Kayfabe
On the one hand, it is vital for us to be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what isn’t. We need to know that if we fall off of a cliff, we are likely to fall to our deaths, not to fly away like a bird. We need to know that the tiger is really there in front of us, and about to eat us.
On the other hand, suspension of disbelief is one of the great human superpowers.
It is our very imaginations that allow us to run wildly outside of the realm of reality, often exploring those limits and eventually figuring out how to expand them. Our cleverness and creativity is so great largely because we allow ourselves to imagine things that might one day be possible.
This delicate tightrope walk has been going on for hundreds of thousands of years, where we live with our heads in the clouds and our feet on the ground. Dreaming of things that aren’t real, but could one day become real, is central to the way we make things better for ourselves.
Every improvement in the human condition…
