There is an episode of Mind Field on youtube, it’s their halloween episode that explored the source of fear in humans. It had a campy feel to it but also contained a lot of good information.

The conclusion made in the video is that there are very few “universal fears”, things that cause fear in every human test subject regardless of race, culture, age, etc.

They were able to find one though: humans universally do not like the feeling of suffocation, specifically we are pretty sensitive to the ratio of oxygen and CO2 we are inhaling.

The brain interprets an increase in the CO2 concentration in the blood as “suffocation” and activates the fear response to try to protect us.

What have been dumping absolute metric fuck loads into the atmosphere in the past centuries? Countless amounts of CO2. And the concentration is only going up and up and up.

All of us are experiencing elevated amounts of CO2 in the blood, and all of us are universally feeling some level of the fear response because of it. Might explain what seems to be a lot of really bad decision making across all of society, people are scared, don’t know where it’s coming from, and are seeking anyone and anything that can help fix it immediately, whether or not it’s actually helping.

Fear is the mind killer.

Samurai Jack - The Scotsman

One of the best episodes of one of the best animated series of all time.

I’ve tried a few times to get into Diamond Age, and every time i lose interest within the first 50 pages. Is it worth another try?

The only Stephenson book I managed to “finish” was the first two thirds of Seveneves, totally lost interest in the last third of the book too.

…leaving over 87% of classic games legally inaccessible through any practical means

Sounds to me like 87% of classic games are now morally greenlit to be pirated and modded to work on modern systems. Fuck the publishers.