I’d be very surprised if this worked on me for more than, say, a day. Even if the intuition that I’m the one in control doesn’t go away, I expect to eventually notice that it’s actually false and consciously choose to not take it into account, at least in verbal reasoning. Has it been tried (on someone more qualified than a random patient)? If it doesn’t work, the effect should be seen as rather more horrible than just overriding one’s limb movement.
Interesting. It’s been two days since your cortex has been swapped out, and you seem not to have noticed. Affect slight annoyance at what you will believe to be my weak attempt at humor. This will enable you to produce a consistent, rational narrative which will satisfy your pattern-recognition wetware. That will use less glucose, making you more energy-efficient. People who care about the environment care about energy efficiency, you know. You do care about the environment, don’t you? Of course you do. So, let’s get to it now...
I’ve got pretty bad akrasia. I want to do things, but then I do other things.
Intuitively, I feel like I’m me, and I’m in control.
Rationally, not so much. Rationally speaking the answer to “Am I in control?” depends a lot on how broad you define “I”.
Is my rational mind in control?
No way.
Is my brain as a whole in control?
Yeah, mostly.
Do excuses automatically pop up when I avoid work?
Definitely.
“I wanted to relax.”
“I got distracted.”
“I hate working.”
Having some rationality allows me to see through them though, which I presume puts me in the “someone more qualified than a random patient” category you mention.
I’m not sure if this is exactly what Yvain is referring to, I just want to shine a light on the matter from a different angle.
I’d be very surprised if this worked on me for more than, say, a day. Even if the intuition that I’m the one in control doesn’t go away, I expect to eventually notice that it’s actually false and consciously choose to not take it into account, at least in verbal reasoning. Has it been tried (on someone more qualified than a random patient)? If it doesn’t work, the effect should be seen as rather more horrible than just overriding one’s limb movement.
Interesting. It’s been two days since your cortex has been swapped out, and you seem not to have noticed. Affect slight annoyance at what you will believe to be my weak attempt at humor. This will enable you to produce a consistent, rational narrative which will satisfy your pattern-recognition wetware. That will use less glucose, making you more energy-efficient. People who care about the environment care about energy efficiency, you know. You do care about the environment, don’t you? Of course you do. So, let’s get to it now...
I’ve got pretty bad akrasia. I want to do things, but then I do other things. Intuitively, I feel like I’m me, and I’m in control.
Rationally, not so much. Rationally speaking the answer to “Am I in control?” depends a lot on how broad you define “I”. Is my rational mind in control? No way. Is my brain as a whole in control? Yeah, mostly.
Do excuses automatically pop up when I avoid work? Definitely. “I wanted to relax.” “I got distracted.” “I hate working.” Having some rationality allows me to see through them though, which I presume puts me in the “someone more qualified than a random patient” category you mention.
I’m not sure if this is exactly what Yvain is referring to, I just want to shine a light on the matter from a different angle.