https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=gZFlW988ofQ
Something like a general theory of meaning. That’s really what I’ve been working on I would say for 35 years something like a general theory of meaning and so I’m going to see if I can deliver the whole damn thing in 35 minutes So which I’ve never really been able to manage, but I’ve had a lot of practice, so maybe this is the night so Okay, so the first thing I want to tell you about is a little bit about how you perceive things because It’s very important to to know how you perceive things and you don’t perceive very much by the way because Well, there’s a lot of the world Way more than you can possibly imagine and there’s not that much of you and so you’re a lot of Information is coming in through a very narrow channel, and it isn’t easy given the fact that all that information exists It isn’t easy to figure out how to narrow that channel so that the information you get is the information that you need Information you need that also gives you a grip on the world right has to be practically useful true and practically useful something like that It’s very very very very difficult problem to solve and a lot of it You don’t even you don’t even really solve because you can’t It’s too complicated you solve it by doing what you’re doing right now for example so here You are in this unbelievably beautiful building and I read today a little bit about it and today It would cost about a billion dollars to build this building and so you’re sitting here And and you’re all sitting here peacefully and you’re all pointing in the same direction right and we’re all basically doing the same thing And we’re doing it peacefully and we can all all focus on the same thing and We had to invest a billion dollars for that to be able to happen and so Part of you think about that is that part of the way your society? Solved the problem of the complexity of the world for you was by investing a billion dollars in what 15? How long did it take to construct this place 15 years something like that? maybe it was longer so that you could sit here in relative comfort and peace and tranquility and Concentrate on something that’s very focused maybe something of beauty something of artistic merit something of intellectual merit And that the rest of the world wasn’t there so you didn’t have to worry about it And then and that’s not all it’s not just that you’re here in this building and the chairs aren’t falling apart And that the floor is reliable and the electrical lights work and the sound Quality is good and like all the technology is working and there’s people beatling away in the background like mad Constantly everywhere making sure that those impossible things keep happening so that you don’t have to be distracted But then you’re also sitting with people who are roughly like you you know roughly like you enough so that when they come into A venue like this they know enough to sit down in the seats and face forward And not turn around and look at the person behind them which would make them very nervous Right which would be an indication that that person isn’t playing the same game as everyone else and so God only knows what they’re up To because you just wouldn’t want that right you wouldn’t want the guy in front of you turning around and just Looking at you for the next 90 minutes, and well it’s worth. It’s worth thinking about why? Like well, what are you thinking about you know you’re gonna be sitting there Looking like this your eyes are gonna be darting around and maybe you’re gonna be nudging someone And you know pointing at this person because maybe they have some idea of what this person is up to because you don’t and the problem is if you don’t know what that person is up to then they could be up to anything and Anything is a lot of things to be up to and and you don’t want people to be up to anything You want them to be up to the one or two things they’re supposed to be up to well They’re with you in this narrow place that you occupy right and that and that’s well That’s sort of the hallmark of a civilized and socialized person is when we interact under 90% of conditions 99% of conditions you show me your persona It’s just a very narrow slice of yourself And I show you mine at the bank say or or you know at the grocery store when we pass each other Casually in the street we nod and say hi and you know and say hi or we just walk by peacefully and like we’re Seething with complexity, and we don’t let any of that out and the reason for that is we don’t want anybody else to let any of it out either Right so we keep ourselves Simplified and and and we build our architecture for that and so you know you come into a building like this and the building Tells you what to do the chairs are all aligned the chairs say sit on me right the chairs are all facing the same way And kind of a semicircle and they say face the stage and there’s a stage And so you come in here and all the perceptual problems are solved and so there’s all this technology And there’s all this expense And then there’s the shared culture that enables you to know that this is something like a theatrical experience and so what you do at a theatrical experience is come together in as a group and remain silent, but attentive participating in that manner and Watch and listen to the main performance, and you all know that it’s part of the shared culture And so that shared culture is also enabling you to perceive what you’re perceiving right now as a protective mechanism And that’s part of a broader shared sense of civilization And it’s dependent on a shared government and and then there’s other forms of protection. You know I mean well We’re not there’s the Sun isn’t shining on us too brutally because we have a roof And we’re not in danger of warfare because you have borders and you have an armed forces And you have policemen and it’s like Christ There’s just things going on around you like mad to ensure that you can sit here So peacefully and and so much as if the world isn’t a complex place For an hour and a half and do something this focused and so that’s partly how you solve the perceptual problem You don’t see the world that much you you screen a lot of it out now. There’s a good indication good illustration of this Psychologist named Dan Simon did this famous experiment which he called gorillas in our midst and some of you know about it But I’m gonna go over it because it’s such a fun experiment to talk about because it’s so ridiculous and so illuminating and Because it’s so relevant to what I want to continue talking to you about so here’s the deal you go into Dan Simon’s lab He was at Harvard 20 years ago when he did this and he was interested in this phenomena called changed blindness you know and though you see those kids books sometimes where there’s picture one and picture two and You’re supposed to look at picture one and then look at picture two and see what’s changed. It’s actually hard You know you look at picture one you say well I saw that and then you look at picture two and it’s different, but you can’t see the differences and you have to really Compare back and forth before you can check out the differences And that’s what perception is like is you’re very blind to change way more than you think and Way more than anybody thought before Simon did his experiments, and so he did this crazy experiment So here’s the setup video camera set up in front of a Elevator bank right and so the camera would be here the elevator bank would be about here So you know it’s pretty pretty close-up shot There’s six people participating three of them dressed in black three of them dressed in white the the white team has a basketball the black Team has a basketball They fill the whole screen so it’s not like they’re way over in the corner this high and you can barely see them They they fill up the whole screen you can you can detect their facial figures. It’s it’s close shot You see their whole body, but it’s clear. There’s no tricks in it and you sit there, and you’re the experimental subject and and the the the the Psychologist or his assistant says okay? Here’s your task and you’re there to be focused on a task apparently because you’re in the university and you’re in a lab And you’d expect to be focused on a task and so you’re already primed for that And you’re willing to go along with it to be obedient, but to be a good sport Let’s say that’s better than obedient and you want to do a good job because it’s intimidating to be in the lab like that And so you want to you want to do a good job of whatever you’re supposed to do Unless you’re a troublemaker, and you’re probably not because you wouldn’t go into the lab to begin with if you were a troublemaker so so Simon says Simon says Says Count the number of times like the white team is going to throw a basketball back and forth variety of ways three minutes Just count how many times they manage it and they’re going to bounce it and throw it directly and all that and so the black team And the white team start to mill around in on the video, and they’re tossing the basketball back and forth and you’re watching the Basketball very intently with the central part of your vision now the central part of your vision is very high resolution And you can tell this it’s pretty easy. I’ll show you I don’t know Now this probably won’t work because I think the I think the theater is too big to do it But we could try it I guess so look at my finger Right, but but pay attention to my face now That’s hard because usually when you pay attention to something you look right at it, but I don’t want you to do that I want you to pay attention to my finger and look at my face and what should happen except perhaps for those of you Who are quite a distance at the back is that you’ll notice that you actually can’t see my facial features So for example if I look at even somebody in the third row if I look directly at you I can see your facial features fine. I can tell you have glasses. I can’t tell if you’re male or female I can’t distinguish you from the chair, and it has nothing to do with you Right, but like it You don’t have to move very far away from central vision before it becomes extremely low resolution And so that’s how your visual system is set up high resolution in the middle low resolution as you move towards the periphery Until like out here. I actually can’t tell how many I mean I know how many fingers I have Five if you include the thumb, but I can’t see them if I move them I can see them better because that’s one of the ways your visual system overcomes its limitations Is that it’s better at seeing movement than things that are that are stable and that’s because well if you’re watching something and something Suddenly moves you know off to the right it might be a good idea for you to shift your attention Just to see what it is and so that’s a trick your visual system uses But mostly it’s it’s foveal vision and it’s a very very small part of your visual field and it’s extremely heavily neurologically Innervated in the visual cortex a lot of cells are devoted to that tiny area in the middle of your vision to make it as high Resolution as possible, and it might be nice Eagles have two fovea by the way they can see better than human beings their eyes Balled Eagles their eyes are as big as human beings, and they can see better than we can they’re the only animals that can do that They have two fovea, but you you can’t have that high resolution vision across the entire span of your Eyes because then your head would have to be this big to carry that much brain around and obviously that would be hideous and also Counterproductive so so we do the best we can and what it means is that we’re blind to a lot of things that we don’t Think we’re blind to so anyway So you’re playing Dan Simon’s game And you’re counting the number of times that the Basketball is tossed back and forth between the white team and he says how many times and you say being a good experimental participant you say 16 and you’re right, and he says you’re right, and you think oh good I’m smart enough to participate in a psychological experiment you you feel good about yourself You know it’s a little self respect boost. Let’s say because you passed the test and then Simon says um Did you see anything? out of the ordinary and You say most of you some people notice most of you say no What do you mean and Simon says well the gorilla? Did you see the gorilla and and you think well? What do you mean did I see the gorilla like there was no damn gorilla There’s a I’d see a gorilla right if you’re if we’re watching me on stage and the gorilla came out here. You’d see it maybe Maybe as it turns out might depend on what the gorilla was doing but any in any case So Simon rewinds the tape as you watch it so that there’s no tricks And he says don’t don’t count the balls this time just watch so it’s a different command right so you have a different aim now You’re pursuing a different value structure He says just watch and he rewinds it and sure enough you see the gorilla Coming out backwards and being in the middle and and then going off to the side And then he replays it for you and minute and a half into the three minute video In waltz is this damn gorilla it’s a guy because they didn’t have a gorilla for obvious reasons Ethics committees wouldn’t allow them to use a real gorilla And he’s a big guy. He’s not a small chimpanzee type ape he’s six foot four and he saunters out there and Beats his chest like for four seconds right in the middle of the screen Which you might think you’d see since it’s right in the middle of the screen and then he saunters off to the side and You don’t see it And the question is well What the hell’s wrong with you like why don’t you see it and it’s worse than that like Simon has done other funny tricks Like imagine you went to a grocery Store and the cashier was behind the counter right and you’re talking to the cashier and the cashier says excuse me for a minute And then kneels down and then someone else stands up and keeps talking to you, and you think oh You’re gonna catch that and you don’t about 50% of people miss that completely so you can like change the person Completely and the reason is well how much? Processing do you have to do to have a casual interaction with a cashier at a grocery store and the answer is not much Right you don’t have to do that the processing doesn’t have to be that deep And you can kind of tell this because you can watch the Simpsons Or you can watch South Park and South Park has like the world’s worst animation right I mean everything moves like this It’s all circles and triangles that you don’t care. It’s like five minutes into the narrative It doesn’t matter that it’s circles and triangles having a conversation It’s fine the icon will work and that’s a that’s a good rule for perception is you use the simplest possible Perceptual scheme that you can manage to get yourself from point a to point B, right? It’s a map you don’t see the world you see an iconic representation of the world and then the question is What makes the iconic representation? Sufficient and I suppose sufficient means a couple of things one things it means it means is tolerable right it doesn’t cause an Excess of suffering and degeneration it has to be functional Right and then and then maybe a more Specific example of that would be well it has to work like a map works a map is a low resolution representation But it’s a good enough map if you use the map and you start at point a and you happen to be at point a which Is a good beginning for a map and then you use the map and you get to point B, and you think Good enough map and and that’s really that’s that’s us. That’s how we think That’s how we that’s how we construe the world our maps are are really the stories that we use in the world are really the Maps we use to guide us and then they have perceptual implications, but that’s essentially what you do so now the question is all right What happened in the gorilla video well what happened was you were aiming at something right you’re aiming at counting the The passes and the question is well Why were you doing that and the answer is well someone told you to asked you to and then you might ask well Why did you listen to them there’s lots of other things you might have done in the lab But that isn’t what you did you did what you were asked to and we might say well. That’s because you’re Reasonably cooperative and civilized and then we might say well. Why is that a hallmark of cooperation cooperation and civilization and we might say well Reciprocity like spontaneous reciprocity between Strangers who have a bit of a contractual arrangement is part of civilized behavior And so that’s the appropriate thing to do and we might say well you wanted to do a good job in the lab because You wanted to make sure that your status wasn’t too low You know you could count to 16 and so you can give yourself a pat on the back of the head for that And you know it’s part of being a civilized person and so there’s a huge value structure Behind that like you didn’t go into the lab and shoot it up You know you didn’t bring a hand grenade right and you didn’t you didn’t you didn’t you didn’t sexually assault the Experimenter there’s lots of things you could have done in there, and you didn’t do those things you just sat there and counted the balls and missed the gorilla Okay, so and there’s complicated reasons for that there are deep reasons for that And so there are deep reasons for how you perceive things and why and so that’s what we’re going to go into