Mimetic Desires, Testing Witness Memories, Fermilab’s Ferret

Curiosity Weekly

Warner Bros. Discovery

Self-improvement, Science, Astronomy, Education

4.6 • 935 Ratings

🗓️ 9 February 2022

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Learn about why you want things just because others do too; a way to reduce wrongful convictions; and Fermilab’s ferret.

"Mimetic desires" are things you want because others want them — here's how to spot them by Steffie Drucker

Reese, H. (2021, November 8). Mimetic desire: How to avoid chasing things you don’t truly want. Big Think; Big Think. https://bigthink.com/neuropsych/mimetic-desire-luke-burgis/
Caprino, K. (2021, June 4). How To Identify Your True Desires And Stop Imitating Everyone Else’s. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathycaprino/2021/06/04/how-to-identify-your-true-desires-and-stop-imitating-everyone-elses/?sh=15125424699e
‌Girard, Rene | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2015). Utm.edu. https://iep.utm.edu/girard/
‌Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire by Luke Burgis - Summary & Quotes. (2021). Matthewvere.com. https://www.matthewvere.com/notes/wanting-the-power-of-mimetic-desire#toc-thick-desires
Mimetic Theory | What It Is. (2019). Mimetic Theory. https://mimetictheory.com/what-it-is-2/

To reduce wrongful convictions, test a witness's memory only once by Grant Currin

One and done: Researchers urge testing eyewitness memory only once. (2021, November 3). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/933794
Wixted, J. T., Wells, G. L., Loftus, E. F., & Garrett, B. L. (2021). Test a Witness’s Memory of a Suspect Only Once. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 22(1_suppl), 1S18S. https://doi.org/10.1177/15291006211026259
Kimball, S. (2021, January 28). US Supreme Court turns down Texas death row case concerning police hypnosis. Jurist.org; - JURIST - News - Legal News & Commentary. https://www.jurist.org/news/2021/01/us-supreme-court-turns-down-texas-death-row-case-concerning-police-hypnosis/

In the 1970s, one of Fermilab’s particle accelerator techs was a ferret named Felicia by Cameron Duke

Felicia helps out. (2016, October 5). News. https://news.fnal.gov/2016/10/felicia-helps-out/
Pinkowski, J. (2019, April 2). Why Physicists Tried to Put a Ferret in a Particle Accelerator. Atlas Obscura; Atlas Obscura. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/felicia-ferret-particle-accelerator-fermilab
Searcy, M. (Fall 2014). A fuzzy concept. The University of Chicago Magazine. https://mag.uchicago.edu/science-medicine/fuzzy-concept
Spichak, S. (2021, July 13). The Ferret Who Ran Inside the Fermi Particle Accelerator. Medium; History of Yesterday. https://historyofyesterday.com/the-ferret-who-ran-inside-the-fermi-particle-accelerator-fec5b3136b0b

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, you're about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from Discovery.
0:06.0	I'm Cody Gough, and I will be your host today.
0:08.6	Ashley's back next week.
0:10.4	Today he'll learn about how to recognize when you want something just because other people want it too,
0:15.0	how to test a witness's memory to reduce wrongful convictions,
0:19.0	and that time one of the technicians working on a particle accelerator was a ferret.
0:25.7	Let's satisfy some curiosity.
0:28.9	Take a second to think about why you want the things you want?
0:32.9	Did you follow a path in life because you knew it would bring you happiness and fulfillment?
0:38.2	Or was it because that was what people told you you wanted?
0:42.1	What about the relationships you've pursued? The stuff you've bought?
0:45.4	There's a name for the things we want just because others want them. They're called
0:50.8	memetic desires.
0:53.0	They can be tough to identify them,
0:55.0	but luckily I've got a few tips for figuring out what you truly want.
1:01.0	Now this idea comes from French thinker Renee Gerard.
1:04.0	According to him, after we've met our basic needs like food and shelter,
1:09.0	our desires hit a wall.
1:11.0	Without biology to guide us, we look to others to know what we want. We unconsciously
1:17.1	imitate family and friends, professional peers, and even celebrities.
1:23.0	We pick up on what they want and in turn end up wanting the same things.
1:28.6	Gerard called this memetic desire.
	...

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