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Thursday, January 25, 2007

Delusion Inventory

Time for a delusion inventory, wherein I catalog and classify delusions for your epistemological pleasure.

Delusions of which I'm (almost) entirely unaffected:

  • Religion: there are no gods or spirits, or more accurately there may be, but you have no evidence either way.
  • Sports team affiliation: while it is a joyous thing to behold an athlete at the top of their abilities, thinking that it matters whether one team or the other wins, or even caring is delusional behavior. I'm fairly confident that when the brain is completely mapped that the religion lobe and the sports team affiliation lobe will be almost complete overlaps.
  • Alcohol is delicious: alcohol (beer, wine, etc) are *all* disgusting. If you believe that a beer on a hot day after a long day of hiking is delicious it is because you have strongly associated the taste of beer with the real thing your body craves - alcohol. True, some alcohol is less nasty than others, but it is ALL disgusting.
  • Same for coffee (but with respect to caffeine)

Delusions that I experience, being all the time aware of their delusional
nature

  • My kids are the smartest, cutest, funnest, best behaved kids on the planet. Or at least far, far above average. This is not likely to be true. I can deduce that this is not true, but I experience this as true nonetheless.
  • My spouse is the most beautiful, talented, generous, kind person on the planet. Not likely to be true, but I'll be damned if I can see her any other way.
  • Coca-Cola is delicious. This falls under the same category as alcohol and coffee, it's just that for what ever reason in this case the delusion of delicious makes it past my filter.

Delusions that I'm still delusional about:

  • I have freewill (see Susan Blackmore among others for this and next two)
  • Stream of consciousness is real
  • A self exists that is me.
  • ____________ (lots more I'm sure, by definition this category is all but impossible to self assess)

What's in your delusion inventory?

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4 Comments:

Blogger beepbeepitsme said...

I have delusions that I might know something.

Mon Jan 29, 10:12:00 PM  
Blogger evtujo said...

We've all been there. It will pass.

Mon Jan 29, 10:14:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cool exercise! Examining your delusions ...

Here's one. When I'm talking to someone, or when I'm just near someone, even someone I don't know, all kinds of thoughts about that person might flash through my mind.

My delusion is that these same
people are not having similar
flashes of thoughts about me.

So I'm aware of this delusion ...
but most of the time I forget
the truth and let this delusion
take over. Which is helpful!
Without the delusion, I'd
be so preoccupied wondering
about their thoughts about me ...

-N

Wed Jan 31, 12:56:00 PM  
Blogger evtujo said...

N - I'm guessing this is a bad time to bring this up but I'm having delusional thoughts regarding you right now.

Wed Jan 31, 07:15:00 PM  

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