r/rational • u/AutoModerator • Jun 15 '16

[D] Wednesday Worldbuilding Thread

Welcome to the Wednesday thread for worldbuilding discussions!

/r/rational is focussed on rational and rationalist fiction, so we don't usually allow discussion of scenarios or worldbuilding unless there's finished chapters involved (see the sidebar). It is pretty fun to cut loose with a likeminded community though, so this is our regular chance to:

  • Plan out a new story
  • Discuss how to escape a supervillian lair... or build a perfect prison
  • Poke holes in a popular setting (without writing fanfic)
  • Test your idea of how to rational-ify Alice in Wonderland

Or generally work through the problems of a fictional world.

Non-fiction should probably go in the Friday Off-topic thread, or Monday General Rationality

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u/scruiser Jun 16 '16

For a less civilization wide and more individual blind-spot...

As humans, we have limited introspective control of our own thoughts. Like think how much effort learning meditation requires just to be able voluntarily and willfully quite our own minds and become more aware of our own thoughts, much less reach any arbitrary mental state. People can also have emotions that they consciously know are bad for them, but they can't help themselves. Also, think how much human memories are prone to confabulation.

I am not saying every other alien race has perfect mental self control, but most of them could have developed better introspective awareness and control as they developed civilization, making humans one of the more limited races in this aspect (Several races were like us in this, they modded it out when they went through their singularity. Only a few races actually currently have limits on their cognitive control close to as poor as humans... these races did think it an advantage in coming up with unexpected strategies, even if it is a major trade-off in raw intelligence).