Chat Thread: Curiosity Decline

This chat thread emerged from Victoria (Spain)'s check-in observation about dropping curiosity levels.

Initial Observation (Victoria)

"I am observing a decline. If people doesn't have curiosity, even if they are adults, willingly engage in a workshop, they say they are interested in learning something, but in the end, when in the community side I post some questions, or some things to trigger conversations, nobody responds... For me, it's incredible how curiosity is dropping in our world."

Scott Moehring's Response

Posted at 09:09:18:

"@Victoria, you may never see this, but I was thinking about your comment about the loss of curiosity. I'm wondering how much is a loss of available attention? I am a highly curious person, and yet I'm engaging less because I have less available attention. We have killed boredom with the constant stream of information everywhere, and I think one symptom shows up as a loss of curiosity."

Reaction: Doug Breitbart 👍🏻

Key Concept: Environmental Neurodiversity - Scott later expanded on this idea (see below)

Pete Kaminski's Response

Posted at 09:13:12:

"A great conversation. I'm a very curious person by nature, and observationally, I see a lot of people who are incurious. I'm torn between whether it's:

A typical human development as people grow up, or
Our educational system that trains passion and agency out of people, or
Sort of a social contagion to be incurious as a way to deal with too much future"

Additional Observation (09:16:57):

"The place I see the curious/incurious split happen is when someone plays with an AI:

Curious people use it quickly as a bicycle (or jet plane) for the mind
Incurious people do the equivalent of trying to use the bicycle as a hammer or a chair, and discard it as terrible at the small uses they can think of"

Reaction: Gil Friend 👍🏼

Jerry Michalski's Responses

"I think the latter" (09:13:42)

"I blame the consumerization of our world, which dumbs us down" (09:13:52)

Scott's Environmental Neurodiversity Theory

Posted at 09:27:05 (to Mike Nelson about overstimulation):

"@Mike Nelson RE: overstimulation, I have been exploring the idea of Environmental Neurodiversity.

The hypothesis: The information flood has increased to the point where many otherwise neurotypical people now feel their filters are inadequate, and they have no strategies.

Meanwhile: Those with ADD or high-functioning autism have developed robust techniques to filter and focus, because they have felt overstimulated their whole lives.

The Insight: The strategies that are essential for one group might now be what's needed for another group."

Reaction: Mike Nelson 🙏

Mike Nelson's Response

Posted at 09:31:21:

Mentioned a book by the former CIO of Google (early days) about how his ADHD forced him to learn to use information better.

Book: "Getting Organized in the Google Era" Link: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Organized-Google-Era-Stuff-ebook/dp/B0036S4CM0/

Related Check-Ins

Jerry's GABA Discussion

Jerry Michalski's discussion of GABA and Filtering relates directly to this theme:

GABA as inhibitor that filters world stimuli
High GABA = protected from overwhelm
Low GABA = take in much more

Scott's Follow-up to Jerry

Posted at 09:30:28:

"@Jerry Michalski I was fascinated about your explanation of GABA levels on filtering. I looked it up, and found a strong relationship between GABA levels and neurodiversity. It has given me a new thread to pull on about the nature of filtering. I need more, because I feel everything everywhere all at once as just part of every day. Not to the extent of a psy trip (which I've only read about), but much more than the people I hang out with."

Jerry's response: "I can now highly recommend shrooms" (09:31:04)

Key Themes

Attention vs Curiosity: Is it loss of curiosity or loss of available attention?
Information Overload: "Killed boredom with constant stream of information"
Developmental Question: Nature, nurture, or social contagion?
Educational Impact: System training passion and agency out of people
Tool Adoption Pattern: How people approach new tools reveals curiosity levels
Neurodiversity Reversal: Neurodiverse coping strategies becoming necessary for neurotypical people
Filtering Mechanisms: GABA, executive function, and overwhelm management

Related Concepts

Participants

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