The Meaning Program

I wonder if our brain constructs time to such a degree that it constantly creates a storyline to remain in a greater state of homeostasis.

I wonder if synchronicities are actually constructed by our brain. In an immeasurable amount of time, I wonder if we convince ourselves that we recognize something from the past, which is actually just an adaptable real-time observation. I have no mechanism in mind for how this would have evolved.

Maybe our excitement from taking risks is a program we run to test our adaptability. Not with the purpose of testing it, but because it is one of the options to take to move us into the future. In this sense, homeostasis becomes the ability of one to adapt with circumstances. An ability to selectively receive from a world of hyper-novelty.

In other words, I could continue on a high-risk but developmentally beneficial path or I could decide on a low-risk homeostatic level. High risk almost always contains within it a greater reward if the brain is conditioned to properly seek out opportunities to enhance circumstances. However, there is a distinct possibility that the high-risk option will result in a catastrophe. Any ancestors that observed a catastrophe will have had the ability to learn from the lesson just through that observation without understanding all that led up to such a high-risk decision.

Some find that changing situations are a net-positive while others take advantage of consistency. I wonder if different minds have different levels of capacity for novelty. Those that will have experimented with and received a positive outcome will continue to seek out the high-risk reward. However, some individuals will have learned that stability is more adaptable and will have likely learned the opposite about change. I wonder if this level of adaptability can change more or less over time for the individuals, as though the very fact of being adaptable fluctuates at the human sole level.

One of the few guarantees we have in life is that things will change, so for those that seek it out (change), there seems to be a competitive advantage. Even for those that avoid change, there will come a time when a change must be made. Again, a low-risk reward will only allow for a small amount of change, but a high-risk decision will plunge one into the unknown where they will have to use the tools they’ve developed to survive.

I wonder if one of those tools is the ability to find meaning where it is not inherent.

Originally written in Collective Journaling at The Stoa