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I have experienced both states in similar (programming, then my life or death) situations. I have found a third state, which I believe is related, that has hap

I have experienced both states in similar (programming, then my life or death) situations. I have found a third state, which I believe is related, that has happened a few times, and always with the same criteria. The first is that someone else is about to come to harm, typically through falling onto something or something heavy is about to fall on them. Never me. The second criterion is that I am unaware of the first, until later. The third commonality is that I black out, or something. Anywhere from a few to as many as fifteen or twenty seconds are just ... skipped. I am in one place in one position, and then *blip* I am somewhere else, in a different position. The fourth thing is that I have apparently done something acrobatic, or contorted my body, moved a few yards with alacrity, or whatnot. Muscles are strained or even torn, I come to in an odd position. Parts that do not normally hurt are hurting. It's more than a little disturbing, because while I have stopped someone from falling face-first into a lot of cutlery, or a Sony Trinitron monitor from crushing the foot of an intern I have warned to be careful, there's absolutely no volition involved, no conscious thought, no precursor, it was like the governors were disabled and the limiters ignored as some kind of hindbrain function decided to run a big interrupt over a threat I might not have even been looking at was perceived. I have to reconstruct from my new position and whatever is now throbbing what kind of motion I had undertaken. It makes me think that the Peter Watts' Blindsight idea, where our "self" being a waste of brainpower narrating and explaining (perhaps erroneously) what the true decision maker was doing as if the self was the entity responsible ... is more or less correct. I'd like to know if there's a name for that.

wudangmonk 3y ago
The time skip with location displacement reminds me of a game I once played as a kid. Where someone would crouch down and take very deep breaths, then take a final deep breath, stand up and hold it and someone else would try to make them pass out by stretching the skin on their neck against the wall. It was a very dumb game in hindsight but quite popular at the time. The amusing part was moving them to a different location and everyone would try and pretend to be doing something else. From the point of view of the person passing out you felt as if you were teleported in place and time, and depending on how well everyone else could hold their laughter you would even wonder if everything before was just a dream.
prox 3y ago
Your description sounds a lot like trauma response. Often in a true trauma response you don’t know what happened, and your body can lose it failsaves in that state. You could ask a doc and perhaps someone skilled in hypnotherapy.
wudangmonk 3y ago
I did read Blindsight and I do think that the self is a story that the mind is constantly creating which narrates and explains things but disagree that it is a waste of brainpower since it is the only thing that can give value to things. That other 'unconscious self' just sees things by what they really are and not what they mean, it has a theoretical understanding of what things are important to the 'conscious self' but it doesn't really understand why. In that 'life and death' flow state when playing that CS match I took out the whole team in the most incredible game I ever played but I remember how I felt as it happened. It was bored and it did not see the point of a game where you just dragged your mouse over and clicked on the pictures, its not like you could ever miss so what was the point of playing it?.
- gyrovagueGeist 3y ago
  Not OP, but they likely mean a waste of brainpower in the survival or ability to function as an agent sense. Ontologically of course it's not a waste but that's not part of evolution's cost function.
Sharlin 3y ago
> It makes me think that the Peter Watts' Blindsight idea, where our "self" being a waste of brainpower narrating and explaining (perhaps erroneously) what the true decision maker was doing as if the self was the entity responsible ... is more or less correct. I definitely think it’s likely to some extent. Kahneman’s "Thinking Fast and Slow" hypothesis of Systems 1 and 2 is if course very much related (even though it has been criticized) and in these sorts of fight or flight situations it’s clear that there’s neither time or need to ask System 2 anything or even bother informing it about what’s happening. Updating short-term memory might also be an unneeded luxury, which could explain the blackout. The overriding of normal physical safety regimes is commonly reported in these types of situations as well. But it’s indeed an interesting question why your (and others’?) subjective experience of the "help other NOW" scenario has been so different from the usually reported "help yourself NOW" experience (detachment, slowdown of time, etc.) Though of course it's impossible to know whether "you" did actually experience that as it was happening but just don't remember it afterwards!
iamacyborg 3y ago
> It makes me think that the Peter Watts' Blindsight idea, where our "self" being a waste of brainpower narrating and explaining (perhaps erroneously) what the true decision maker was doing as if the self was the entity responsible ... is more or less correct. I'd like to know if there's a name for that. It thinks therefore I am. It’s a recurring theme in the books written by Scott Bakker.
JBiserkov 3y ago
> I'd like to know if there's a name for that. Some people call it "Spidey-senses" or "Spidy-senses" after Spider Man, but from your description of the blackout parts reminds me more of how vampire super-speed is portrayed in movies, so a vampire trance maybe? Sounds similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker but in a benevolent way.
- roywiggins 3y ago
  Vaguely related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_strength https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_strength

wudangmonk 3y ago

The time skip with location displacement reminds me of a game I once played as a kid. Where someone would crouch down and take very deep breaths, then take a final deep breath, stand up and hold it and someone else would try to make them pass out by stretching the skin on their neck against the wall. It was a very dumb game in hindsight but quite popular at the time. The amusing part was moving them to a different location and everyone would try and pretend to be doing something else. From the point of view of the person passing out you felt as if you were teleported in place and time, and depending on how well everyone else could hold their laughter you would even wonder if everything before was just a dream.

prox 3y ago

Your description sounds a lot like trauma response. Often in a true trauma response you don’t know what happened, and your body can lose it failsaves in that state. You could ask a doc and perhaps someone skilled in hypnotherapy.

wudangmonk 3y ago

I did read Blindsight and I do think that the self is a story that the mind is constantly creating which narrates and explains things but disagree that it is a waste of brainpower since it is the only thing that can give value to things. That other 'unconscious self' just sees things by what they really are and not what they mean, it has a theoretical understanding of what things are important to the 'conscious self' but it doesn't really understand why. In that 'life and death' flow state when playing that CS match I took out the whole team in the most incredible game I ever played but I remember how I felt as it happened. It was bored and it did not see the point of a game where you just dragged your mouse over and clicked on the pictures, its not like you could ever miss so what was the point of playing it?.

gyrovagueGeist 3y ago
Not OP, but they likely mean a waste of brainpower in the survival or ability to function as an agent sense. Ontologically of course it's not a waste but that's not part of evolution's cost function.

Sharlin 3y ago

> It makes me think that the Peter Watts' Blindsight idea, where our "self" being a waste of brainpower narrating and explaining (perhaps erroneously) what the true decision maker was doing as if the self was the entity responsible ... is more or less correct. I definitely think it’s likely to some extent. Kahneman’s "Thinking Fast and Slow" hypothesis of Systems 1 and 2 is if course very much related (even though it has been criticized) and in these sorts of fight or flight situations it’s clear that there’s neither time or need to ask System 2 anything or even bother informing it about what’s happening. Updating short-term memory might also be an unneeded luxury, which could explain the blackout. The overriding of normal physical safety regimes is commonly reported in these types of situations as well. But it’s indeed an interesting question why your (and others’?) subjective experience of the "help other NOW" scenario has been so different from the usually reported "help yourself NOW" experience (detachment, slowdown of time, etc.) Though of course it's impossible to know whether "you" did actually experience that as it was happening but just don't remember it afterwards!

iamacyborg 3y ago

JBiserkov 3y ago

> I'd like to know if there's a name for that. Some people call it "Spidey-senses" or "Spidy-senses" after Spider Man, but from your description of the blackout parts reminds me more of how vampire super-speed is portrayed in movies, so a vampire trance maybe? Sounds similar to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berserker but in a benevolent way.

roywiggins 3y ago
Vaguely related: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_strength https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hysterical_strength