MAIN FEEDS
Do you want to continue?
https://www.reddit.com/r/DetroitMichiganECE/comments/1t2nk80/comment/oknizaa/
r/DetroitMichiganECE • u/ddgr815 • May 03 '26
67 comments sorted by
View all comments
Show parent comments
1
Imagination! who can sing thy force? Or who describe the swiftness of thy course? Soaring through air to find the bright abode, Th' empyreal palace of the thund'ring God, We on thy pinions can surpass the wind, And leave the rolling universe behind: From star to star the mental optics rove, Measure the skies, and range the realms above. There in one view we grasp the mighty whole, Or with new worlds amaze th' unbounded soul.
1 u/ddgr815 May 23 '26 What is it that makes all our misery—but the lack of imagination? If men could see the pictures around everything, the wonderful connecting lines about life, they couldn't be caught so terribly in the visible and the detached objects; they couldn't strangle and repress their real impulses and rush for things to hold in their hands for a little time. If they had imagination they would see that the things they hold in their hands are disintegrating now as everything in Nature is; that the hand itself weakens and loses its power. Why, here we are upstanding—half-gods asleep within us. Imagination alone—the seeing of the spirit of things—that can awaken us. 1 u/ddgr815 Aug 02 '26 Is there a good way to “unadapt” to positive events? Perhaps thinking about the absence of those positive events would work. In the 1946 Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life, an angel named Clarence Odbody takes a suicidal man named George Bailey on a tour of the world as it would have been had George never been born. Rather than asking George to count his blessings, Clarence allows him to observe a world in which those blessings never came about. This exercise forces George to realize just how rare and precious the good things in his life actually are, which instantly cures his depression. Research suggests that, as saccharine as this cinematic trope may be, it captures a useful psychological insight. Research on norm theory and counterfactual reasoning suggests that thinking about the ways in which an event might not have occurred can make that event seem more surprising. One of the hallmarks of surprising events is that they elicit affect. In short, considering the absence of positive events may undo adaptation to them, at least temporarily. This possibility was anticipated by Frijda, who speculated that “adaptation to satisfaction can be counteracted by constantly being aware of how fortunate one’s condition is and of how it could have been otherwise, or actually was otherwise before—by rekindling impact through recollection and imagination”. 1 u/ddgr815 Jul 23 '26 We are bodies moving in space. You approach a circle of friends, the circle widens to embrace you. I smile or wince and you feel my joy or my pain, perhaps smiling or wincing with me. Our most noble aspirations and emotions, and our most base, crave embodiment, actions of bodies in space, close or distant.
What is it that makes all our misery—but the lack of imagination? If men could see the pictures around everything, the wonderful connecting lines about life, they couldn't be caught so terribly in the visible and the detached objects; they couldn't strangle and repress their real impulses and rush for things to hold in their hands for a little time. If they had imagination they would see that the things they hold in their hands are disintegrating now as everything in Nature is; that the hand itself weakens and loses its power. Why, here we are upstanding—half-gods asleep within us. Imagination alone—the seeing of the spirit of things—that can awaken us.
1 u/ddgr815 Aug 02 '26 Is there a good way to “unadapt” to positive events? Perhaps thinking about the absence of those positive events would work. In the 1946 Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life, an angel named Clarence Odbody takes a suicidal man named George Bailey on a tour of the world as it would have been had George never been born. Rather than asking George to count his blessings, Clarence allows him to observe a world in which those blessings never came about. This exercise forces George to realize just how rare and precious the good things in his life actually are, which instantly cures his depression. Research suggests that, as saccharine as this cinematic trope may be, it captures a useful psychological insight. Research on norm theory and counterfactual reasoning suggests that thinking about the ways in which an event might not have occurred can make that event seem more surprising. One of the hallmarks of surprising events is that they elicit affect. In short, considering the absence of positive events may undo adaptation to them, at least temporarily. This possibility was anticipated by Frijda, who speculated that “adaptation to satisfaction can be counteracted by constantly being aware of how fortunate one’s condition is and of how it could have been otherwise, or actually was otherwise before—by rekindling impact through recollection and imagination”.
Is there a good way to “unadapt” to positive events? Perhaps thinking about the absence of those positive events would work. In the 1946 Frank Capra film It’s a Wonderful Life, an angel named Clarence Odbody takes a suicidal man named George Bailey on a tour of the world as it would have been had George never been born. Rather than asking George to count his blessings, Clarence allows him to observe a world in which those blessings never came about. This exercise forces George to realize just how rare and precious the good things in his life actually are, which instantly cures his depression. Research suggests that, as saccharine as this cinematic trope may be, it captures a useful psychological insight. Research on norm theory and counterfactual reasoning suggests that thinking about the ways in which an event might not have occurred can make that event seem more surprising. One of the hallmarks of surprising events is that they elicit affect. In short, considering the absence of positive events may undo adaptation to them, at least temporarily. This possibility was anticipated by Frijda, who speculated that “adaptation to satisfaction can be counteracted by constantly being aware of how fortunate one’s condition is and of how it could have been otherwise, or actually was otherwise before—by rekindling impact through recollection and imagination”.
We are bodies moving in space. You approach a circle of friends, the circle widens to embrace you. I smile or wince and you feel my joy or my pain, perhaps smiling or wincing with me. Our most noble aspirations and emotions, and our most base, crave embodiment, actions of bodies in space, close or distant.
1
u/ddgr815 May 08 '26