Debbie Foster

For truly effective social reform, we can use the tools of game theory to understand why we're in the equilibrium we're in and to map out realistic alternatives. We should be willing to iterate on entirely new game structures, not just tinker with the rules of games we're already in.

Who you think you are--your notion of "self"-- is a mere cartoon, just as your notions of other people are cartoon versions of them, but critically these cartoons form the touchpoints of narrative that bind together our mental models of the world and our place in it.

In short, it is our subjective evaluation of a practice's appeal--and less its real-world impact on our health, fertility, or strength—that often determines whether it sticks around and spreads. Of course, subjective appeal and objective benefits often converge. Hammers, matches, and spears produce material advantages, which is why we continue to

I was supposed to write about my immediate sensory experiences, my social mistakes and my small depressions, to imagine nothing outside myself and my feelings. Our teachers (who were mostly white women, teaching classes mostly composed of young white women) encouraged us to write what we knew, and we were supposed to know as little as possible.

Attention," writes the neurophilosopher Iain McGilchrist, "is not just another 'function' alongside other cognitive functions. Its ontological status is of something prior to functions and even to things. The kind of attention we bring to bear on the world changes the very nature of the world in which those 'functions' would be carried out, and in

One of the biggest obstacles to changing personality is this kind of ambivalence: a sense that yeah, maybe you should get around to being less angry or drunk or chronically late, and maybe one day you will, but not today. After all, you're a fun drunk, and you get angry for a reason, right?

Life is Cheap The brain is constantly trying to automate processes, thereby dispelling them from consciousness; in this way its work will be completed faster, more effectively and at a lower metabolic level. Consciousness, on the other hand, is slow, subject to error and ‘expensive’.

The Greek word for imitative behavior is "mimesis," and most of the time, when we get anxious about the effects of fiction, we're worried about mimetic responses—not so much from ourselves but from other people.