> Could it be that the dissociation is the cost, not the cause?
I don't know. I know that the dissociation mostly developed as an attempt to escape from reality... my theories on this range from "I just really liked computers" to "autism and ADHD ripped away so much control over my body that I don't even want to try to control my body anymore, I just want to be an internet creature". It doesn't have much to do with the simulations, it just makes them better since I have the ability to dissociate, I guess.
I will admit you're right, though, about me putting myself in the position of others. I can feel exactly what I would feel if I were there, in that exact moment. Because, in a way, I sometimes am. Since the mind is a complex thing and all that. I'm constantly in multiple places at once, not physically or spiritually, but mentally. It happens when I'm having multiple conversations at once, it happens when I'm context-switching between multiple situations at once, it happens when I'm having cognitive dissonance, and that's not even counting the situations where there are actual other personalities active at the same time because dissociative identity disorder really is a giant clusterfuck.
I don't know. I know that the dissociation mostly developed as an attempt to escape from reality... my theories on this range from "I just really liked computers" to "autism and ADHD ripped away so much control over my body that I don't even want to try to control my body anymore, I just want to be an internet creature". It doesn't have much to do with the simulations, it just makes them better since I have the ability to dissociate, I guess.
I will admit you're right, though, about me putting myself in the position of others. I can feel exactly what I would feel if I were there, in that exact moment. Because, in a way, I sometimes am. Since the mind is a complex thing and all that. I'm constantly in multiple places at once, not physically or spiritually, but mentally. It happens when I'm having multiple conversations at once, it happens when I'm context-switching between multiple situations at once, it happens when I'm having cognitive dissonance, and that's not even counting the situations where there are actual other personalities active at the same time because dissociative identity disorder really is a giant clusterfuck.