Do you actually mean “infinite will” or “infinite ability to focus”?
Will—that is, the ability of the rational mind / ego / neocortex to override anything coming from lower levels—doesn’t lead people to forget to eat or sleep. Focus does.
I didn’t realise that. What is the evolutionary reason infinite willpower would be a bad idea then? The character was meant to have infinite willpower, but the plot I had in my mind was that they jump at the chance only to find that it was a bad idea. The character who gains it is too stupid to think of the consequences.
Was it a bad idea for a plot, then? Are there are no downsides?
What is the evolutionary reason infinite willpower would be a bad idea then?
Infinite willpower implies that you don’t have to listen to what your body and your subconscious are telling you. Evolutionary speaking it’s a bad idea to ignore your body telling you it’s damaged and will break down soon while your mind is soaring through n-dimensional algebra.
they jump at the chance only to find that it was a bad idea. The character who gains it is too stupid to think of the consequences.
I’d just call it “stupid” :-) Alternatively you can think about it as confirmation bias: once you commit to an idea or an approach you ignore/deny/discount evidence that tells you that idea is wrong.
The downsides of not updating one’s beliefs on new evidence are rather obvious.
“Willpower” is kind of a vague concept. Perhaps being able to always do what you think you ought to do? In that case, the downsides would perhaps involve problems of rationalization, or weaknesses in his reason, creating mismatches between what he thinks he ought to do and what will actually produce the best consequences. Maybe his laziness, squeamishness, and fear actually would prevent him from doing things he thinks he should do, but which actually would produce greater harm that he doesn’t anticipate, or his anger, lust, etc. would motivate him to do things with beneificial consequences he doesn’t anticipate, and so he ends up worse off when all that gets overridden.
Do you actually mean “infinite will” or “infinite ability to focus”?
Will—that is, the ability of the rational mind / ego / neocortex to override anything coming from lower levels—doesn’t lead people to forget to eat or sleep. Focus does.
I didn’t realise that. What is the evolutionary reason infinite willpower would be a bad idea then? The character was meant to have infinite willpower, but the plot I had in my mind was that they jump at the chance only to find that it was a bad idea. The character who gains it is too stupid to think of the consequences.
Was it a bad idea for a plot, then? Are there are no downsides?
Infinite willpower implies that you don’t have to listen to what your body and your subconscious are telling you. Evolutionary speaking it’s a bad idea to ignore your body telling you it’s damaged and will break down soon while your mind is soaring through n-dimensional algebra.
I’d just call it “stupid” :-) Alternatively you can think about it as confirmation bias: once you commit to an idea or an approach you ignore/deny/discount evidence that tells you that idea is wrong.
The downsides of not updating one’s beliefs on new evidence are rather obvious.
“Willpower” is kind of a vague concept. Perhaps being able to always do what you think you ought to do? In that case, the downsides would perhaps involve problems of rationalization, or weaknesses in his reason, creating mismatches between what he thinks he ought to do and what will actually produce the best consequences. Maybe his laziness, squeamishness, and fear actually would prevent him from doing things he thinks he should do, but which actually would produce greater harm that he doesn’t anticipate, or his anger, lust, etc. would motivate him to do things with beneificial consequences he doesn’t anticipate, and so he ends up worse off when all that gets overridden.