Nate Hagens

Everything demands their attention.

But as we age and our routines automate,

A larger percentage of our day, almost by definition, runs on the default mode network, which compresses subjective time because the DMN does not lay down super rich memories the way that novel sensory engagement does.

So the years feel short, partly because we're not actually present for most of them.

Okay, so how does this apply to our lives and especially apply to viewers of this platform?

Well, several specific features of Metacrisis Awareness make default mode network capture worse and more powerful than for the average modern human.

First, thinking about the future through this lens has an emotional component.

Our thoughts are often loaded with grief and fear and anger and sometimes moral outrage, and the DMN preferentially processes what matters most.

The very importance of what we understand is what makes it so colonizing of our mental lives.

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?