WEBVTT - The Seven Deadlies: Sloth 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.880 Works dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:16.200 My name is Robert lamp and my name is Julie Douglas, 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.200 and we are back with our final sin in our 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:21.159 series of seven Deadly sins. I think it's fitting that 0:00:21.200 --> 0:00:24.400 it's Slot. Yes, we say the best one. Well, we 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:29.240 say one of them per last, and got to it finally, yeah, finally, 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:34.240 after we sat on the couch in potato chips for months. Um, yeah, 0:00:34.280 --> 0:00:36.840 we're gonna talk about slot. Let's uh, let's talk about 0:00:36.880 --> 0:00:39.479 it in the context of our friend Dante. Yeah. The 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.600 interesting thing about slot is that, but before you really 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.440 get into it it youve initially think, oh, slot, laziness, 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:49.320 that's easy. But it's actually a little more uneven than that. 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:51.520 You know. It's like it depends on who's defining slot 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.120 exactly what it is. You go back and you look 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:56.720 at accounts of it in the medieval Christian Church, and 0:00:56.880 --> 0:00:59.400 you do see it in terms of this disinclination to 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:02.680 use labor and to exert yourself in a very you know, 0:01:02.720 --> 0:01:05.360 physical means. But then you also have drug of doctors 0:01:05.360 --> 0:01:08.200 and saints like Thomas Aquinas who called it sadness in 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:11.320 the face of spiritual good which one has to achieve. 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:13.960 So you see it also defines to this kind of 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.520 spiritual or emotional apathy. Yeah, I saw it in the 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:22.320 context of a moral failing, a combination of alienation and 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.480 tedium with a little self contempt thrown in. And it 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:29.080 afflicted jaded monks who had tired of the cloistered life. 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:31.720 And so it was a sin because they were actually 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:35.200 turning away from their moral obligations and towards selfish pursuits. 0:01:35.680 --> 0:01:38.600 It was termed buy the Discovered Magazines article. I didn't sin, 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:41.520 it was my brain as a monistic form of on. 0:01:41.680 --> 0:01:44.360 We well in Dante's Inferno there and I think we 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.960 mentioned this already. There's no circle of sloth per se. 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.400 But as we discussed in Wrath, we we do wind 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:54.440 up on the river sticks with good old Dante and Virgil. 0:01:54.560 --> 0:01:58.800 As we're moving across this slimy, swampy just horrible muck 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.000 fest that is stick, we see that there are bubbles 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:04.320 rising up to the surface. They're rising up from the bottom, 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:06.840 and that is where the sullen are. The river Sticks 0:02:06.840 --> 0:02:09.040 has the sullen, and they have the wrathful the wrathful 0:02:09.040 --> 0:02:11.120 are over there, biting and punching and douging it out 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:13.480 on the surface, and the sullen are submerged in the 0:02:13.480 --> 0:02:17.040 bottom of this horrible slimy like they're down there. Yeah, 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.480 they're They're pouting, they're gargling, these mock prayers up through 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.880 the waters. It's the idea that it's anger expressed in 0:02:23.919 --> 0:02:27.320 two ways. Here with the wrathful, it's anger that's it's outward, 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:29.800 it's like I hate everything, gonna punch everything in the face. 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:33.640 And then here it's anger that is inverted, that's pushes 0:02:33.680 --> 0:02:37.560 inward on the person, crushing them under the weights. Anger. Yeah. 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:39.919 I'm actually gonna read a quick bit from a translation 0:02:40.000 --> 0:02:41.600 of Dante and Frona, just to give you a little 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:45.160 taste of the sullen and sticks. Here, my kind master said, son, 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.720 now behold the souls of those whom Anger vanquished. And 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:50.960 I would have you believe too, as a certainty, that 0:02:51.120 --> 0:02:54.240 under the water are people who are sighing, making the 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:57.000 water bubble at the surface. As your eye will tell 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.880 you wherever it turns fixed in the mind, or they say, 0:03:01.000 --> 0:03:03.200 we will gloomy in the sweet air, and the sun 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:06.760 makes us glad, bearing within us the fumes of sullenness. 0:03:07.120 --> 0:03:10.240 Now we languish in the black slime. This hymn they 0:03:10.280 --> 0:03:14.079 gurgle in their throats, for they cannot fully form the words. 0:03:14.120 --> 0:03:17.920 So we wound about a large arc of the filthy swamp, 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.120 between the dry bank and the wetness. Our eyes turned 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:24.440 on those whose swallow mud. We came to the foot 0:03:24.520 --> 0:03:27.040 of a tower at the last. And that's from the 0:03:27.160 --> 0:03:30.560 version of Inferno that is edited and translated by Robert M. Durling, 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:33.000 which I highly recommend. I think it's really cool. Translation, 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:35.600 has a lot of interesting notes that really illuminate this 0:03:35.680 --> 0:03:40.160 fascinating text. And if you travel into Dante's purgatory, it's 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:43.520 a little less interesting. There is a terrace, the fourth 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.480 race of purgatory, and again purgatory is in Dante's Divine Comedy, 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:50.600 is this mountain that connects the earth to Heaven. And 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.040 if you're you're not bad enough for hell, but you're 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:54.640 not good enough for Heaven, you're gonna have to work 0:03:54.680 --> 0:03:58.600 off your sins and polish yourself up before you can 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:02.080 actually walk through the doorf heaven. So on the fourth 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.360 level of Purgatory, you work off all that sloth, and 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.160 here the slothful. They were slothful in life, and now 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:10.880 they're showing great vigor, running around and circles on this terrace, 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:16.880 shouting various famous examples of slothful behavior and the opposite virtue, 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:20.839 which Dante definds a decisive zeal. So in life, these 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:24.600 people really didn't care about anything, and they weren't really 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.200 applying themselves. So to work it off, their shouting and 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:31.240 running around, and they're they're screaming all these examples of 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:33.719 of horrible sloth, but also examples of what they should 0:04:33.720 --> 0:04:36.479 have been doing, which is just getting really zealous about 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:39.640 something important. So before they were gulping mud, and now 0:04:39.680 --> 0:04:43.000 they're just running around like maniacs. Yeah, and real quickly, 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:44.839 I'm going to head east for a second and just 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:48.680 point out that in Buddhism, sloth or torpor is one 0:04:48.720 --> 0:04:51.919 of the five hindrances that interfere with meditation, along with 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:56.159 sensual desire, ill will, restlessness, and remorse and doubt. And 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:59.000 according to sam KaiA, one of the six orthodox systems 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:03.080 of Hindu philosopy, the there are three primal qualities of matter. Okay, 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:07.440 the highest one is something called satva, which is illumination, 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:11.080 enlightened knowledge, and lightness. And then there's one called Rajas, 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:15.120 which is energy, passion and expansiveness. And the third is 0:05:15.320 --> 0:05:20.040 Thomas or darkness, and this is obscurity, ignorance, and inertia. 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.400 So in this idea we see the idea of sloth 0:05:22.520 --> 0:05:26.000 as it relates to physical reality, but then that's also 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:30.039 sometimes applied to our inner realities as well well. And 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.599 I think that sloth is interesting because it's one of those, 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:35.840 again sins that doesn't seem so bad, so you kind 0:05:35.839 --> 0:05:38.159 of have to wonder, well, why is it such a problem. 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.120 In the church traditions especially, you see it defined as 0:05:41.120 --> 0:05:44.680 a capital sin, meaning that it's a sin that leads 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:47.200 to other sins. So you start off as just being 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.760 a lazy and slothful, the next thing you know, you're 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.599 being lustful or you're you know, you're doing something worse. 0:05:52.640 --> 0:05:56.279 It's like a gateway sin, according to some of the commentators. Well, 0:05:56.279 --> 0:05:58.480 there's also this idea that sloft is a sin because 0:05:58.520 --> 0:06:01.719 it contributes to the individual's failure to achieve achieve his 0:06:01.880 --> 0:06:06.760 or her future her true self expression right sit in 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:11.159 this regard is really important because time is of the essence, right, 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:14.279 we are a time limited creature here on this earth. 0:06:14.680 --> 0:06:17.080 We live, we die, And so the thought is that 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:19.360 if you're engaging in sloth all the time, then you're 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:23.200 wasting this precious gift or these moments in which you 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:27.000 could again be achieving something that sort of transcends yourself. Right, 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:29.279 whether you're looking at your time on Earth and your 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:31.719 existence here is a gift from some sort of divine 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:35.680 being or just an accident of evolution, there's no denying 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:37.400 that there is a finite amount of time in which 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:40.279 to achieve something. And if you put any value on 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.240 achieving anything, then at the end of the day, you've 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:44.840 you've got to look at yourself and say, like, Wow, 0:06:44.839 --> 0:06:47.200 what did I actually get done today? And if the 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:51.760 answer is not much or nothing, then perhaps oh I 0:06:51.800 --> 0:06:54.039 was even thinking. In the context of Lawrence Krass, like 0:06:54.080 --> 0:06:56.560 we've talked about him and what he talks about in 0:06:56.680 --> 0:07:02.279 terms of supernova's dying and that material spewing fourth actually 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.520 creating the Earth and how you know, the nitrogen, carbon dioxide, 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:08.799 all these different things that um, you know, are actually 0:07:08.880 --> 0:07:13.240 in our own bodies are a result of the supernova's 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.120 you know, blasting into little bits and shards, and when 0:07:17.120 --> 0:07:18.320 you think about it, that when you're like, wow, I 0:07:18.400 --> 0:07:22.640 am sitting here, living and breathing because of these incredible 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.800 things that have happened in the universe. Yeah, that makes 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:30.120 Slot feel really like, like pretty awful. Actually, it's kind 0:07:30.120 --> 0:07:31.840 of if you were looking at the timeline someone's like, 0:07:31.880 --> 0:07:34.200 and then a star exploded and this matter traveled across 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.440 the universe and then for a little bit there, uh, 0:07:36.480 --> 0:07:38.720 it was embodied in this person who hate potato chips. 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:42.680 But but what fascinates me too about Slot is that 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:45.880 by some of these definitions, it's not necessarily just that 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:48.280 guy that's setting on the couch eaven potato chips and 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:50.240 doing nothing. You could have that guy who's living a 0:07:50.360 --> 0:07:52.800 very active life, a very busy life. You know, he's 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:54.960 running in the morning, then he goes to his banking 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:57.920 job or whatever. Then he comes back more running, uh, 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:00.480 you know than socializing. But then at the to the day, 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:05.360 has he done anything emotionally or spiritually that isn't selfish? 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.040 You know? Like it's that I think we a lot 0:08:08.080 --> 0:08:10.360 of us have that kind of realization in our lives 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:12.840 at different points where we're like we look at ourselves 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:15.240 and we wonder, am I really contributing that much that 0:08:15.360 --> 0:08:17.760 is good to the world, Am I doing something that 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:20.800 is that is that is worthwhile? Or am I just 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:24.320 existing in the muck of my own Uh? Yeah? Well, 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.080 and it's highly subjective because one man's sloth is another 0:08:27.240 --> 0:08:31.200 person's great productivity, right, And some people are just going 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.880 to have more empathy, more emotional attachment to various topics. 0:08:34.960 --> 0:08:36.439 You know, like one person is going to be like, Wow, 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:38.560 how could you spend your whole day and not think 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.360 about the conditions on the other side of the world, 0:08:41.520 --> 0:08:43.760 or or think about you know, people that have less 0:08:43.800 --> 0:08:45.760 and try to give back. If you're not thinking about that, 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:47.640 then it's just me and you have the blinders up 0:08:47.640 --> 0:08:50.080 to it. I mean it's okay, so um, not quite 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:51.880 right now. But in a little bit we are actually 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.720 going to talk about why that maybe why some people 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:58.240 are more aware of this and what sloth is for 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.800 some people and not for others. But let's talk about 0:09:00.840 --> 0:09:04.599 what's going on in the old noggain. Yes, inside the 0:09:04.679 --> 0:09:08.440 human brain. What is the science again? According to that 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:11.640 Discover magazine article, I didn't sin it was my brain, 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:16.000 the dorso lateral prefrontal cortex or the d l PFC 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.520 has an unusual pattern of activation in both dementia and depression, 0:09:20.679 --> 0:09:23.800 so they see that its function is actually related to 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:28.319 inhibiting impulses and sustaining attention, which is really important when 0:09:28.320 --> 0:09:31.719 it comes to motivation. Right, So for people who are 0:09:31.840 --> 0:09:36.239 experiencing depression or dementia, there is a bit of activation 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:40.320 in that part that may suggest that this this part 0:09:40.360 --> 0:09:42.880 of the brain is actually a little bit weakened. I 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:44.920 guess you could say, for lack of a better word 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.559 there so as opposed to being this capital sin, this 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:51.000 sort of weak point through which all the other problems surge, me, 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:53.679 it's really more of a symptom of other problems in 0:09:53.760 --> 0:09:59.240 the brain. It's a question of sustaining attention in feeling motivation, right, 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:02.120 because if you can't not sit down for five minutes 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.880 and try to do something in your brain wanders, especially 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:08.960 if you know you are experiencing depression or you do 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:12.160 have dementia obviously, uh, you know you're going to lead 0:10:12.200 --> 0:10:16.000 to some sort of possible lethargy or just I don't know, 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:19.600 walking around the room in circles trying to lift your spirits. Right. 0:10:20.640 --> 0:10:24.360 So conversely, activity in this air kid actually help camp 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:28.640 down negative emotions and some studies depression lifted with stimulation 0:10:28.760 --> 0:10:30.520 of this part of the brain. And of course it's 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.800 the aspect of boredom, right, How engaged can one be 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:36.000 if there is nothing to be engaged with? Can you 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:38.280 die from it? Can you die of it? Yes? And 0:10:38.400 --> 0:10:40.720 I think we've touched on this topic in the past, 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:44.360 and we discussed how like isolation affects an individual where 0:10:44.360 --> 0:10:47.800 where our brains are are evolved in our our brains 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:51.400 function in a changing world, like we need a new 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.600 stimuli to keep it active, and if the stimuli doesn't change, 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.480 then our brain becomes hyperactive and has to pull on 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:01.080 stimuli that isn't necessarily there, and it can cause all 0:11:01.400 --> 0:11:05.120 number of problems inside the mind. Yeah, and there's this 0:11:05.280 --> 0:11:10.680 idea that boredom can't exactly lead to death, but your behavior, 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:15.720 which could be risky because you're seeking a way out 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:19.719 of boredom, could put you in a predicament that could 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:22.319 leak into your death certainly. Um In the can You 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:25.360 Dive Boredom article by Kristin Congress, she actually talks about 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.160 how boredom prone people are more likely to engage in 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:31.960 these high risk activities we're talking about compulsive gambling, alcoholism, 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:35.840 drug addiction, and eating disorders and uh in the article 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:38.880 also says that men are particularly susceptible, as well as 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:43.640 people with brain injuries or some psychotic disorders. Now, what's 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:45.760 interesting about that is that brings us back to the 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.960 idea of floth is a capital sin, because then if 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:51.080 we look at it, this idea that sloth is boredom 0:11:51.360 --> 0:11:54.120 and tedium, then yes, it could be a catalyst for 0:11:54.400 --> 0:11:59.480 other activities that are quote unquote more sinful but more destructive, 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:01.959 like you like, I mean the classic example that comes 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:03.800 to mind, it's like a board king. Oh he's boored. 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:05.520 What is he going to do with his time? Oh 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:08.600 he's going to eat more because he's and now he's buttonists. 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:10.720 Or he's going to pursue the pleasures of the flesh 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.040 and now he's lustful, or he's going to really get 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:16.960 into warfare, or the persecution of witches. And this leads 0:12:16.960 --> 0:12:20.040 to all all sorts of violence against the people within 0:12:20.240 --> 0:12:23.440 his country and those without. Yeah, the persecution of which 0:12:23.480 --> 0:12:26.160 is things is it's a big problem here. Well, no, 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:30.000 but the kids hang around being bored. I'm talking about 0:12:30.040 --> 0:12:33.760 in I've been reading a lot about witchcraft recently a well, 0:12:33.800 --> 0:12:37.840 specifically demonology and witchcraft in the mindset of those that 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:41.120 end up crafting the theories of witchcraft and demonology, which 0:12:41.160 --> 0:12:44.000 of course are the learned men of the age. And 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:46.320 you do have situations where they're and I don't have 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:47.560 to date in front of me, so I can't give 0:12:47.559 --> 0:12:49.520 you the guy's name. You have like this one prince 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:51.520 who has all of this time on his hands, and 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:53.320 that's how he ends up occupying his time by really 0:12:53.360 --> 0:12:57.000 getting into ideas of witchcraft theory. And it's extremely harmful 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.760 to his own people, so right, and which is you know, 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.720 it's certainly a marker of obsession to write. And what 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.760 I think is interesting about this idea of high risk 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:10.240 behavior and sloth or boredom is that it puts a 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.360 new skew on it, right, because normally you think about 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:17.520 sloth is sitting around not doing much torpor. But I 0:13:17.520 --> 0:13:20.640 mean this kind of makes us reframe it as people 0:13:20.679 --> 0:13:24.000 who are bored easily, who want to be engaged in 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.360 something but are just kind of running from one thing 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:28.520 to the other. I mean, actually, I've actually was thinking 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.680 about this in the context of neophiliacs, which we talked 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.960 about people who really just want a new experience and 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:39.079 actually contain the genes for this, right. They are hardwired 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:41.680 in a sense to seek out these new activities. And 0:13:41.720 --> 0:13:43.520 if you have this in an imbalance, then you have 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:47.200 a situation where someone can't stick with something for long. 0:13:47.280 --> 0:13:49.680 They a constantly need some sort of new stimulation to 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:51.960 the point where it's like, oh, today I'm a musician, 0:13:52.000 --> 0:13:54.559 Tomorrow I'm going to be really interested in being an actor. 0:13:54.600 --> 0:13:56.559 And you never actually pursue these to the level where 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.679 they you can actually be successful with them. Yeah, well, okay, 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:03.319 so I have to bring up our friend dopamine. You 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:06.000 knew what was coming here. It is it could be 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:12.040 that those people have a less dopamine in their system 0:14:12.080 --> 0:14:14.880 than others. And let me just go over dopamine again. 0:14:15.040 --> 0:14:18.480 This is the neurotransmitter. It triggers an emotional response in 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:21.480 the brain, and when we experience something like join excitement, 0:14:21.520 --> 0:14:23.640 we get this kind of ding ding in our brains. Um. 0:14:23.720 --> 0:14:26.680 So there's a theory that high risk, boredom prone people 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:30.560 may have naturally lower levels of dopamine. Okay, so they 0:14:30.560 --> 0:14:33.560 have to reach out for it more so, it's like 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.119 they have a hole in the wine skin of their dopamine. 0:14:36.480 --> 0:14:39.200 It's it's possible. And then also people with damage to 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:43.680 the frontal cortex experience greater risk taking urges along with 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:47.280 boredom proneness, So there's a connection there. And the frontal 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.400 cortex is also where we perceive time, which could be 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:53.840 related to the feeling that time is passing so slowly 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:56.360 when we're really bored. That flows right into the theories 0:14:56.360 --> 0:15:00.520 of relativity where if you're sitting there watching hey, ry, 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:02.920 time is gonna pass a lot slower than if you're 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:07.240 doing something exciting. Wasn't this Einstein's experience after he was 0:15:07.280 --> 0:15:10.240 talking to Barelyn Monroe or something. Yes, his whole deal 0:15:10.360 --> 0:15:12.560 was if you you're staring at a beautiful woman, time 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:15.720 speeds up, which I have on several times, and mentioned 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:17.840 that I think that could somehow be worked into a 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:23.160 propulsion system for spaceship, like somehow use attractive women in 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:27.600 a spaceship observed by elderly scientists, and that will somehow 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:30.920 warp our perception of time enough to facilitate faster than 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.600 light travel. So we have to be objectified in space. Two, well, 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:37.240 it's necessary if we're gonna exit this. We're talking about 0:15:37.280 --> 0:15:40.480 the long term survival of the human race. I think 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.440 women can can doll up a little for that. Yeah, sure, okay, 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:47.400 well we'll get our makeup kits for that one. All right, 0:15:47.440 --> 0:15:49.120 when we come back from our break, we're going to 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:57.080 talk about the upside of sloth. Alright, we're back, So 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.000 the upside of sloth. I was looking around a litt 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.560 On several occasions, I've I've referred to the writings of 0:16:02.600 --> 0:16:06.240 Anton LaVey, not because he's the ultimate authority in the 0:16:06.360 --> 0:16:09.680 sort of Virtue of Sin dialogue, but because I tend 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:12.400 to find the founder of the Church of Satan very 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:15.200 amusing from a cultural perspective. And even he didn't have 0:16:15.320 --> 0:16:17.400 much to say about slot and his introduction to the 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:19.520 Satanic Bible, where he's he's generally going through all these 0:16:19.560 --> 0:16:21.320 sins and talking about how great they are and how 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:23.440 they really balance each other out. He just kind of 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:27.600 mentioned sloth and passing. So how can sloth actually be 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:31.480 beneficial if even a hard working Satanist couldn't find anything 0:16:31.520 --> 0:16:33.760 really all that's great about? Okay, all right, Well, take 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.040 a little journey with me. Okay, I'm gonna refer to 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:42.200 Wired article by Jonah Laire who's talking about sloth And 0:16:42.320 --> 0:16:46.400 he talks about a study conducted by Harvard psychologist Daniel 0:16:46.440 --> 0:16:49.840 Gilbert and Matthew A. Killingsworth, and they developed an iPhone 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:55.160 app that contacted twenty people volunteers at random intervals, asking 0:16:55.200 --> 0:16:57.520 them about their current activity and their levels of happiness. 0:16:57.560 --> 0:17:01.760 What they found, amazingly is that people were mind wandering 0:17:01.840 --> 0:17:05.639 about forty six point nine percent of the time. Okay, 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:11.000 half half of our lives right there, just wandering about. Yes. 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:13.679 So that kind of took them down another trail, and 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:15.840 so they decided, well, let's look into this whole day 0:17:15.960 --> 0:17:20.520 dreaming mind wandering thing going on, and uh, it turns 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.720 out that you could actually benefit from daydreaming a good 0:17:23.760 --> 0:17:26.399 chunk of your time away. And let's call it something 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:30.040 like lucid daydreaming. You have to have the ability to 0:17:30.080 --> 0:17:33.800 be aware that on some level that your daydreaming while 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:37.680 still remaining inward. Okay, so that's very similar to to 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:42.000 lucid dreaming, right, same concept. If you're dreaming, you're in slumber. 0:17:42.280 --> 0:17:44.160 You kind of have to know that that you're doing 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:47.159 what you're doing, but also participate in whatever story that 0:17:47.240 --> 0:17:53.159 you're weaving. So psychology Professor Johnathan's schooler found now that 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:56.199 there are two types of day dreamers or day dreaming, 0:17:56.800 --> 0:17:59.120 and this was shown in a study where participants were 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:02.960 given a slow section of Warren Peace to read okay, 0:18:03.040 --> 0:18:05.560 and then time how long it took before they started 0:18:05.600 --> 0:18:08.920 thinking about something else. Uh. The first type of daydreaming 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:12.320 occurs when people notice that their daydreaming, but really only 0:18:12.320 --> 0:18:14.800 when they're prodded by the one of the researchers do 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:17.080 they actually realize that, like and I say, hey, are 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.200 you daydreaming yet? Yeah, I'm okay. And then the second type, 0:18:20.400 --> 0:18:23.240 or again the sort of lucid daydreamers who can self 0:18:23.240 --> 0:18:25.720 report who are daydreaming but are really good at saying 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.280 I'm gonna press the button I realized right now that 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.639 I'm daydreaming. Those people score the highest on just a 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:36.000 variety of creativity tests because again they're able to sort 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:39.760 of realize that they're within this dream world, and yet 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:41.679 there are aspects of this dream world that they can 0:18:41.720 --> 0:18:44.680 actually apply to. I guess you could say, whatever reality 0:18:44.800 --> 0:18:48.119 is at this point, you know, or to more may 0:18:48.119 --> 0:18:51.480 be practical things in their life. Well. As a writer, 0:18:51.520 --> 0:18:54.600 as someone who who writes not only science but also 0:18:54.800 --> 0:18:57.320 um like fiction on the side, I've spent a lot 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:00.600 of time daydreaming with that in mind, and I feel 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:02.080 like when I set out to I mean, I do 0:19:02.119 --> 0:19:04.879 some daydream that serves no purpose at all as well, 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:08.240 But a lot of times I'll intentionally daydream on a 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.920 various you know, fantastic setting or plot idea or something 0:19:11.920 --> 0:19:14.760 that I'm thinking about writing someday or I'm actively writing 0:19:14.760 --> 0:19:17.600 now or have written in the past and may conceivably 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:20.720 rewrite in the future, And so I'll throw the daydreaming 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:22.760 into that, and I'll be like, I'm just gonna instead 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:24.560 of reading on the train this morning, I'm just gonna 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:27.920 crank up some music and think about these characters at 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.159 the setting. And you're bringing out an awareness to right, 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:31.800 I'm bringing that awareness to it, and it's kind of 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.600 it's kind of goal oriented because I'm thinking, if I 0:19:34.640 --> 0:19:36.119 get this right, if I can figure out how the 0:19:36.119 --> 0:19:38.919 flow of this works, or if something really explosive and 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.439 creative comes out of it, then that's something I can 0:19:41.480 --> 0:19:43.440 work into a story at some point. Okay, So that's 0:19:43.440 --> 0:19:47.480 the cognitive gold that is possibly provided to us, you know, 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:52.639 considering that you know, silver bronze, especially if you think 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.320 about in the context of really do we daydream half 0:19:55.320 --> 0:19:58.399 of our lives are are waking hours away. Because if 0:19:58.440 --> 0:20:01.119 we're doing that, maybe we should all engage in in 0:20:01.240 --> 0:20:04.159 this sort of lucid daydreaming, which is, you know, you 0:20:04.160 --> 0:20:05.800 don't have to be a zen master, but it does 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:09.720 take some effort. Certainly, meditation is helpful for that because 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:12.199 you become aware of your thoughts more easily. I mean, 0:20:12.359 --> 0:20:14.520 you know, you can think of it like brainstorming. Really right, 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.280 You know, there are no bad ideas in brainstorming. Most 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.600 of the ideas you generate in a brainstorming session for 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:22.440 a business or any kind of business setting, you're gonna 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:24.520 throw most of those away and maybe you'll get two 0:20:24.600 --> 0:20:27.280 or three that you can actually run with. So yeah, 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.640 and think about thought experiments. So we've talked about this before, 0:20:29.680 --> 0:20:33.600 the thought experiments. There is no point to a solution 0:20:33.640 --> 0:20:35.960 at this point. It is just a scenario that you 0:20:36.000 --> 0:20:38.960 put out there and you say, what if and it 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.000 could be the most ridiculous, most surreal thing. Um. The 0:20:42.080 --> 0:20:44.120 point is not to get to some sort of logical 0:20:44.280 --> 0:20:46.080 like and this is how you solve it. It's just 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:48.840 to let your mind sort of tick through the options 0:20:49.160 --> 0:20:51.960 So there you have it, Sloth. It's not as nailed 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:55.280 down to some of these other sins, motivations, aspects of 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:57.680 the human heart, but it's certainly one that is interesting 0:20:57.720 --> 0:20:59.639 and certainly one that fills a lot of our lives. 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:01.359 All right, I have just one quick listener mail, so 0:21:01.440 --> 0:21:04.879