In this engaging discussion, we explored the process of translating thoughts into reality, drawing parallels between conceptualization and tangible manifestations. Through the analogy of a blueprint for a building, we dissected how ideas evolve from perfect concepts in the mind to imperfect yet functional physical manifestations. Emphasizing the importance of bridging the gap between ideation and execution, we discussed how trauma and self-criticism can impede this process. Additionally, we touched on the transfer of neural structures through mediums like language, highlighting the tangible nature of ideas in the brain. Personal anecdotes underscored the satisfaction derived from seeing visions surpass one's initial expectations in reality. The conversation wrapped up by encouraging feedback and interaction, underscoring the fulfillment that arises when ideas materialize in ways that exceed initial conceptualizations.
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Also get the Truth About the French Revolution, the interactive multi-lingual philosophy AI trained on thousands of hours of my material, private livestreams, premium call in shows, the 22 Part History of Philosophers series and much more!
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LearningTranscript
00:00Good morning, Stephen Molyneux from Free Domain, hope you're doing well.
00:04I've got a great question, a deep philosophical question in the live stream the other day.
00:08The relationship between thoughts in the mind and things in reality.
00:13It's a great, great question and I'm going to unpack it for you.
00:19It's a little bit of metaphysics, a little bit of epistemology, but don't worry about
00:22the words, they're not particularly important.
00:24But these are very important things to understand about the nature of truth, which is kind of
00:28what we're after.
00:30So the way that thoughts and things in the world work is, the best analogy is, you think
00:38of a blueprint for a building, like an architectural blueprint for a building, what the building
00:43is going to look like, where the pipes are going to go, the space, the floors, the HVAC
00:49and electrical and all that.
00:50So you've got a design for a building.
00:53You know, if you've ever shopped for a house, then if you're going particularly to new construction,
00:58they have all of these models on the wall.
00:59You know, here's how this looks, here's how that looks and the square footage and they
01:03have the two floors and all of that.
01:05So you know, it would be pretty funny and obviously fraudulent in a way if someone were
01:13to say to you, you know, here's the blueprint for the house, the house is $400,000.
01:19You hand over the $400,000 and they give you the blueprint and you'd say, well, I can't
01:24live in the blueprint.
01:26I need a place to live.
01:27A blueprint's not going to give me much shelter from the rain and the snow.
01:30So that would be kind of fraudulent.
01:32Where if they said, look, the blueprint's right there on the wall, it says $400,000
01:39and you spent the $400,000, you got the blueprint.
01:41People would say, no, no, no, I thought I was buying what the blueprint represented,
01:45not the blueprint itself.
01:46I wouldn't pay $400,000 for the blueprint of a house, which you could just photocopy.
01:49I want the actual house.
01:53So does the blueprint exist in the world?
01:58Yes.
02:00Does the blueprint represent something in the world?
02:06Yes.
02:09Is the blueprint an exact match of the thing in the world?
02:13It is not.
02:14Right?
02:15So you could get some atomic measure and so on and you could say, well, they said the
02:21house is 2,500 square feet, but when I measure it in every conceivable detail, it's 2,500
02:29and six inches.
02:30Right?
02:31Or it's 2,499 and six.
02:32It's not going to be exactly say, oh, it's 2,500 square feet, but it's never exactly
02:362,500 square feet.
02:37If you look at the dimensions of the rooms, they're close.
02:40Obviously they have to be close enough that you're not just buying something unrelated
02:43to the blueprint, but they're not exact.
02:46Right?
02:51So the thing in the world is not exact.
02:57Right?
02:59And the blueprint is more exact.
03:02Right?
03:04Because the blueprint will say 2,500 square feet and all of the measurements, right?
03:08They have the drawings and it's like, oh, this is eight by 12 room.
03:11Right?
03:12So in a sense, that's perfect.
03:13The way that it's built though, is imperfect relative to the blueprint and the blueprint
03:17itself is imperfect relative to the mind of the designer, right?
03:23So in the mind of the designer, he says an eight by 12 room, just the concepts, right?
03:27So an eight by 12 room is perfect in the mind.
03:31It's exactly eight by 12, because it doesn't have to be translated into course atomic imperfect
03:36reality.
03:37So there's two degradations.
03:39There's the perfect eight by 12 room in your mind.
03:41Then there's the blueprint that you draw and the blueprint is imperfect because you've
03:46got to print it out.
03:47Even on the screen, the pixels are a little blurry.
03:49So the blueprint is no longer perfect, right?
03:53And then when you build the house, it's imperfect relative to the blueprint, right?
03:59Because the blueprint is going to be closer to the perfect eight by 12 concept that you
04:03have.
04:04The blueprint is going to be closer to that and the house is going to be more distant
04:08from the blueprint, which is more distant from the perfection in your mind.
04:11So we can look at this as a sort of quality degradation.
04:15And there are people who say, well, but the perfect eight by 12 room and the perfect house
04:19in your mind, that's the truth.
04:23That's what really matters.
04:25And I would say, no, it's the other way around.
04:30So the house is the perfect thing because that's the thing that has use.
04:33That's the thing that will keep you sheltered.
04:36That's the thing that keep you warm in the winter, cool in the summer and so on, right?
04:39So the house is the perfect thing because it has practical utility for survival and
04:44shelter.
04:45That's where you can raise your kids.
04:47It's where your belongings are protected, which means it's worth working to gather resources
04:52and so on.
04:53So the house is the perfect thing.
04:57Because if you think that the perfection is in the purity of the concept, then what goes
05:04on in the mind is infinitely better than the actual house in the world, right?
05:11However, if you think, which I think is accurate, if you think that the house is the perfect
05:19thing because it has practical utility and it is the purpose, right?
05:24The manifestation of purpose has to be superior to the steps that lead up to it.
05:29It has to be.
05:30Otherwise you wouldn't have any steps that lead up to it.
05:33All right, that was badly phrased.
05:35We circle back and take another run at that one, right?
05:39So if your goal is to get to Las Vegas, is the road to Las Vegas superior or inferior
05:50to the goal?
05:51Well, since your goal is to get to Las Vegas, the highway that takes you to Las Vegas and
05:55the car and the gas and the driving and all of that, that is inferior to the goal because
06:02it is a means to an end and the means to an end is generally inferior to the end, right?
06:09So if you're really thirsty, the goal is to drink water, right?
06:12Going to walk to the kitchen, getting the cup, turning on the tap, filling the tap,
06:16drinking the water.
06:17Those are inferior.
06:18Now, they're necessary to actually get the water into your system, but getting the water
06:26into your system is the goal and the goal is superior or more important or of a higher
06:33status than the purpose.
06:38So the purpose, because the purpose is conditioned by the goal.
06:41So if you're thirsty, you've got to get up and get your water and drink your water and
06:46all of that serves the goal of satisfying your thirst.
06:54So when we have a goal, the goal is the end product and all that leads up to it is inferior
07:05to the goal and I'll give you an example of that, right?
07:10So let's say you're thirsty and you get up and you want to get some water from the kitchen,
07:15right?
07:16So you go to the kitchen, you get the cup or the glass and you turn on the sink, right?
07:22So you say, okay, well, that's how I get my water.
07:24But every now and then, you know, freaky stuff's happened to your plumbing, you get the cough
07:28and you get that sputter of brown water and you're like, oh, well, that's not good.
07:34So the purpose of satisfying, the goal of satisfying your thirst has been served, you
07:44think, by going to the kitchen and turning on the tap, but the tap is not working.
07:47It just coughs up yellow water.
07:49So you still need to satisfy your thirst.
07:52So you abandon going to the kitchen and turning on the tap and maybe you go to the bathroom
07:55and turn on the tap, or maybe you go to the fridge, get a bottle of water, or maybe there's
07:58a little water dispenser on your fridge, but you find something.
08:01And if nothing in your house works, if your entire plumbing system is shot, then maybe
08:06you go to the neighbor's and ask for a glass of water, maybe you go to the store and get
08:10a bottle of water, but you got it.
08:12So the goal is to get water into your system and the steps will change relative to that
08:19goal.
08:20So the steps are conditioned by the goal, but the goal is not conditioned by the steps.
08:24Again, I know this sounds a bit freaky, but just be patient with me because there's a
08:29big payoff at the end.
08:30What?
08:31It's all philosophy.
08:32It's a good payoff the whole way along.
08:34So if you see, you want to get the water into your body because you're thirsty and the steps
08:38that you take are conditioned by that goal.
08:40If the steps you're taking don't meet that goal, you turn on the tap in the kitchen,
08:44brown water, champagne, brown water.
08:47And so you change your tap, right?
08:49Can't get it from the bathroom?
08:50Go to the fridge.
08:51Can't get it from the fridge?
08:52Go to the garage.
08:53Maybe you got some water, bottles of water in the garage.
08:54Oh, there's nothing in the garage.
08:56Then you go to the store.
08:57Like you just keep changing your steps until you achieve your goal.
09:02So all of the steps are conditioned by the goal.
09:08So the goal is the highest priority.
09:13So the purpose of satisfying your thirst is not served by going to the kitchen with a
09:19cup of water and turning on the tap.
09:21Even if you fill it, right?
09:23Let's say the kitchen tap is working properly.
09:26You fill it, but then your finger slips and you drop and you break the glass and you can't
09:32drink the water from the broken glass puddle.
09:36So you have to keep changing your steps until you satisfy the goal.
09:41So the goal is the highest purpose.
09:43The goal is the ultimate purpose.
09:44The goal is what it's all for.
09:48It's the final purpose in a sense, right?
09:53So if we understand that the goal is superior to the steps because all the steps must change
10:00if they don't achieve the goal.
10:02Whereas the goal doesn't change if you change the steps, right?
10:07So if you're thirsty, it's a really hot day and you decide to go out and lick grass, well
10:13you've changed the steps but you haven't satisfied your goal, right?
10:18So the goal is the final purpose.
10:21It is the intended end and everything that you do has to serve that goal.
10:26Now of course we say that that which is served is superior to that which serves.
10:35You think of a sort of master-slave relationship or the king and his courtiers and so on.
10:39The courtiers serve the king and the slave serves the master and therefore in that sense
10:44the slave is lesser than the master.
10:49At least that would be the case legally, though of course not morally if slavery is allowed.
10:54So the end goal is superior and more important and more foundational to the steps.
11:04So to return to our house, if that is the case, that the end goal is superior to the
11:13steps that preceded, then the house is superior to the blueprint and the blueprint is superior
11:21to the concept, to the idea, right?
11:23So you have an idea of a house, you make a blueprint and then you build the house.
11:26Now for a lot of people, and this is sort of the platonic idea, they say, well the concept
11:32is pure and perfect and therefore is superior to the blueprint.
11:36The blueprint is more accurate to the concept than the house itself and therefore in priority
11:43of importance and perfection you go idea, blueprint, house, right?
11:49So idea's highest, blueprint is next highest in terms of accuracy and purity to the concept.
11:53The idea is the most pure and perfect, this platonic realm of forms, right, or the new
12:00or minimal realm of Kant or Nirvana or whatever, right, the idea.
12:04So, or the social good, right, the idea, the society, collectivism, right?
12:08The concepts are superior.
12:09So the concept of the house, or let's just say the 8 by 12 room, that's perfect and pure
12:13and excellent and fabulous, the highest level of accuracy and perfection.
12:19And then the blueprint is less accurate and the house is even less accurate.
12:22So it's a degradation from the purity of the idea, ba-ba-bum-bum, goes down, right?
12:27And people have this, you know, to take it in a sort of more visceral manner, people
12:30have this with regards to long-distance relationships or affairs, right?
12:34So you know, you have a long-distance relationship, you yearn and you burn for each other and
12:38then you make a big trip and you have a lot of sex and you do all of these wonderful things,
12:41you go for dinner, you go for walks, you go for hikes, you fall into each other's
12:44arms, you talk about all the wonder of each other and so on, all beautiful stuff, nothing
12:48wrong with it.
12:49But then people say, well, that's the ideal in a relationship.
12:52And then, you know, there are times when the relationship, you get married, you live together,
12:59you have children, and there are times when the relationship is, you know, a little ugly,
13:03a little messy, a little, right, you know, somebody is bleeding, somebody is sick and
13:07throwing up, somebody has a dental pain, something like this, just this sort of...
13:12And people say, well, there's this ideal, the platonic perfect love, and then it's all
13:15just a degradation.
13:16Like people really mess up their lives with this perfection stuff, right?
13:19They really, really mess up their lives because they get these standards that can't be maintained.
13:24Like everybody has the best day of their life and then if you look at that as the norm and
13:27everything else, right, is bad.
13:30But now, of course, the purpose of romantic love, the purpose of pair bonding is the production
13:35and raising of children.
13:38So if you sit there and say, well, you know, when we were dating, we would just, we'd go
13:42away for the weekend, have sex all weekend, go and have wonderful meals and blah, blah,
13:45blah.
13:46That's the ideal.
13:47And then the kid who's up all night with colic and so on, that's just, that's a bad fall
13:52from grace degradation.
13:54Or this is true for women, I think, like why do women sometimes get so dissatisfied in
13:58relationships?
13:59Well, because I'm, A, because I'm taken, but B, because, you know, they have this wedding
14:03day that's perfect and that's the ideal and then everything after that is like, you know,
14:08my husband's farting and scratching and yet he looked so great in his tux and you have
14:11this ideal and this perfection and then everything else is a degradation from that.
14:17And of course, the purpose of marriage is not the wedding day.
14:20The purpose of marriage is reliable pair bonding for the secure and provided for raising of
14:25children, right?
14:26That's the purpose of marriage and lust and sex and romance and love and attachment and
14:30pair bonding.
14:31It's all for the having and raising of children.
14:33And so the having and raising of children is the perfection of marriage and everything
14:39else is a means to the end, right?
14:40The means to the end, so you get married so that you can have the pair bonding or the
14:43legal connection to get married and so on, right?
14:47So the having and raising of children is the perfection of marriage.
14:53Everything else is a step up to it.
14:55And so, you know, when the kid has colic, yeah, I know it can be, you know, you're crying
14:59a lot and all that, but that's perfect.
15:03That is the perfection because that's the raising and having and raising of children
15:06and all the other stuff.
15:07Like even sexual activity before you have children is designed to release the oxytocin
15:12and the dopamine and the pair bonding chemicals and so on so that you will be reliable and
15:15secure to raise the children.
15:19So the concept is inferior to the blueprint.
15:28The blueprint is inferior to the manifestation.
15:32The idea is inferior to the blueprint and the blueprint is inferior to the house.
15:39The house is the perfection.
15:42It is the ideal.
15:43It is as good as things can get.
15:45It is exactly right.
15:47So the idea, the blueprint are all necessary.
15:51You got to have the idea, then you've got to have a plan and then you've got to execute
15:54it and build a house.
15:56So the idea is necessary but inferior, right?
16:02Necessary but inferior.
16:03So in order to be happy, you have to eat, right?
16:07Because if you're starving to death, you won't be happy, right?
16:09So in order to be happy, you have to eat.
16:13So eating is a means to the end of being happy, right?
16:19But of course, not everybody who eats is happy.
16:22A guy getting his last meal in jail is probably not super happy, although he is in fact eating.
16:28Some people eat, of course, and then regret it at an extreme.
16:31They might be binge purging, like throwing up and so on.
16:34There are people who eat something and then find out, oh no, it has peanuts in it and
16:39I have a peanut allergy.
16:40Now I've got to EpiPen and get to Emerge or something.
16:42So they eat and they regret, right?
16:45So eating is necessary but not sufficient for happiness.
16:48So if your goal is happiness, yes, you need to eat, but eating doesn't make you happy.
16:52But eating eliminates hunger to the point where the doors to happiness are at least
16:56open and you can get through some usually productive work in the realm of manifesting
17:02or transmitting moral excellence.
17:04That's the best way to be happy in the long run.
17:08So people have this dreamers thing, right?
17:10The idea is perfect and the planning is inferior and the manifestation, right?
17:20So there's the idea, the planning and the manifestation.
17:22The idea is the idea of the house, the planning is the blueprint for the house, the manifestation
17:26is the actual house.
17:28The actual house is the goal, it is the superior, it is the perfect, it is the wonderful, it
17:32is the what it's all for, and everything that leads up to that is imperfect.
17:39And it's imperfect because it does not achieve the goal of the house, right?
17:47You can't live in the idea of a house.
17:50You can't live in blueprints for a house.
17:53What's that?
17:54There's an old Friends episode where Joey and Chandler go to London and Joey puts the
18:01map down and jumps into the map, right?
18:03I'm in the map, right?
18:08But he's obviously, it's in the map, he's stepping on a piece of paper, he's not walking
18:11around in London itself.
18:17So you can't live in the idea of a house.
18:21You can't live in the blueprints of a house, you can only live in the actual house.
18:26And therefore the idea is inferior because it doesn't serve the purpose of a place to
18:30live.
18:31The blueprint is inferior because it doesn't serve the purpose of where to live.
18:36The house is the ideal, that which is manifested in the world is the ideal, the end goal of
18:45the necessary steps.
18:46And it's not even that necessary, I mean, you could just, you know, slip together a
18:49lean to, you don't need blueprints, right?
18:51You can lean to in the woods, you can go and live in a cave, which does not need a concept
18:57and doesn't need a blueprint and doesn't even need to be built, right?
19:01So there's places you can live that would be natural, right?
19:05I mean, or even if there's an abandoned house, I mean, I guess if it's legal or whatever,
19:09you could, I mean, it's sort of in a free society, you could, if a house was abandoned,
19:14you could go and live in that house and you wouldn't need an idea of the perfect house,
19:17you wouldn't need to plan it, you wouldn't even need to build it, you wouldn't need to
19:20transfer any resources for it, you could just go, you know, some cabin in the woods or whatever,
19:24you could just go live there, right?
19:26So the shelter can be provided, I mean, other people usually have to plan things, but you
19:30don't have to, right?
19:31So the shelter can be provided without the concept or the planning, without the idea
19:34or the blueprint, but any sophisticated dwelling can't be created without some concept and
19:42planning.
19:43It doesn't necessarily have to be ideas and blueprints and so on, but you have to have
19:46some idea of what you're doing.
19:48So the physical manifestation is the ideal and the concepts are inferior.
19:54So people say, ah, yes, but the 8 by 12 room is perfect and the 8 by 12 room looks really,
19:58the angles are perfect on the computer, but then when you build them, they're slightly
20:01off perfect and it's like, no, no, no, no.
20:05The purpose of the house is not to conform to the blueprint, I mean, obviously it has
20:09to have some relationship to it, otherwise there'd be no point for the blueprint, but
20:12the purpose of the house is to be lived in, not to conform to the blueprint.
20:18We have the blueprint so we don't waste resources when we're building the house.
20:21We don't build something, oh my gosh, this room is too small, oh, I don't have a load
20:25bearing wall, oh, the structure is not secure, I didn't dig deep enough, like you have planning
20:29so you don't waste resources.
20:30So you can build more houses, that's what the purpose is, right?
20:33The purpose of conceptualizing and planning a house is so you can build more houses with
20:38fewer resources and less time, like you plan out software, you don't just sit down and
20:43start coding, to some degree anyway.
20:47So once you understand that the concept is inferior to the manifestation because the
20:54concept doesn't serve the purpose of the manifestation, you can't live in the idea of the house or
20:58the blueprint of the house, you can only live in the actual house, so that is the ideal.
21:03The ideal is the house, because that's what you can live in.
21:07So when you think of a house, right, you've gone through a planning phase for a house,
21:14when you think of a house, you have visions and ideas in your head, and that is a configuration
21:23of neurons in your mind, right, the imagination, the creativity, if you close your eyes, you
21:29sort of picture your ideal house, then that is the aligning of particular creative or
21:40imagination neurons in your brain, like you close your eyes and you picture it, the neurons
21:44are firing up, like when you have a dream at night, your eyes are closed, but you see
21:47things so the visual-spatial centers of your brain are being activated, and you know, the
21:51more you meditate on your ideal house, the more your neurons will change to go in accordance
21:55with that ideal.
21:56So you are getting your physical structures in your brain to match what is going to happen
22:04out there in the world eventually, right?
22:06So you are building a house through your neural architecture in your mind, right, again, you
22:15close your eyes, you imagine your perfect house, then through that imagination, your
22:21mind is building something in your mind, the neurons are firing a particular kind of
22:28way, your visual centers are firing in a particular kind of way, your imagination is firing in
22:33a particular kind of way, so you are literally building the house using neural structures
22:37within your brain.
22:38And then you copy-paste those neural structures in your brain to the blueprint, and then you
22:44copy-paste the blueprint into somebody else's mind, right?
22:50So the blueprint is a way of taking the neural structure of the house in your brain and copy-pasting
22:54it into somebody else's brain.
22:56Now, we don't have mind-melds or anything like that, although this is shown very close.
23:00We don't have mind-melds, so how do we copy the neural structures of our mind to somebody
23:05else?
23:06Well, we have artist visualizations, we have blueprints, we have detailed schematics and
23:10so on, and so, you know, the guys who built the game Doom, right, the Carmack guys, the
23:19guys who built Doom were transferring their vision of, you know, hell and fighting and
23:23demons and so on, they were copy-pasting through the medium software to other people.
23:29It's a way of copy-pasting a dream or a concept, right?
23:34So you have structures in your mind that are physical, right, the neural structures in
23:41your mind.
23:43I mean, I felt that flash of inspiration, it also happened with the DRO system, right?
23:50There's a flash of inspiration, which is the neurons connecting, right, there's got to
23:53be a way to solve the problem of ethics, I'm going to think about it, turn it from different
23:57angles, and we've all had this at one point or another, flash of inspiration, that's when
24:01the neurons connect.
24:03So now I have a structure in my brain called UPB, and the book and the debates and the
24:08articles and the arguments and the speeches and so on, that is a way for me to copy and
24:13paste the structure of UPB from my mind to your mind.
24:19So it is a form of the transfer of neural structures from one person to another.
24:28I mean, it's not just UPB, education as a whole fashions in this way.
24:32So if you learn another language, your brain is copy-pasting the language structures from
24:38someone else through the medium of grammar and memorization and practice and pronunciation
24:45and so on, right?
24:47So you have an idea for a house, that idea is a neural structure, a physical neural structure
24:56in your brain.
24:57We don't have the technology, I don't think, to be able to analyze that, but we absolutely
25:00have those neural structures in our brain, right?
25:03I mean, I close my eyes, I think of my perfect house, it's pretty much the same as it was
25:06a few seconds ago when I did it, and I'm sure the same is you, maybe little details
25:10and so on, right?
25:11So you have a physical house structure in your mind.
25:16It's not just airy-fairy kinds, like it's physical neurons.
25:19Physical neurons have connected to create the house in your mind.
25:23But then the question is, okay, so how do you get the house in your mind out there in
25:27the world?
25:28Well, you need to plan it and make sure that, you know, there's maybe some limitations.
25:32If you have some house that's kind of an inverted pyramid on a swamp, you know, it's
25:36impossible to actually make in reality, then you're going to need to adjust that, or maybe
25:43build it on the moon where that might be possible or something like that.
25:45I guess not a lot of swamps on the moon, the moon is anarchic.
25:51So you have to find a way to copy the physical structure of the neural connections in your
25:56brain to other people.
25:58And we do that through language, we do that through education, we do it through books,
26:00we do that through mime even, we do it through visual mediums, we do it through a song, and
26:07so on.
26:08Like, I'm really, really sad, I'm going to write this heartbreak song, and I'm going
26:11to be Adele, and I'm going to copy-paste my heartache to other people, right?
26:16That's how it's going to kind of work.
26:17Ideology works the same way, it's copy and pasting particular false prejudices and so
26:20on.
26:21So we have neural structures in our brain, and that is the dress rehearsal for creating
26:26things in the world and transferring our neural structures from ourselves to others.
26:31I have a neural structure around empiricism, rationality, objectivity, UPB, self-knowledge,
26:37respect for the unconscious, like all of these things that I have.
26:41And of course the purpose is to copy-paste these to other people, right?
26:45I mean, surgeons will copy-paste other surgeons so that they know how to do a good surgery,
26:53a guy who's your personal trainer will copy-paste his training regimen to try and get you to
26:57follow his ideal, nutritionists do the same kind of thing, your doctor, by giving you
27:01gotta quit smoking, he's trying to transfer hostility or negativity towards smoking from
27:06his mind to yours, and so on.
27:08And so this sort of copy-paste is happening all the time, which is why I say personalities,
27:12ideas, arguments, perspectives can be very infectious.
27:15Because through the medium of language, but not just language, but largely it's through
27:19language.
27:20Through the medium of language we are copy-pasting our ideas, arguments, personalities, and perspectives
27:25to each other all the time, all the time it's happening.
27:31You're trying to infect others, so to speak, other people are trying to infect you.
27:34I don't mean necessarily it's not bad, right?
27:37A yawn can be infectious, laughter can be infectious, which is why they used to add
27:40laugh tracks to comedies, laughter can be infectious, an infectious smile, you know,
27:45it can be a positive thing.
27:48I think peaceful parenting is a structure within the mind that I'm trying to copy-paste
27:51to override the fairly awful parenting procedures and processes that people have in their minds.
28:00But although you may say, and I've said this before, but it was a very vivid memory I had
28:06when I was a little kid, I was maybe three or four years old, and I had the idea that
28:12I wanted to paint a little boy with rosy cheeks and a scarf flying behind him on a
28:18nice wooden sled with the curly front going down a snowy hillside with fir trees in the
28:25background and little bits of snow flying up.
28:28And you know, what do they give you?
28:29They give you that crappy half-cardboard paper, they give you these giant watery pots of quasi-paint,
28:37and then they give you these big brushes that you could use to sweep a factory floor.
28:42I still very vividly hold it in my mind, you know, more than half a century later, I have
28:49this vivid idea in my mind, and then what I actually created on the paper, obviously
28:56lack of skill, but also lack of any decent medium, was vastly different.
29:01And I just remember looking at that and saying, that's nothing like what's in my mind.
29:06And people who lack skill and all of that, they say, well, what's in my mind is vastly
29:11superior to what's in reality, therefore reality's at fault.
29:14They don't say, I need to increase my skill to the point where what I have in my mind
29:20is able to be recreated in reality, and the recreation is perfect.
29:27My description of UPB, my arguments for UPB, are perfect.
29:33Does that mean they can't ever conceivably be improved?
29:35No, no, that doesn't mean that.
29:38But it does mean that, you know, millions of people have been exposed to UPB and understand
29:42now the rational proof of secular ethics, and may be difficult to defend at times.
29:47I get all of that, because when you hit that really caustic nihilistic skepticism, everyone
29:52can feel the foundations of their brain beginning to dissolve.
29:55Because something like nihilism is a way of detonating or deconstructing neural structures,
30:01right?
30:02This sort of cynicism, nihilism, ideology, and so on, it's a way of using aggression
30:06and intimidation to undo the physical structures of accurate thought in your mind.
30:13Look at Jesus, he made arguments for morality and reality.
30:17Socrates, of course, made these arguments for Socratic questions and so on.
30:23Socrates invented internal debate in many ways, and a lot of people without an inner
30:28voice viewed it as a kind of possession.
30:32But those of us with slightly more sophisticated views of our own inner processes welcome the
30:35inner debate, because that's how we get to the truth.
30:39So ideas, yeah, they're physical.
30:42Ideas in the mind are absolutely physical.
30:44They exist in reality, because ideas in the mind are particular structures of neurons
30:51that connect.
30:52Right?
30:53I mean, philosophy is growing neurons, neural connections.
30:56It's growing neural connections.
30:58It's copy-pasting rational structures of neuron connections from one person to another.
31:06I mean, think of mathematics, two plus two is four.
31:09Everybody understands that the world over, and that is a copy-paste of a mathematical
31:14concept.
31:15And so, if you say two and two make four, and you say, well, two bananas are never exactly
31:25the same, therefore two bananas in the concept of the mind is superior to the inferior of
31:33each banana is a little different, and so on.
31:35But the purpose of numbers is to quantify interactions, right?
31:42So if you're buying two bananas for $2, then you need the concept of $2, you need the concept
31:48of two bananas, and that's how you facilitate the transaction.
31:51And the purpose of facilitating the transaction is to satisfy both people, right?
31:55So the bananas don't have to be perfect for that to occur, and therefore the numbers are
32:00inferior to the manifestations, because the purpose of, say, two bananas for $2 is to
32:04transfer the dollars to the guy who wants the dollars more than bananas, and transfer
32:08the bananas to the guy who wants the bananas more than the dollars.
32:11So both end up happy.
32:12It's a facilitation of happiness or positivity for the purpose of productivity, right?
32:18So the guy with the two bananas is going to give it maybe to the farmer who's going
32:21to use that to be able to produce more bananas, buys, I don't know, more fertilizer or a scarecrow
32:28or something like that, or an old coat for a scarecrow to scare off the birds.
32:32So the purpose is to facilitate positive interactions, and therefore the fact that each banana is
32:40not identical does not mean that the concept of two bananas is superior because it's, quote,
32:46perfect.
32:47No, because the purpose is to facilitate interactions between people, win-win interactions, in an
32:52economic sense.
32:53There's other reasons for math, of course, but the purpose of math is to facilitate win-win
32:58interactions, and the degree to which it does that, and it does that very well, is the degree
33:02to which math is perfect.
33:04So saying, well, two bananas are slightly different, therefore two bananas in the mind
33:07is superior to, it's like, no, but that's not...
33:09The purpose of two bananas is not for the two bananas to be identical.
33:13The purpose of the two bananas is to facilitate a trade, a win-win trade, at least from an
33:19economic sense.
33:21So once we understand that it's the things in the world that are the purpose of concepts,
33:26then the things in the world that are only manifested by concepts, having the idea of
33:31a good house, therefore leads you to build a good house, the purpose of concepts is manifestation
33:36in the world, and therefore the concepts are inferior to the manifestation.
33:41Now, of course, we can say, well, if you say, oh, my idea is a small house with three bedrooms,
33:47and you end up with somebody building you a giant house with 12 bedrooms, then you can
33:51say that the manifestation is not good relative to the concept.
33:56I get all of that, but that doesn't really happen, I mean, unless you agree to it and
34:00change your conception so your ideal house becomes 12 bedrooms or something like that.
34:04People don't...
34:05You don't just pay people three-bedroom houses and they build you 12-bedroom houses.
34:09That doesn't happen in the world, right?
34:11So I think it's important to recognize, in life as a whole, you say, okay, well, what
34:15is the purpose?
34:16What is the purpose of my day?
34:17What is the purpose of my life?
34:18What is the purpose of my thought?
34:20What is the purpose of my energy?
34:21What is the purpose of eating?
34:22What is the purpose of exercising?
34:24And so on, right?
34:25What's the purpose of all of this?
34:28The dreamers...
34:32Can you put your...
34:33It's a great song by Supertramp, Can You Put Your Hands In Your Head, Oh No.
34:35So you put your head in your hands, right?
34:37You can't reach into your head and live inside the concept of the house that's in your mind,
34:42which is a physical structure, right?
34:43The concept of the house is a physical structure in your mind.
34:46It's neurons.
34:47It's not a ghost.
34:48It's not a fantasy.
34:49It's not an abstraction.
34:50It's not Plato's forms that don't manifest.
34:53It's physical, right?
34:54The ideas in your head are physical things, physical connections between neurons, right?
35:01So when you're learning another language, you're firing up neurons to process that other
35:04language.
35:05But if neurons don't connect, you can't learn the other language, right?
35:08So it's all about drawing lines between things, right?
35:12Drawing lines between things.
35:14So since the purpose of concepts is manifestations of things in the real world, then the manifestations
35:24of things in the real world is the ideal.
35:28And the blueprints and the concepts are inferior, right?
35:33So if platonic perfection is your ideal, then sure, the concepts are perfect, and then
35:40the drawing is less good, and the house is less good.
35:42But that's complete reversal of cause and effect, and that's just a bunch of dreamers,
35:45people who want to live in their head, people who want to get an ideal without putting in
35:52the work.
35:53And the ideal thing is from people who are particularly brutalized when they're growing
36:00up.
36:01So many years ago, we had a free-domain barbecue.
36:03Some people showed up early, and I didn't mind that they showed up early, but I was
36:07still doing some stuff around the house and doing some stuff in the garden and so on to
36:11sort of get ready for it.
36:13And people were happy to step in and help, and I still appreciate it, you know, 15 years
36:17later.
36:19And I remember people who were helping were like, well, some of the people who were helping
36:24were like, well, this is really strange.
36:26Like I'm helping in the garden and I'm not getting yelled at because my dad would always
36:29say you're doing it wrong, and the weed whacker's at the wrong angle, and you've set the lawnmower
36:34too low, and they're just yelling, right?
36:36So when you get yelled at for physical manifestations, right?
36:42Like I want you to cut the grass, oh, you did it wrong.
36:44I want you to wash the dishes, oh, you did it wrong.
36:47Then people's concept to manifestation, the ideal to the execution is blocked.
36:54And so you end up having to try and find satisfaction within your own mind rather than
36:59in reality.
37:00And because you've been traumatized or yelled at, abused, maybe beaten for doing things
37:05wrong in the world, then the path of concept to manifestation is blocked because manifestation
37:11becomes too fearful and therefore you prefer the ideals in your head rather than the manifestation
37:18in the world.
37:19And there's lots of people, oh, I've got this great business idea.
37:21They never put it into practice or like the guy who 21 years ago says he came up with
37:26the idea of a fifth dimension, not XYZ time, but a fifth dimension that's still accessible
37:31to the human mind and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
37:33And he's never done anything with it.
37:34So he'd rather live.
37:35And I sympathize with that.
37:36You know, I think all of us had this, you should do X and then when you manifest it,
37:44even if you've never been abused for this, when you manifest your ideal, like for me
37:50when I was a kid and I wanted the beautiful picture of the boy with the scarf and the
37:56sled, when I manifested it, it looked like crap.
37:59And I knew that it looked like crap.
38:00It was like a zillion miles away from what I wanted to do.
38:04Now I have an uncle who was really good at copying paintings.
38:07Like he was really, really skilled.
38:08He would copy other people's paintings, really skilled at that.
38:12He didn't make his own paintings, but he would really copy other people.
38:15So you look at people like Collinius Krieghoff, who was an expert at painting cracked ice,
38:21like he was a Canadian painter, skate, cracked ice, very, very tough to paint.
38:25Or you know, the amazing Michelangelo webbed marble with the cloth over top, it's just
38:30absolutely incredible stuff.
38:31And the people who are best able to transfer their concepts into reality are the people
38:35we call the most skilled.
38:37Sitting and dreaming about the concepts without taking the time to manifest them into something
38:42real is a mark of trauma or a mark of excessive self-criticism.
38:48You say, well, I've got this perfect house.
38:50And then when I blueprint it, it's really frustrating because I can't get it right.
38:53And then if I build it, it's going to be a long way away from my perfect house and I
38:57can't stand it.
38:58So I'd rather live in the realm of ideas and I'd rather live in the realm of concepts.
39:01And I'd rather live in the realm of abstractions because manifesting into reality is too damn
39:07painful.
39:09It's the gap between the dream and the manifestation, between the idea and the execution, the gap
39:13is so huge.
39:16T.S.
39:17Eliot writes about this in Between the ideal and the execution lies the shadow, the shadow
39:23of self-criticism, the shadow of self-hatred, the shadow of frustration that what is going
39:29on in your mind is not...
39:31I mean, we have this in karaoke, right?
39:33You've done karaoke, right?
39:34You have the song in your mind, you have a great singer, usually the song is sung, and
39:37then you sing and it's just come across the way, right?
39:40I was singing the other day, Sting does, have you ever had the feeling that the world's
39:48gone and left you behind?
39:49Angel Eyes, Sting does a version of it for the Leaving Las Vegas soundtrack, sings it
39:52very well.
39:53I tried singing it and it's too high for me and it's just like, oh, that's not pleasant.
39:58I mean, I can get the notes, but they kind of get me back.
40:01I can hit the notes, but only with a club.
40:04So what's going on in your mind versus what actually happens, and that level of frustration
40:09is tough.
40:10It is tough.
40:11That should be the go to close that gap so that what you create in the world is close
40:19to what you imagine in your mind, and maybe sometimes even better.
40:23So I'll tell you something.
40:25One of the reasons I keep doing these shows, I mean, obviously I think I have great things
40:28to add in the realm of philosophy, but one of the reasons I keep doing them is the shows
40:31often end up even better than I think, right?
40:34So I had an idea about this show and it ended up, the copy paste stuff came up sort of in
40:39the flow, right?
40:40The sort of recreation of neural structures, usually through language in other people's
40:43heads.
40:44That's a great idea.
40:45So one of the reasons I do it is that I have an idea for shows, and this is true in call-ins.
40:49I go in with an idea and then it usually ends up being even better than I think.
40:53So one of the reasons I still keep doing these shows is I have ideas about how they're going
41:01to go and they end up better.
41:03So for me, this is what's so addictive, I think, about having some expertise in a field
41:07is it ends up even better than you think, and that's really heady.
41:12So for me, one of the reasons why I accept that the manifestation is superior to the
41:16idea is I have ideas, like when I'm writing novels, I have ideas for scenes and the general
41:23story flow, and then there's a spontaneity that occurs within the writing that just blows
41:27me away and seems vivid and real to me in a way that the idea wasn't.
41:32So when it manifests on the page, I see it so vividly.
41:36When I do a show like this, the language flows so well, the ideas and arguments flow so well,
41:40we're doing highly complex technical stuff in a way that I'm sure you're following, may
41:44need to listen to it a couple of times, but you'll get the general idea.
41:48So for me, the house that I built with a podcast is much better than the idea of the house
41:57or the podcast in my mind.
41:58So what I actually manifest in the world is better than what I have in my mind ahead of
42:04time.
42:05In other words, the building improves upon the fantasy, and if you can do in reality
42:09better than you can fantasize, that's about as good as life gets.
42:13So I hope that this makes sense to you.
42:14Please let me know what you think.
42:16You can leave feedback below, of course, or join the community at freedomain.locals.com.
42:20Don't forget this month, it's almost the end of the month, everybody who donates gets access
42:25to the Peaceful Parenting AI, the audiobook, the e-book, and so on.
42:31And you can share that with as many people as you want.
42:33People who don't share your language or who don't speak English can use the AI in whatever
42:37language they want.
42:38So I hope you'll check all of that out.
42:40Thank you, my friends, so much for the greatest life in history.
42:43We're doing amazing stuff.
42:44I'll talk to you soon.
42:45Bye.