
Often, we find ourselves sucked in to a world of our own, unaware of our surroundings and the impact of our actions. We live day in and day out believing that we are the center of the universe. Every single person has a predisposition to that belief. So, who is the sole center of the universe? Is it just one person or are none of us special enough to be the “one”? In the commencement speech, “This Is Water” by David Foster Wallace, he addresses the unspoken certainty that we have become self-centered. Wallace believes we are born with this “default setting”; an unconscious belief that just about everything should be going our way. But where do we get these sets of beliefs? It has to come from somewhere. In recent years, the use of technology and machinery has grown tremendously all around the planet; it has created two worlds, reality and what we believe it to be. By looking at Wallace’s use of anecdotes and repetition, we can see the connection between humans and technology; this is important because more frequently, people are living in two different realities. 

Early on in the speech, Wallace uses an anecdote to grab the attention of the audience and to gain their trust. He tells the story of two fish who are swimming along when another swims up to them and asks how the water is, and the two were puzzled over the idea of water. This is because the two fish haven’t looked from another perspective to realize that they are in fact in water. “The point of the fish story is merely that the obvious, important realties are often ones that are hardest to see and talk about it” (x), Wallace points out. He tells us that even though we are in the world and it is surrounding us, it’s hard to grasp the fact that we are in it. It is difficult to see what is going on when you are so busy participating and moving through life. 

Another anecdote inside of “This Is Water” is the story of the two Alaskan men sitting in a bar. One man is an atheist and the other is not; the atheist tells a story of him being trapped in a blizzard, near death, when he prayed to God to be saved. Instead of a whimsical man descending from the heavens, several Eskimos found him and saved him right in the nick of time. However, because this is not what he expected when he thought about a God, he refused to believe that it was Him who had helped. The believer on the other hand was completely taken aback when the man said he still does not believe, because from his perspective that is a clear sign of God’s help. Both men have two different perspectives on religion, and neither of them were willing to look at someone else’s perspective, even if it was just to briefly consider it. “The exact same experience can mean two totally different things to two different people, given those people’s two different belief templates and two different ways of constructing meaning from experience” (xi), Wallace used this story to set up a clear example of the different realities people are facing. One is what they perceive to be real life, but what is actually just their “default setting”. The latter is actual reality. 

David Foster Wallace uses these short stories to provide a picture of how everyone is beginning to behave. The anecdotes help the audience understand his point because if he were to just stand up in front of the crowd and tell them that they all believe they are self-centered and choose to only see from one perspective, then no one would believe him. I know I wouldn’t. Now that the audience is aware of the two very different realities, it is time to understand where it is originating from. 

Our default settings lead us to believe that each and every one of us are the sole center of the universe. If one thing doesn’t go our way, then we automatically believe someone or something is out to get us. Wallace tells a hypothetical story of him in a super market after a long week of work and the store is incredibly busy. Bad traffic, long lines, and slow cashiers all contributing to the chaos. In this situation, he is simply going to be upset and annoyed with every person in front of him and anyone that even remotely gets in his way. “Because my natural default setting is the certainty that bad situations like this are really all about me. About MY hungriness and MY fatigue and MY desire to just get home, and it’s going to seem for all the world like everybody is just in my way” (xiv), in other words, our default settings only allow us to think of ourselves.   

So, when does one acquire their own default setting? Wallace believes that we all are born with it. It is our automatic belief system, our automatic perspective. “As if a person’s most basic orientation toward the world, and the meaning of his experience were somehow just hard-wired” (xi), Wallace states, using the term “hard-wired” to imply that just like with technology, it is how humans are set up. We were made with only one perspective and only one default setting. And now that we all have grown up in all of our own little worlds, it is even harder to branch out of them in to the real world. “And the so-called real world will not discourage you from operating on your default setting” (xvi), we can’t expect everyone to help us when everyone is technically thinking of themselves. It seems as if the real world contains more experiences and different perspectives to see from than we may realize. That is the end game of Wallace’s speech; to educate us enough on our own actions that we are now fully aware of them and can make an effort to change our outlooks on life. 

Wallace carefully selected his words in this speech, and constantly repeated the most important ones. Frequently two words would come up: default setting and hard-wired. Both terms that are commonly used when referring to technology and machinery. If someone were to google default setting or hard-wired, the most popular pages that appear are those referring to computer sciences. Nothing to do with the brain or a human’s unconscious perspectives. Not only does he use these two words, but in some of the most important parts of the speech he uses other words that correlate with machinery and technology as well. He is relating our generations perspective with that of a robot. Recent generations have grown up and have been surrounded by technology so much that it is taking a toll on our outlook on life. Because of this we can only see the world as how we want to see it, as if we are the center. However, if we make the decision to view from someone else’s perspective, or even become less biased, then we have the ability to leave behind our default settings. 

 