Nate Hagens

Second, I think our metacrisis simulations have no resolution.

Most worries that the default mode network runs eventually resolve.

The test passes.

The difficult conversation we were dreading is had.

But the Metacrisis Simulation has no real endpoint, and so the default mode network keeps running it because it never gets the closure signal, kind of like I talked about DREAD last week.

Third, the simulation is, most of us are running in our brains, is socially isolating.

Most people in our lives do not share this model.

So the DMN is also running social simulations.

How do I talk to my brother about this?

Why does my partner not see this?

What do I tell my children?

These layered simulations probably multiply the load that we carry.

Fourth,

Our vocation itself requires default mode network engagement.

If you're a metacrisis researcher or writer or just an attentive citizen, your job is to run the simulations.

You cannot stop.

The DMN is your professional instrument or tool.

So the very mode that is eating our present life is the mode our work depends on.

So lastly, and this one, well, they all do, but this one really hits home because it implicates me directly.

There is a moral dimension that licenses the absence.