The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Recently, I had an interesting conversation with Omaha. In a recent blog post I wrote "I ... believe that consciousness is the story we tell ourselves about ourselves, a way of maintaining a continuity of self in a world of endless stimuli and the epiphenomenal means by which we turn our actions into grist for the decisions we make in the future..."
Omaha challenged me on that. "You're not a normal person. You know that as well as I do! You have ADHD and that not-Aspy thing I can never remember the name of†. Normal people don't tell stories about themselves, to themselves, like that. They don't have to."
Really? I'm genuinely surprised. We all have stories, about who we are, where we came from. "Normal" people don't review that story from time to time to ensure that what they hope they'll accomplish in their coming day, their coming week, their coming year, is consistent with the story they've told so far? I find that disappointing.
Lots of things are stories. Software is a story; a well-written program tells you a story about what it does, how it does it, and how the developer thought about it. I write stories. My life is a kind of story.
Seneca once said, "If you don't know to what port you're sailing, no wind is favorable." There's a story in your past about how you got into the boat. There's a story in your head about what you'll do when you'll land. Even a voyage of discovery has a destination in mind, if only in hope.
People re-watch movies. The re-play video games. They re-read books. They go for the story, again and again. That "normal" people get through life without reviewing and retelling their own story, too see where they've been and plan where they're going, just seems impossible.
† Persistent Interictal Syndrome
Omaha challenged me on that. "You're not a normal person. You know that as well as I do! You have ADHD and that not-Aspy thing I can never remember the name of†. Normal people don't tell stories about themselves, to themselves, like that. They don't have to."
Really? I'm genuinely surprised. We all have stories, about who we are, where we came from. "Normal" people don't review that story from time to time to ensure that what they hope they'll accomplish in their coming day, their coming week, their coming year, is consistent with the story they've told so far? I find that disappointing.
Lots of things are stories. Software is a story; a well-written program tells you a story about what it does, how it does it, and how the developer thought about it. I write stories. My life is a kind of story.
Seneca once said, "If you don't know to what port you're sailing, no wind is favorable." There's a story in your past about how you got into the boat. There's a story in your head about what you'll do when you'll land. Even a voyage of discovery has a destination in mind, if only in hope.
People re-watch movies. The re-play video games. They re-read books. They go for the story, again and again. That "normal" people get through life without reviewing and retelling their own story, too see where they've been and plan where they're going, just seems impossible.
† Persistent Interictal Syndrome