Off the boil

There have been distractions capturing attention for the last couple of weeks. Paradoxically this includes interaction with the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) “Good brain bad brain”[i] prepared by the University of Birmingham through www.futurelearn.com.

So far I have not learned much that is new about the brain but this is likely to change as the course progresses. There have, however, been some new ideas about learning – notably Social (and Cognitive) Learning Theory.

In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) agrees with the behaviourist learning theories of classical conditioning and operant conditioning. However, he adds two important ideas:

1. Mediating processes occur between stimuli & responses.
2. Behaviour is learned from the environment through the process of observational learning.

http://www.simplypsychology.org/bandura.html

Learning theories are conceptual frameworks describing how information is absorbed, processed, and retained during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a world view, is acquired or changed, and knowledge and skills retained.

Social learning theory combines cognitive learning theory (which posits that learning is influenced by psychological factors) and behavioural learning theory (which assumes that learning is based on responses to environmental stimuli).

Albert Bandura integrated these two theories and came up with four requirements for learning:
observation (environmental),

retention (cognitive),

reproduction (cognitive), and

motivation (both).

This integrative approach to learning was called social learning theory. 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/social-learning-theory

Learning is another name for enculturation and as such is influenced simultaneously by nature, nurture and serendipity. Novel stimuli cause the sense organs to send signals to the brain to call up similar stimuli from memory. The decision is then made to embrace, avoid or ignore them. Some reactions are fast and unconscious while some responses are slow and conscious (ref Kahneman).

Fast reactions are possible because of reflexes, instincts, intuitions, hunches, biases, rules of thumb, gut feelings etc. Slow responses are built theoretically upon a reasonable, holistic, scientific, review of the evidence.

The MOOC might spend some time on mapping specific functions to specific locations and networks. I have been avoiding that in my recent reading and thinking given my concern for social psychology and for evolutionary psychology, rather than anatomy.

Aha – the kettle is back on the boil. Ref the above three paragraphs.

---

[i] https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/good-brain-bad-brain-basics/

Unexamined reality

Socrates reckoned that “The unexamined life is not worth living”.
T S Elliot reckoned that “Humankind cannot bear too much reality”.

It follows that the examined life is worth living and that most of humankind resists meeting the reality challenge. It is as if they wear moral corsets

Moral corsets are mind-made by nature, nurture and serendipity. Their purpose is to constrain thoughts, feelings and moods. They manage this by being narrow, limited, easy to manage, and elementary. This leads to cognitive consonance based on parochial xenophobia,

The corsets promote a set of rules and regulations for work, rest and play based on myths and magic. These protect the underdogs from having to think for themselves.

The cognitive corsets act as a censor by preventing culturally unacceptable thoughts and feelings from sneaking into consciousness; ie they keep the underdogs on the correct track as biddable zombies.

But there are always a few examiners who function as top-dog freethinkers at cutting edges. They expand their horizons and bravely go to mental spaces where there are no boundaries. They are the academics and intellectuals who face up to cognitive dissonance and speak ‘truth’ to power. Some recent ones, from my point of view, include Noam Chomsky, David Eagleman, Howard Gardner, Jonathan Haidt, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Daniel Kahneman, and E O Wilson. It is as if the freelance philosophers burst out of their moral corsets and provide cultural variations upon which natural selection ensures survival of the fittest.

Aye – know thy ‘self!’

The democratic deception

Enculturation involves indoctrination which involves getting fitted for moral corsets. They come in several categories eg them/us, rich/poor, shepherd/sheep, leader/led.

Where there is elegant power people reckon that the categories are acts of God. Where there is only crude power the underdogs take to the streets in protest at the top dogs having failed to manufacture consent by spreading myth and magic.

A new born human baby depends on family, friends and community members to model the correct ways of being and doing. In my natal culture, humbly born individuals are expected to kow tow to their elders and betters because they are the good and great. Where there is unconditional deference there is no democracy.

A small group of top dogs (the oligarchy) exists in most cultures. At best they make up a meritocracy with suitable divisions of labour. There would be entrepreneurial businessmen, technicians and scientists, shamans and priests, educators and entertainers, arms traders and war mongers, philanthropists and do gooders, etc

Amongst other things people have to make decisions either very quickly as a reaction to a crisis or relatively slowly as a response to a slow change. Note that ‘reality’ might have to be revised after the shaman converses with God and brings back new tablets of stone.

So much for power to the people and for democracy!

Busy Brain

I have just finished reading David Eagleman (2011) “Incognito: the secret lives of the brain”. It is recommended reading for the University of Birmingham, MOOC course “Good Brain, Bad Brain”. I have signed up for the first two parts – ‘Basics’ and ‘Parkinson’s Disease’: each last 3 weeks and they will be online in June and July.

Eagleman never fails to inspire me with his writing and speaking. His concept maps are rooted in the cosmic zoom and he covers various aspects of the hard and soft sciences, philosophy, ethics and the implications of brain science for the legal system. (I hesitantly remember him using the word consilience, if he doesn’t he could)

‘I’ enjoy far reaching thoughts and being at cutting edges. I particularly enjoy the notion of laying down the objective self-conscious and picking up the subjective unconscious. The unconscious is ‘un' but its nature and existence can be imputed (at least in theory) from its products which, in my case, include - poems, songs, tunes, artwork, doodles, photos, journal entries and blogposts.

These products arrive when the mindbrain is non-egoic and action is in ‘flow’. The mind state can also deliver the driving of a car, the riding of a bike, a washing of the dishes, and a wide range of other behaviours that are difficult in the early stages but, after practice, can be performed “without thinking”.

Meditation also offers clues to the workings of the unconscious. One technique involves non judgemental witnessing of what comes to attention and soon leaves again. Easy come and easy go.

Another meditation technique involves counting the breath. When the mind strays, gently bring it back to the breathing. And know that the unconscious is churning out the thoughts, feelings and moods.

When I am neither operating in flow nor noticing what appears ‘I’ am a Zombie on autopilot driven hither and thither by thoughts, feelings and moods which have been generated by the unconscious.

Eagleman uses the analogy of the mind being like a frenetically busy government with many actors having many agendas affected by ever changing interactions from nature and nurture. The function of the brain after all is to organise fast reactions to changes in the physical and cultural environments – no wonder that I have a busy brain.

Big Quiet

Once upon a time there was the Big Quiet. Then a miracle happened[1] and there was the Big Bang which created matter and energy which expanded to fill space and time. Within the cosmos there were galaxies in which stars were created and destroyed. Many stars have planets orbiting them and thus form solar systems many of which might contain living things.

Planet Earth appeared when our solar system was created about 4.6 billion years ago and may well last for another 5.4 billion years till the sun stops burning.

Life on planet earth began when some naturally occurring macro-molecules began to reproduce themselves. This led to simple single celled organisms some of whom formed many celled organisms which included various groups of animals without backbones.

Backbones evolved and this gave us fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. The reptiles were dominant until they were wiped out by a meteorite and mammals flourished in their place. The apes were outputs from this process and within that line were the hominids and eventually Homo Sapiens.

Even single celled organisms notice changes in their environment and react to them. The process can be labelled as irritability. In many celled animals there is division of labour between the cells. Some become sense organs, some become long nerve cells, and some become the brain. When the external environment is relatively stable it is good enough that patterns of irritability are hard wired. The animal is in essence an irritable robot that behaves predictably. The same is true of plants.

In the story so far we have dealt with cosmic and biological evolution which gave us predictably hard wired robots. We now turn to cultural evolution which generates organisms whose reactions and responses to changes in the environment are flexible and therefore unpredictable. Note that the hard wired, predictable system is ‘nature’ while the flexible and unpredictable system is ‘nurture’: Nature is cheaper and faster to run than nurture.

In the story so far I have not used the ‘consciousness’ word – this is because it is hard to figure its structure and function. It has to do with perception, awareness, mindfulness and with being awake. There are two versions of it (a) the unconscious where a lot goes on but there is no awareness of it in the attention centre of (b) self-consciousness.

The unconscious is a giant iceberg of which the self-conscious is the tiny tip. The self-conscious relates to the illusory notion of me, my, mine, ego and self.

Self-consciousness is the reasonable mind that feels that it has an unreasonable mind of its own.
It is aware of its irritability (ie is conscious of its consciousness).
It is what disappears when a person enters the non-egoic state when in ‘flow’.
It is what is transcended by meditators when they just sit and drop off body and mind.

In the West during the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment reason was lionised and the unconscious was thought to be a hell realm of beastly drives and instincts.

In the West more recently, especially after the development of brain scanning machines, the efficacy of self-consciousness and reason have been called into question, and the mind-numbing complexity of the unconscious has been highlighted.

Modern Homo Sapiens has been around as a stone age, language using forager for about 200,000 years and as an agriculturist for about 10,000 years. Language was a game changer as it made it possible to ask questions and to develop answers which became culturally embedded myths and magic. Joseph Campbell’s monumental mythological collection points to a universal set of commonalities and this suggests the evolution of hard wired frame works.

In the Judaic/Christian tradition for example there is a father figure in the sky who is omniscient but works in mysterious ways. He must be kept on side by means of sacrifice.

We are living in an age where increasing numbers of people refuse to accept the myths and magic of our ancestors. But we are still hard wired to seek meaning in patterns which are driven by conscious agents. (Ref Shermer).

This essay offers a new world view. There was the Big Quiet which became the Big Bang which resulted in Planet Earth. Inert chemicals evolved to form living organisms that developed self-consciousness. There is therefore the potential for directing the future course of evolution. This will include non-egoic meditation and thus blissful reunion with the Big Quiet.

PS – in 5.4 million years the sun will go out and planet earth and life will be destroyed. In the meantime it seems reasonable to make our time on the planet as pleasing as possible.

---

[1] I call it a miracle because Science cannot as yet explain it