory on value systems maps nicely onto physiology even though he did not nail it down to physiology due to lack of knowledge at his time. He proposed that individuals come into the world with micropersonalities centered around fundamental motivational axes which get them started in life.

Importance of Routine for Children

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the importance of establishing a routine for children to help them regulate their underlying biological systems and reduce preoccupation with different motivational systems.

Establishing Stability in Children's Lives

• Establishing a routine helps integrate underlying biological systems into unity.

• Routine helps regulate sleep, eating, and staying warm in a stable manner.

• It frees children from arbitrary domination by different motivational systems.

• Attend to individual differences when establishing routines.

Goals Determine Perception

In this section, Dr. Peterson explains how goals determine perception and suggests that if one's life is wretched and miserable, it may be worth considering whether their goals are proper.

Perception Depends on Goals

• What one sees depends on what they want to see.

• A large amount of what one sees is dependent on what they're aiming at.

• If life is wretched and miserable, consider whether goals are proper.

Relationship Between Mind and Body

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses the relationship between mind and body and how higher-order goals are long-term socially negotiated solutions to problems implicit in being.

Microelements of Mind-body Relationship

• Hunger is a physiological state with a vision about how to solve it.

• Transform point A into point B through action.

• Higher-order goals are long-term socially negotiated solutions to problems implicit in being.

Abstractions and Frames

In this section, Dr. Peterson discusses abstractions and frames, how they are implemented in the world, and how they affect our perceptions.

Abstractions as Representations of Action Patterns

• Abstractions are representations of action patterns.

• The way abstractions are implemented in the world is through action.

• We have no conscious access to the micro processes that make voluntary control possible.

Self-propagation and Self-maintenance Motivations

• Self-propagation and self-maintenance motivations compete for access to our central frame of consciousness.

• Desires are a combination of goal, framework, emotion, perception, and action pattern.

• Human beings communicate information through little units of stories.

Frames and Perception

• Frames help us make almost everything irrelevant so we can focus on what's important.

• Perception is restricted to the bare minimum necessary to keep us moving in the direction we're going.

• In relationships, we simplify each other by agreeing to act in a certain way towards each other.

Complexity and Obstacles

• When we hit an obstacle, everything that we agreed with others to make irrelevant becomes relevant again.

The Relevance of Perception

In this section, the speaker discusses how our cultural systems are designed to keep most of the world irrelevant and how disrupting them can force people to consider a far more range of relevance than they are even vaguely comfortable or vaguely comfortable to manage.

Breaking Up the World

• When going from point A to point B, almost everything is rendered irrelevant.

• The rest of the world is broken up into obstacles that get in your way and tools that facilitate your movement forward.

• Entities of functional significance are what you see in the world, which are not objects but rather things that help you, get in your way, or are irrelevant.

Object Perception vs. Relevance Conception

• Our perceptions are organized based on relevance conception rather than object perception.

• What matters is whether something helps you, gets in your way, or is irrelevant. If it's functional for your scheme, then it's functional.