🎯 Claim
Your ego runs like a game engine your brain keeps active in the background. The pain feels real because it borrows the same circuits as physical injury, but the game itself is a simulation. If you want to evolve, recognize it is not real.
📑 Grounding
The ego functions as a predictive simulation run by the default mode network: the brain maintains a model of “self” by constantly minimizing prediction errors about identity and social standing (Carhart-Harris & Friston, 2010). Like a game engine, it generates “you” as an internal construct optimized for prediction, not survival. Source: The default-mode, ego-functions and free-energy: a neurobiological account of Freudian ideas (PMC)
