EVE General Discussion

Thank you, for not being blindly consumed by hatred like so many others
who simply react to what they read, instead of having deeper thoughts.

Thank you so much for not being consumed by the ego illness that
dominates the minds of the people in General Discussions!

I would, btw, like to know how you avoid from being infected!
I do feel like that's relevant for the point and others might actually
be able to use it for their own good.


Thank you for listening, I will explain!

*breathes in deeply*


This might be a bit longer and I do need to reach out a bit,
so I can provide context for your minds to work with.

Please note that I did not and do not feel the need to read this article.


The small TL;DR is ...

The reason why he connects reaction time with intelligence is
because the longer the brain has time to process input before a response,
the less automatic and pattern based the reaction will be!


I use the "time to process input" mechanic for my erotic roleplaying.


The way I express seperate actions in seperate lines delayed by time
gives the reader's mind time to let the written word "sink in",
creating a more engaging experience!


I can not show you that on the forums,
because there is no time delay between individual lines.

I did, though, show it to quite a few people who might or might not read and respond.

Anyhow ...



What we are talking about ...
... and what is affecting the people of GD ...
... is related to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automaticity


Let's use the computer analogy.
It works well enough and everyone grasps it.


So, imagine your brain is a computer.


Yes, this is connected and displays a bit how the mind works.


Do you know the weird thing when you want to remember something, but you can't?
It slipped your mind and you can't access the memory.


Though once you stopped thinking about it,
your mind eventually digs it out and you suddenly recall.



Everyone eventually has this happen in his life.
It is pretty common! But why is this happening?


It is happening, because once one stops searching, (aka giving the command)
the "back of the mind" has time to dig out the memory.


You gave the order into your brain ...
... and your brain starts to dig.


When you keep trying to find the memory,
then you interrupt the search process.

The key thing here is the fact that the mind works in the back,
as long as there is no attention given to the process itself!


The wikipedia article actually talks about this.


When one pays explicit attention to finding the memory,
the brain is unable to find said memory,
because you pay attention to finding it.


The context in the article is different,
but the mechanics regarding the interrupt are the same!


Now how is that connected to reaction time
and the idea that intelligence is connected to it?


Easy. We can derive from above that the mind is able to disrupt working processes.
We issue a command and the mind works it out. If we pay attention to the process,
then the mind is being interrupted and can not process!



Specifically in context I want to point out this part:



Now, to close the circle...


The reason why people are compliant,
even although it just SOUNDS like a reason but actually isn't,
is because of the reaction time!


People who would have given the brain time to let the input be properly processed,
would have realised that there was no actual reason given!


Instead, they simply reacted! They heard it,
the brain came up with a pattern that fits and the reaction was given.


There are many reasons why people just react mindlessly,
but I will point out one example most people directly or indirectly know.
It shows how it works.


You know that from verbal fights, most probably,
when people start mindlessly throwing words at each other at a faster and faster pace,
instead of just listening and letting the input be processed before a response is given!

It ends with people overreacting and slapping others, (or worse, sadly)
leading to them regretting it and saying "I did not want to do that!"



But he did!
Why?
Pattern based behaviour!
Automatism!
No conscious thought!



There is an observation I have made years ago.

The shorter the reaction time, the stronger the automatism.


It is easily noticeable who actually puts proper thought into a conversation
simply by observing how long the person takes to respond to input.


It is also recogniseable when a person actually thinks about what is told to him,
compared to a person who does not.




THE BIG TL;DR:

The reason why one could assume that reaction time and intellect are connected,
is because the longer one thinks about something, the less stupid the response will be!


Case in point: GENERAL DISCUSSION!

The reason why there is so much hatred on the forums,
and barely any conscious thought,
is because people react to the negativity!

They read something that offends their egos,
like someone who says something that's "factually wrong" or "stupid"
and they immediately start typing!

No actual thought, just a reaction based on patterns,
filled with the negativity of the input!


And then there's the fact that people start to assume
that someone's post will be a troll or a hate-post,
making the hatred actually infectious for those who have no ill intentions!

Boy I'm scared now...


Someone pointed out that I mention an article in the top of the post.
Said article is not the wikipedia article I am referring to later on.

To understand this, one just has to read up a few posts earlier.

I know, totally missing the point, but hey!

IQ, at it's simplest definition, is the measure of how easy it is for someone to learn things. Someone with a high IQ will be able to assimilate and retain information much easier than someone with a low IQ. It's not really a measure of smarts per se, as you can be dumb as a brick and have a high IQ.


Interesting tidbit of fact, the IQ scale is averaged at 100, and gets re-averaged every few years. I remember reading not too long ago that if you give the standard 100 point average guy an IQ test from 30-40 years ago, they'll score in the 120's. IQ has gone "up" over the years!

It's not behavior that is encouraged by our social media. Facebook, Twitter, .... they all promote short meaningless interaction. The EVE-O forums are no exception to this. There has been an interesting study on the topic by the Pew Research Center (not a group of gankers) that starts from the assumption that interactions through Facebook and Twitter should have encouraged minority groups to express themselves more freely but instead comes to the conclusion that the opposite is true. The full article can be read here.


People also act to positivity (or enthusiasm). Posts and players with likes are more likely to receive additional likes than those without any. Peer pressure exists even among anonymous individuals or those using forum alts, or so it seems.

It is an interesting read, what you posted.. but this directly contradicts (ie: says the exact opposite) of what the linked article said, specifically. Also, I'm not sure how much stock I can put in your response if you can't take the time to read the article (it's pretty short).

The article said:



What you're saying is knee-jerk reactions are bad. I agree with you. But:



Whether someone makes a stupid (or non-stupid) post has no coherent relationship with IQ. IQ is measured and evaluated differently, and something as subjective as posts on an MMO forum have no correlation whatsoever to a measurable standard of cognitive processing.

I do not read that article,
because I do not agree with what is considered "intelligence".


I do not consider people intelligent,
who are so unaware of themselves,
that they fall into long periods of automatic, pattern based behaviour.


People who keep responding to each others posts over and over again, for example.
Like the people who mindlessly fight, until one slaps the other.

"Intelligence" is the wrong word.


Personally, I would call it lack of self awareness.
And in my personal context, that makes a person pretty stupid.

That's an opinion that does not necessarily mean someone is stupid all the time,
but I do tend to consider people who lack proper awareness levels to lack intelligence.

And I do realise it's not intelligence in the sense people usually mean.


I have reasons.


Anyhow ...


Why?


Because the person is unable to form a conscious thought.
Is unable to process anything that does not fit the saved mental patterns.
Is completely locked up in what he believes is true.
Rejects anything that is trying to be said, because it does not fit the saved mental patterns.


I do believe that my post was born rather out of a need to express wtf is going on,
than to actually talk about some irrelevant article that does not help anyone learn anything about themselves.


If my post even only made a single person more aware of itself,
then it was a success.


It definitely made *one* person so far more aware about *me*,
which is a personal win I did not actually expect. Not in the slightest.


If I consider what people seem to think is "intellect" then that would mean
that a person can be intelligent even when it's a person that does not have
any conscious thought at all and simply behaves like a mindless robot.

No?


Oh btw, simply calling it a "knee-jerk reaction" is also missing the point.

Thank you for your post!

And I am not getting disected,
chewed,
and spit out by you!


Yay! :D