Have you ever watched Inception? Recursive story telling is a common trope in fiction, though not often appreciated because it’s difficult to follow for some.
What I mean by ‘recursion’ here is when a character describes a fictional character and setting, who itself is describing a fictional character and setting, and so forth. Once you are 2-3 layers deep, it becomes nearly impossible to follow for the majority of readers. The ability to imagine a complex or abstract scenario is probably uniquely human, which can help us to better understand the feelings of others (and thus live harmoniously in a group), but also allow for high-level planning of future events (improving our adaptation). Putting it like this, you can probably hypothesize that ‘sociopathic’ behavior is caused by the inability to imagine complex or abstract scenarios (especially related to the feelings of others), rather than by a willful intent to cause harm in others. Whether this ability is learned or developmental, I don’t know. I appreciate that I have never had difficulties understanding concepts or feelings, though I also look up to others who are able to go even ‘deeper’ than I can.
When I was an actual child, the one thing I feared about growing up was the concept that I’d be gradually unable to learn new things and new skills. I’m not sure where this fear came from; probably my observation that older people had such difficulty adapting to new developments, and my own limitations of not being able to learn a new language. Now I don’t think that this fear was fully grounded. Language development does change while we grow up; it becomes more difficult to learn a completely new language. Learning how to play a musical instrument also becomes more difficult. Though, in contrast, many other things become much easier to learn as we get older due to cumulative experiences. You’re no longer starting from scratch, you already have decades worth of observations in your head. If you remain open to learn new things, and don’t dismiss concepts outright, I think that you will be able to continue learning new things and new skills throughout your life. Herein, your starting point and development obviously affect your rate of learning. Due to working as a biomedical scientist for over a decade, I’m fairly good at working in a medical laboratory, and new techniques come to me as if I’ve done them for years already.
To go back to the question ‘how deep is deep?’. There’s a lot of ways to answer this, depending on context and depending on ‘how deep’ of an answer you want ^^
Thank you Dr. Your little side deeply contrasts with your professional side in intriguing ways that invite acceptance.
Thank you for sharing yourself with us. šš¤
xD Must be strange to hear me say all these weird complicated things, while I’m also just trying to be a good baby.
But I’m not going to roleplay, it’d be too tiring I think. I’m just me and that’s it.
You ARE a good baby….š¤š„° …
and, I believe, a good scientist.
Balancing both makes you truly outstanding. š„°
Iām not sure about those claims xD. Maybe Iām actually awful at both… But I care and I try my best, and maybe that will make the difference.