Chapter Content
Okay, so, um, you know how like, we think we see the world as it *really* is? Like, everything is crystal clear and we're just taking it all in? Well, apparently, that's, like, totally not true.
There's this idea that our brains actually, like, distort reality. Yeah, it's kind of weird to think about, but basically, there are these two theoretical creatures, right? One is the "Truth Creature," which sees absolutely everything. Like, every tiny detail, every molecule, every little thing you can imagine. Nothing escapes its notice. And then there's the "Shortcut Creature" which, like, only sees what's useful. It ignores everything else. So, the Shortcut Creature is basically missing, like, 99.9% of reality, right?
You'd think the Truth Creature would be better, right? But, no! The Shortcut Creature *always* wins. And guess what? We're the Shortcut Creatures. We've evolved to see a simplified, stripped-down version of reality so we can, you know, survive. It's been proven, like, there's an actual theorem called "Fitness Beats Truth."
Most of us think that what's true is automatically useful, but, like, think about it. That's not always the case. We don't see reality, we see a "manifest image" of it – a useful illusion.
It's like a computer, right? Most of us have no clue what's really going on inside when we double-click an icon. It's all silicon and copper and binary code. But we don't see that. We see a desktop with files and folders, a cursor and icons. It's a total illusion, but it's useful, it's a shortcut. If we had to understand the actual code to write an email, we'd never get anything done! And this becomes even more clear when you think about like, the old MS-DOS operating system. It was *closer* to reality, but it was way more confusing!
It's the same in nature. Evolution isn't about truth, it's about reproductive success. So, if truth and usefulness clash, usefulness wins every time. As someone said, our minds are, like, organs, not pipelines to the truth. They evolved to solve life-or-death problems for our ancestors.
And it's not just about seeing only what's useful, it's also about getting rid of what isn't. Our brains, like, literally prune themselves. Newborns have, like, way more brain cells than adults. But as we grow, our brains get rid of the connections that aren't being used. It's like, a winnowing process. We keep the connections that help us make sense of the world.
Our senses are also filtered. We can't even perceive all of reality. We can't see ultraviolet light or infrared light. And even the stuff we *can* see, we ignore most of it. Our brains filter it out because if we paid attention to *everything*, we'd be completely overwhelmed. It's an information explosion. So, our brains focus on detecting helpful patterns and potential threats, while ignoring the rest.
Try drawing a five-dollar bill from memory. You'll probably be surprised how much you *don't* remember. Our brains just retain a tiny, useful slice of reality.
And think about this, our vision could be completely different! What if we could only see in black and white? Or what if we had the eyesight of eagles? History would be totally different.
Most mammals are actually dichromats, they only see blue and green. Dolphins and whales are monochromats, they only see black and white! And some birds and insects are tetrachromats, they see ultraviolet light, too! And then there was this one woman scientist found who had *four* color cones in her eyes! She could see, like, a hundred million colors! We can only see about a million!
It all came down to evolution, the need to detect red figs against a green background. That’s it, we can see millions of colors, because our ancestors needed to see figs in jungles.
Our brains are also pattern detection machines. We're constantly looking for connections, for cause and effect. It’s what makes us human. But, like, we're *too* good at it. We're allergic to chance. We see patterns where there aren't any.
It's safer to mistakenly assume that a rustling noise is a predator than to ignore a real lion. So, our brains are hyper-attuned to pattern detection. We want to know "who knows what?" and "who wants what?"
This is why we're, like, obsessed with stories. Good stories have a clear cause and effect. "The king died, and then the queen died" isn't a story. "The king died, and then the queen died of grief" is a story. We need the "why."
And even when we don't have a reason, we make one up. There were these experiments where people's brains would get split, and their left brain side, which deals with language would make up reasons for things that the right side had seen. So, they called it the "Interpreter."
We need simple reasons, too. One cause, one effect. But the world isn't that simple. When we slap ordered reasons onto disordered events, it's called teleological bias. Like, kids believe mountains were made for humans to climb them. It’s a bias.
You know, when you go on TV to be a pundit, you can *never* say "I don't know" or "it was random." You always have to have a reason. And whenever you hear "markets are reacting to" or "stocks dipped today because," be careful, it's teleological bias.
Teleological bias is connected to something called apophenia, which is seeing relationships between unrelated things. Like the "hot hand fallacy" in basketball, where people think a player who made a few shots in a row can't miss.
Conspiracy theories thrive on these biases. Big events must have big causes. Christopher French, a psychologist, said that Princess Diana's death spurred so many conspiracy theories because people couldn't accept that it was just a car accident. Something else had to be going on. Even if the ideas contradict each other!
Voltaire wrote *Candide* because he was trying to make sense of the Lisbon earthquake, which seemed random. Dr. Pangloss in the book sees reason everywhere. Like, noses were made for spectacles. Voltaire came up with "Panglossian" meaning someone who sees that the world we inhabit is the best possible world.
We like to see patterns and meaningful relationships, even when they don't exist, because it's better than seeing nothing. But sometimes these shortcuts fail us.
Think of sea turtles. They head towards the brightest light, which used to be moonlight reflecting off the ocean. But now, they get confused by bright lights from beachfront hotels and head *away* from the sea.
Or jewel beetles. The males are attracted to a certain color and dimpled pattern, which is how they find the females. But then an Australian beer company made a bottle with a similar pattern. And the male beetles started trying to mate with the bottles!
These are called evolutionary traps. The old ways of surviving become incompatible with a new reality. And humans are facing one too. Our minds didn't evolve to cope with a hyperconnected world where one tiny event can change everything. So the Shortcut Creature doesn't do so well in this new, more complex world, sadly.