# The essence of image While everything in reality exists to [the degree it really does](reality.md), we can't process it in its raw form. Instead, we make an accurate enough [copy of reality](values.md) by filling in information from various sources: - Our senses, such as sight and sounds - Memories of our senses we've stored in our brains - Things we [understand](understanding.md) other people have sensed, and aggregates of those things (e.g., [statistics](math-stat.md)) - What we [trust](understanding-certainty.md) and [believe](understanding-certainty.md) from others, extending across [groups](groups-member.md) we [identify](identity.md) with and [ideas](values.md) we hold For the most part, this copy is *stunningly* accurate. It allows us to relive the experience as many times as we want, and we can combine two or more experiences to fabricate a third, relatively accurate impression (e.g., someone who understands operating an automobile and has ridden in a boat can [imagine](imagination.md) operating a boat). While we [trust](trust.md) this image, it's not reality, and its flaws show themselves over time when our [imagination](imagination.md) diverges from it. Everything we perceive will have relative and absolute components to it. Often, our [conflicts](people-conflicts.md) are over relative things we *think* are absolute, often from our [culture](people-culture.md) and [upbringing](people-family.md). One complicated part of our perception comes in how things come together. In [reality](reality.md), the larger thing is *precisely* the same as the individual components combined, but our [values](values.md) make the whole *greater* than the sum of its parts based on its association to other values. [Intelligence](personality.md) is the ability to draw connections across perceived details. The more intelligence, the more details, and we usually tend to specialize our focus into our [preferences](personality.md): - Sensation - the [feeling](mind-feelings.md) something evokes. - Composition - the components, parts, and elements a thing is made of. - Usage - how to operate or [work with](results.md) that thing. - Limits - the capacity for when that thing stops being [useful](purpose.md), relevant, or [functional](results.md). - Role - how people perceive that thing compared to other things. - Implication - what that thing alludes toward or against. - Value - the [worth](power.md) that other people perceive that thing is to them. - Inspiration - the [symbolic](symbols.md) associations to other things. We pay attention heavily to novelty, so we tend to forget the familiar. [Awareness](awareness.md) of ourselves and our environment can help us [understand](understanding.md) simple things we may have forgotten, and it feeds heavily into our [creativity](mind-creativity.md). APPLICATION: Since intelligent and creative people can adapt their image more than most people, they're at the highest risk of completely forgetting about [reality](reality.md). Since some connection-building skill is [innate](humanity.md) and some is [trainable](understanding.md), it's difficult to [measure](math.md). Barring low-functioning [autism](autism.md) or specific [traumatic events](hardship-ptsd.md), we can't easily hold all this information at once in our minds. To condense it and make the [values](values.md) more clear, we build [stories](stories.md) out of it with the most important information, then throw out the rest, sometimes with the source information. We build these story-images rapidly in the subconscious, so we're not fact-checking everything we've built. Further, since we're pulling from *other* stories encoded in our memories, this entire system is extremely faulty. We don't notice, though, because we automatically correct errors as soon as we re-perceive things, irrespective of prevailing facts beyond initial impressions. People usually only re-examine, however, when they aren't [sure](trust.md) what they saw or when they train themselves to have more [scientific rigor](science.md). APPLICATION: Never [trust](understanding-certainty.md) your first impression of anything. Over time, as we [age](maturity.md), our environment becomes increasingly familiar. Since we understand life as a series of [stories](stories.md), aging creates fewer interesting stories, and we interpret the passage of time as moving faster. The only cure to this is to find [uncomfortable](mind-feelings.md) experiences that are new to us, though we're often [afraid](mind-feelings-fear.md) to do so and [wiser](understanding.md) at avoiding them. ## Bias We create [a bias](mind-bias.md) from our preconceived images. More images (i.e., [experiences](maturity.md)) means more bias layered onto our perspectives. It's humanly impossible to *not* have a bias without thinking strictly [like a computer](logic-cs.md). Mostly, this comes from how all our experiences pipe through [feelings](mind-feelings.md) before they even reach our ability to [perceive](understanding.md) them. With [humility](morality.md), we will readily add more images and offset the bias with other bias, but it never goes away, and we will always produce values that define [meaning](meaning.md) and [purpose](purpose.md). APPLICATION: Bias isn't necessarily bad. [Common sense](understanding.md) is a set of good prejudices, for example. [Professional specializations](jobs-specialization.md) allow people to judge [quality](values-quality.md) immediately without further investigation. Most [life experience](maturity.md) is literally *defining* prejudices to quickly and accurately [predict](imagination.md) [reality](reality.md). Generally, you can detect bias by how much people respond with [feelings](mind-feelings.md), especially with shock and [anger](mind-feelings-anger.md). While their reaction won't indicate whether they're [right](morality-justice.md) or not, it'll show how clearly they're thinking. Since [reality](reality.md) often has gradations, their feelings may allude to how much they [understand](understanding.md), but it isn't a clear indicator. APPLICATION: It's difficult to accept views that don't match your own, which is why no [culture](people-culture.md) is ever completely open-minded. We have a highly self-centered view of the universe, where we impose our [purposes](purpose.md), problems, and [values](values.md) upon our environment as if they existed outside our minds. Even when we gather copious amounts of [data](math.md), we're just creating an [anecdotal story](stories.md) built around aggregation. The only time we don't use ourselves as the center is when we [develop another center instead](addiction-centers.md), and our bias is made of a few "angles" that map our meaning to various elements: - [Cultural](people-culture.md) - borrowing from our [family](people-family.md) and [values](values.md) we [identify](identity.md) with, where [meaning](meaning.md) is based on [social tradition](habits.md). - [Social](groups-member.md) - the [power](power.md) dynamics around our [status](groups-member.md) in a group, where meaning is based on how we [imagine](imagination.md) others' opinions. - [Personal](mind-feelings.md) - subconscious actions from our [experiences](hardship-ptsd.md) and [decisions](people-decisions.md) that create subjective sets of meaning, especially the things we [identify](identity.md) with. - [Spiritual](religion.md) - far-reaching beliefs about God, [social trends](trends.md) and the [continuation of ourselves](legacy.md), where our personal sense of meaning is *extremely* limited. We tend to add others' views to ours, proportional to our belief that we don't [understand](understanding.md) something ourselves. It requires a Herculean feat of [humility](morality.md) to accept we don't understand things enough that we give *all* other perspectives at least some value. APPLICATION: Since we can't avoid bias, the only way to successfully discover [the truth](reality.md) is to gather as many biases as possible, from every possible angle, then find [consistent patterns](stories.md) across all of them. More often than not, when we find we're wrong, we will believe a *part* of what we saw was correct and will adapt other beliefs to fit it. Slowly, as some of those things never change [over time](maturity.md), we become more [certain](understanding-certainty.md) of ourselves. APPLICATION: If everyone in a group declares something as true, it shows more about the group than whatever they're saying. Closely examine the [truth](reality.md) compared to a group's [statements](awareness.md) to find the inherent bias of a [culture](people-culture.md). Very often, two people can have vastly different images while perceiving a similar thing. It frequently comes from our background, but the way we process [language](language.md) has a profound impact on what we remember. This bias opens up a guaranteed [risk](safety.md) that [deception and control](power-influence.md) can take hold in our minds. However, if we keep pursuing [the truth](reality.md), [the lies](people-lying.md) will fade away. APPLICATION: The cure for [image distortion](image-distortion.md) is curiosity. APPLICATION: To live [sincerely](goodlife.md), our inner lives must reflect our outer lives, including our [conflicts](conflicts-inner.md). ## Culture's image The basis of all [culture](people-culture.md), [social conflict](people-conflicts.md), and grander [social trends](trends.md) revolves around an image of a person, *not* the [reality](reality.md) of who they are. A person's reputation is the composite of everyone else's [image](image.md) of that person. It's extremely fickle and chaotic because it's what other people [feel](mind-feelings.md) about someone, which changes constantly. While having a reputation isn't a direct [boundary](people-boundaries.md), there is a certain type of [morality](morality.md) to a society thinking appropriately of someone. [Evil](morality-evil.md) people given honor is as much a perversion of [justice](morality-justice.md) as good people who are [condemned](mind-feelings-shame.md). All reputation is nothing but [sentiments](mind-feelings.md) about past events. Those sentiments, however, are [powerful](power.md), and define entire [cultures](people-culture.md). ### The power of reputation Because reputation is built around feelings, it's rarely [rational](logic.md). At its farthest extreme, a celebrity will make one social media remark that generates 1,500 comments, with each person feeling their single comment will [make a difference](power-influence.md). Reputations prove beforehand to others about what they should [expect](imagination.md). It usually indicates what someone [has legitimately done](results.md) and implies how much they [understand](understanding.md). While a reputation is always interpersonal, a sufficiently advanced society will create a set of data-generated reputations in different domains (e.g., [credit score](money-2_debt.md), [insurance score](money-insurance.md)). The limit of [power](power.md) from a reputation is what that entire [group](groups-large.md) can provide, so most people [pursue](purpose.md) at least some reputation with others. To [communicate](language.md) a reputational image is *highly* contextual and will bestow honor or [shame](mind-feelings-shame.md) on a person depending on the situation. Most of the value people feel from their honor and shame comes through a third party observing it, which is why [group leaders](groups-small.md) have more [power](power.md) to bestow honor and shame than [members](groups-member.md). To be famous is to have so much attention on you that you have no medium to sufficiently respond to the people who [communicate with you](people-conversation.md). APPLICATION: Everyone who runs this world has gotten there either through knowing someone powerful (e.g., monarchies), military strength (e.g., dictatorships), or popularity (e.g., democracy). Because of how much [power](power.md) a reputation can give, people will [work hard](results.md) to [distort and tweak their image](image-distortion.md). Most people do it a little (which is essentially [lying](people-lying.md)), but some people are experts at claiming honor and redirecting shame. APPLICATION: There's a lot of power in "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Nobody can be fully [trusted](trust.md), but everyone can be [useful](purpose.md). When people are [skillful enough with others](people-4_friends.md) or [familiar enough with someone](people-friends.md), it's *impossible* to hide reality from them. Since most of our actions are made of [habits](habits.md), and [feelings](mind-feelings.md) flavor our habits, any alteration to hide [reality](reality.md) from someone who knows what to [expect](imagination.md) will betray their ulterior [motive](purpose.md). ### Wielding the power of reputation Reputation affects much of what we do because we care about it so much: - Many times, we will shun unpopular [trends](trends.md) until they're popular. - We can subconsciously [identify](identity.md) with things based on what other people think of them. - Our [choice](people-decisions.md) of [friends](people-friends.md) and [groups](groups-member.md) is frequently defined by what *other* people think of them. - We pursue job titles, club roles, memberships in [groups](groups-member.md), good grades in [school](education.md), and achievements/badges in games and social media strictly for the sake of reputation. While reputation beyond a certain point isn't necessary to [coexist](people-boundaries.md) well in society or attain [the good life](goodlife.md), we do need at least some of it to gain our [purposes](purpose.md). APPLICATION: *Everyone* is horrifically flawed. However, they typically look better than reality. This is *very* [intentional](purpose.md) and often done long-term through a wide variety of people who [pass on](stories-storytellers.md) that person's reputation. [Lies](people-lying.md) tend to accumulate like [debts](money-2_debt.md), and [managing image](image-distortion.md) becomes increasingly difficult as we continue trying to adapt away from whatever represents [reality](reality.md) the most accurately. However, unlike most debt collectors, a liar frequently has to remit payment immediately before they lose their [power](power-types.md). APPLICATION: Seeking honor is perfectly fine until it compromises [virtue](morality.md), *especially* when redirecting shame. It's why people [respect power structures](groups-member.md) and [honor leaders](groups-small.md). APPLICATION: Beyond avoiding being seen as a [pariah](morality-taboo.md), building a reputation is a waste of time, and we'd do better to just do what we [prefer](people-decisions.md). People who make a living in maintaining image (e.g., [marketers](marketing.md), politicians, PR representatives) have to work so hard at their role that they tend not to [create](creations.md) anything else [tangible](results.md). However, an expert [influencer](power-influence.md) can change the [sentiments](mind-feelings.md) of an entire [crowd](groups-member.md), some of whom are *very* influential in creating new [solutions](results.md). APPLICATION: Being famous is torture, since you will be naked to criticism that you can't respond to. However, most people only see the [power](power-types.md) it brings without its costs. APPLICATION: Unless a person's popularity is based on their [direct aptitude](jobs-specialization.md) with what they address, anyone popular (i.e., celebrities) are the worst possible guides on [how to live](goodlife.md). On the other end of the spectrum, people who concern themselves with reality (e.g., [engineers](engineering.md), [accountants](money-accounting.md), [trade workers](jobs-specialization.md)) are so preoccupied with reality that they forget how difficult, geeky, nerdy, or obtuse they look. Many of them could stand to learn [basic people skills](people-3_boundaries.md), and often sabotage their long-term [influence](power-influence.md) through the limits of their medium.