Sunday, November 06, 2011
I BELIEVE Rebecca D. Costa that what's happening to society is due to OVERLOAD
The Watchman’s Rattle: Thinking Our Way Out of Extinction (2010) by Rebecca D. Costa
"The Believing Brain" by Michael Shermer, scientist, former born-again Christian, now self-described monist--proponent of the idea that there's no mind, only brain, and no soul, only body (vs. dualist)--cites lots of brain studies and statistics on beliefs and ideologies, religious, political, extra-sensory, etc. It provides scientific support for Costa's warning in her book about the folly of the many currently who adopt beliefs vs. facts. Blog post here
In "The Watchman's Rattle," Rebecca Costa illuminates points of comparison between the current "broken" state of American (and western?) society and that of great civilizations of the past that collapsed. She writes about the phenomenon of cognitive threshold as explanation of our national gridlock of politics and ideologies. She proposes that people are more susceptible to irrational beliefs, such as birther and conspiracy theories as well as other religious and magical thinking, under the current circumstances of overload, and that our brains need actually to evolve to cope. Since I've read this book, I've begun seeing so many examples in the media.
Costa cites civilizations that have collapsed in the past, arguing they hit their cognitive threshold in face of overwhelming impending problems that ultimately brought each of them down: The Mayans, the Romans, the Egyptians, and the Khmer, Ming, and Byzantine empires. She shows how specific environmental issues became overwhelming and rather than finding solutions for them, people kept passing them on to the next generations, substituting beliefs and superstitious rituals for facing facts.
She writes, “History makes it clear that we hit some obstacle that causes progress to slow long before the specific event(s) blamed for the collapse of a civilization--some recurring obstruction that is both natural and predictable: The uneven rate of change between the slow evolution of human biology and the rapid rate at which societies advance eventually causes progress to come to a standstill (p. 7).”
Here’s the warning for today’s society: “Once a society begins exhibiting the first two signs--gridlock and the substitution of beliefs for facts--the stage is set for collapse (p. 13).”
Gridlock. Beliefs instead of facts. Congress. Fox News. Candidates’ confusing stances.
Costa lists supermemes, which are ideas, beliefs, and behaviors that become widely shared, as of five types. These are the result of a society reaching cognitive threshold and heading toward collapse:
- Irrational Opposition
- Personalization of Blame
- Counterfeit Correlation
- Silo Thinking
- Extreme Economies
Costa loves her alliteration. Her chapters and sub-headings often manage, unstrainedly, to be concise and memorable: Ch. 12 “Invoking Insight: Conditions Conducive to Cognition” (help solutions chapter) with sub-sections titled “Wise about Size,” “Cobblestones and Cognition,” “Training, Braining, and Gaining,” “Bring Back the Break,” and “Damaging Distractions.”
Here are passages I bookmarked:
P. 35
With new cognitive processes, such as insight, the human brain inevitably reaches a limit in the amount of complexity it can discern. The left hemisphere of the brain becomes gridlocked because no logical systems exist for narrowing a sea of options. The right hemisphere, which specializes in the synthesis of implicit data, begins interpreting millions of obscure, unrelated facts in an attempt to make sense of a situation. We begin stringing together clues and identifying patterns that simply make no sense. Once left- and right-brain processes become gridlocked, it’s a sign that we have reached a cognitive threshold.
So, if the cognitive threshold is responsible for the cascade of behaviors leading to collapse, all we need to break the pattern is to make certain our ability to understand and manage complexity doesn’t fall behind our ability to create it. When we develop new cognitive tools, such as insight, we can prevent a cognitive threshold from ever occurring.
So the real question is this: Will insight evolve fast enough to solve our most dangerous problems?
P. 106
And being overweight doesn’t just affect the cognitive abilities of children.
A second study examined senior citizens who averages seventy-eight years of age. This research revealed that obese seniors had 8 percent less brain matter and that by simply requiring seniors to exercise forty-five minutes per day, cardiovascular fitness increased the volume of their brains and improved cognition.
Whether young or old, Ratey concludes, “too much fuel and not enough movement slows down the human brain.”
…
(p. 107) Ratey distinguishes himself because not only has he made the important connection between obesity and cognition, but he is also one of the few experts working for massive, systemic change rather than holding the obese responsible for their own plight. He may believe self-impowerment--the individual’s power to rise above--but in parallel with personal accountability, he also acknowledges that powerful forces in society work against a healthy lifestyle.
Obesity isn’t just a personal problem--it’s a systemic one. And it needs a systemic prescription to cure it.P. 188
The difference between the slow speed at which the human brain can evolve and the rapid rate at which complexity grows is called the “cognitive threshold.” Every civilization has encountered the cognitive threshold, and when they did, it marked the beginning of decline.
…
Gridlock is the earliest sign. Leaders and experts become unable to resolve society’s threats such as drought, war, and disease and begin passing these problems from one generation to another in an endless inheritance. Individual citizens also begin to feel paralyzed, fearful, and hopeless.(We never suspected gridlock was part of a pattern. Now it seems obvious.)
Once we reach a gridlock, unproven beliefs take the place of facts and rational thinking. Over time, some of these beliefs become so powerful that they become supermemes. The purpose of supermemes is to compensate for cognitive shortcomings, but they do far more harm than good.
(We never imagined that complexity would lead to abandoning facts.)
Supermemes eventually become so pervasive that they overwhelm all social institutions, customs, values, and rational thinking. Today, five supermemes prevent progress: irrational opposition, the personalization of blame, counterfeit correlations, silo thinking, and extreme economies. As these supermemes grow stronger, they cause singular ways of behaving and thinking. Singularity in turn suppresses helpful solutions from coming forward. All the while, dangerous problems persist.
P. 249 “Cobblestones and Cognition”
The link between the locomotion of our bodies and how we perceive and process data is undeniable. Although this connection may have been forged millions of years ago when man stood upright, the cognitive benefits of walking are still as real today as they were for our earliest ancestors. Today, we know that walking not only leads to wellness, but it offers a wellspring of wisdom as well.
P. 256 “Collaborating with Complexity”
One of the surefire ways to slow down complexity is to stop buying and doing more. When we willingly choose to keep adding new things to our lives--more goals, activities, needs, wishes, products, and so on--we become unconscious accomplices of complexity.
P. 259
Foods Associated with Higher Brain Functioning [image]
[Also] Research shows that being sedentary and repeating a narrow range of tasks over and over again mean depending on the same circuits in the brain instead of creating new ones.
(p. 260) In short, when we improve blood flow through exercise, we are also improving idea flow. Blood flow is so crucial to the functioning of the human brain that scientists are on the cusp of discovering that increasing blood flow may reverse the effects of aging in both the body and the mind....
But cognitive fitness requires new learning to take place, so physical exercise that incorporates new sensory experiences is the best was to give both our bodies and brain a workout.
Circular linking! I noticed that my blog entry was listed on Costa's book site: http://rebeccacosta.com/RelatedArticles
Then there’s this TED Talk here by Neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert, “The Real Reason for Brains,” which says the only reason we have brains is “to produce adaptable and complex movement [of our bodies].” One doesn’t think about it, but it’s true that every manifestation of our brains that impacts the world is through movement. So now will I get off the sofa and go for a damn walk? Costa says that’s the only way we will get the insight that will save us as a society from extinction. Certainly it might, at least, prolong my little life a little bit.
`
Labels: book review, culture, dystopia, politics
// posted by Janiasea @ 12:20 PM 
