Week 2: ending January 7th, 2018
Primary Materials: FLOW: the psychology of optimal experience by Milhaly Csikszentmihalyi
Anchor Quotation: Page 34, Chapter 2: The Anatomy of Consciousness
... the self represents the hierarchy of goals that we have built up, bit by bit, over the years. (page 34)
Thoughts in 360 Words (or less):
Csikszentmihalyi posits (I love Uralic surnames; it's a real exercise in the individual units my brain can knit together) that "attention is our most important tool in the task of improving the quality of experience." (page 34)
Attention is the tool consciousness uses to manage the onslaught of sensory information in our daily lives. Without some mechanism to sift through the practically limitless data, any of us would quickly collapse under the strain.
Attention is also instrumental in helping us select appropriate references from memory and evaluate their relevance in a situation. Attention gathers and prioritizes the details consciousness uses to create its operational narrative-- the narrative which is the essence of the "self."
the reflection of consciousness provides is what we call our life... (page 26)
The capacity to rank or prioritize information is a manifestation of Free Will or intent. Without intent, ordering and prioritizing consciousness is unnecessary (and evolution is not a fan of the unnecessary). Prioritizing information is evolutionary advantageous, which is why it-- and by extension, Free Will-- has propagated in our species.
This act is, essentially, one of crafting a narrative. An individual sews together components into a cohesive and, moderately, linear series of causes and effects.
Attention shapes the self, and is in turn, shaped by it. (page 34)
With this in mind, we are able to appreciate the entangled nature of attention and sense of self.
An "accidental" experience, such as snorkeling at 15 while on family holiday, can find itself inserted into an existing ladder of experiences and goals, building something wildly rewarding but completely unintentional, such as becoming a renowned marine biologist.
And this is our natural feedback loop (feedback loops are that which good games excel in doing): goals build over time and feedback into our sense of self.
The self compiles and evaluates sensory information to determine our happiness (or satisfaction). We continue to invest energy into efforts which bring us this satisfaction. Being duly rewarded encourages further investment, creating and changing goals to illicit more rewards. Achieving those new goals brings us more satisfaction, encouraging us to continue trudging down this path.
It's the circle of life.
Commentaires