Mind Infections, Part 1: How to Recognize Them

Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash

Imagine your mind for a moment. It is a large field in which all your ideas are roaming freely. Animals like dogs, cats, horses, and birds; but also plants, objects, vampires, Martians, verbs, and concepts.

Now imagine another field next to your field. Some of your ideas would like to jump from your mind to someone else’s. What kind of idea would try to do that?

Jokes are one kind of idea that likes to jump from one mind to another. Once exposed to a joke you might laugh. The second time you might smile a bit. Eventually, you will be immune to the joke.

But what if there was another kind of idea that could bypass this immunity? What if an idea could spread like a parasite?

It would be like a computer virus. It could install itself in your mind and instruct you to share it. It wouldn’t need to think or be conscious; it would just be an idea that makes you want to share it, in the same way you want to share a great joke. It might even try to get you to keep it in your head so you’ll feed it for as long as possible.

What if you had this infectious idea? Would you know it? How much of your time, energy, and money would this idea be able to take from you? How would you get rid of it? Would you even want to? What kind of idea would try to do that?

In this Covid era, we might be extra interested in protecting ourselves from viral infections — so here are some self-diagnosis questions you can ask yourself about any idea you hold.

• Do you find yourself rejecting new ideas only because the seat is already taken?
• Do you investigate the likelihood or utility of alternative ideas?
• Do you have an immune response to other ideas?
• Do you feel your blood pressure rise at the mention of conflicting ideas?
• Do you have irrational fears that are amplified as part of the idea?
• Do you use thought-blocking techniques to stop competing ideas from settling in?
• Do you refuse life-saving treatments for you or your family in accordance with the idea?
• Do people free of the idea seem odd to you and in need of being “fixed”?
• Do you feel the need to test people with subtle messages or irritants? What do you do when they test positive? What do you do when they test negative? Do you try to inoculate them?
• Is it a symbiotic idea? Does it mutate to better fit reality like Newtonian physics mutated into general relativity, and to be more useful like English which can now express concepts that Sumerian could not? Or is it parasitic, mutating to infect new groups with no real benefit to the hosts — like avian flu jumped from birds to humans?
• The people who share the same idea as you, are they controlling your behavior? Do they tell you what information you can seek? What about the thought and emotions you are allowed to have and feel? Do you know about the BITE model?
• When discussing the idea with someone, are you listening to them? Are they listening to you? Did you verify that you understood each other?
• Are you confrontational about the idea? Are you weaponized for the idea?

Thinking about our own ideas takes a lot of wisdom. It’s hard to objectively consider whether something we believe in could be wrong. Over time, we come to realize we no longer hold certain ideas we once held. We are glad that we let go of those ideas and might feel a bit of shame we ever held those beliefs for so long.

How long do you want to hold your current ideas before re-considering them? More importantly, what should we do with an idea we realize might be parasitic? How bad can it be? How do mind infections work?

(Stay tuned for more discussion in the coming weeks.)