Module 01

Compression

How does an event become “this is what is happening”?

You send someone you care about a message.

They don’t reply.

What actually happened?

“No reply has arrived.”

One event. Two different things.

The external event

No reply has arrived.

What begins occurring internally

A set of distinct operations begins.

Occurring separately, at the same time

physiological response affect / emotion attention memory / pattern matching prediction cognitive interpretation meaning possible identity implication behavioral impulse

Distinguishable operations — each a different kind of information.

The person does not ordinarily experience:

“My body responded, fear arose, memory associated, prediction occurred, cognition interpreted…”

The person experiences

“Something is wrong.”

Compression

Multiple distinguishable operations become compressed into a single experienced reality.

Internal information

Experienced conclusion

I feel danger.

→

There is danger.

I feel rejected.

→

I am being rejected.

I don’t know.

→

I need to know.

Someone thinks something about me.

→

Maybe that is what I am.

I am experiencing anxiety.

→

I am an anxious person.

My body reacted.

→

My body knows what is going to happen.

The internal information may be completely real.

The conclusion is not automatically established by the presence of that information.

Real information ≠ established conclusion

The question is not whether the internal information is real.

The question is whether distinguishable sources of information are still distinguishable.

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