site banner
PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   2905 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 17, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_Forecast

Why is a radio broadcast dedicated to the maritime conditions of the British Isles so soothing for British landlubbers as to constitute a sleep aid?

I think the answer goes back to primitive psychology. The sense of hearing is for surveying the environment for cues related to reward and threat. Somehow in man’s evolution, we transfigured our sense of hearing to the meanings of others via words. (Civilization followed suit, but in the beginning was the word.) Yet our desire to continually survey our environment for reward and threat remained. In a natural environment, there is never actually a moment of silence, and so humans do not find complete silence as comfortable as familiar sounds.

And so the Shipping Forecast is a great sublimation of our innate desire to survey the environment. The environment becomes the weather of the seas around your home. The familiar voice rattles off the threats and rewards around you in words, which makes the primitive man inside all of us feel safe. (Other auditory sleep aids are similar: rain on a roof tells us environmental detail; a child falling asleep to adult conversation; etc)

Relatedly, I have found the audiobook for the Martian to be really relaxing to fall asleep to. The sounds of a hyper-competent person methodically solving problems with good cheer scratches an itch deep in my monkey brain that ocean sounds or traditional ASMR cant quite hit.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats