Ecology of mind

I’m asking myself why I just spent the entire f**king day trying to figure out something I read this morning in a psych journal [link]. It’s such an esoteric subject I’m wondering how it captured my attention in the first place. They say they’ve discovered where ‘context-dependent’ learning has advantages not found in modern society. Economists and educators consider context-dependent learning an impediment to optimal decision-making. Now psychologists are finding out that it has adaptive value in nature that you don’t see in a classroom or on the trading floor. Context-dependent learning actually helps people make ‘optimal choices’ about which trail to take and what foods to eat in the wild. 

I guess I’ve always been cursed by my own curiosity ..trying to imagine what the world must have been like for our tribal ancestors. Since so much of our evolution took place then, I’m constantly wondering what is native to our lives and what are the inventions of modern society that we weren’t designed for. I’ve been asking these questions since I was ten. Looking back, I see how they unknowingly led me to my field of study in college ..my career choice ..and a lifelong fascination with the findings of neuroscience.

I remember speeding down an LA freeway one morning on my way to college going “we weren’t designed for this ..sitting in transport vehicles rushing over highways elevated far above the savannah that was once our home ..arriving at destinations in a matter of hours where it would have taken them a lifetime .. making decisions at speeds that would have been mind boggling back then.” I often wonder what challenges this presents our psyche that we’re not even aware of. What tasks routinely disturb the balance of homeostasis and cause things like stress, anxiety and hypertension.

For some reason I feel it’s important to know the difference between nature and man-made conventions. Not that I think one is better than the other ..they each come with their own set of consequences. Perhaps it’s the reason I take an ‘ecological perspective’ to events in life, which drives my father crazy. There’s a reason why we’re tuned to the context of information ..it prepares us for the events most likely to occur in nature. Storing and using contextual information has greater ecological value than most economists and educators give it credit for.

The path

One day, during my sophomore year of college, I was on the 605 freeway with a group of friends heading to a club in Long Beach. I’d been studying for a course in neuro-anatomy that day and bits and pieces of the material were still rattling around my head. Then something occurred that I haven’t forgotten since. Like a bolt of lightening, I was struck by the implications of it all. As clear as the traffic outside, I had visions of sensory signals traveling along neuro-pathways ..animating ..registering and guiding us to move to the beat of the music (we were heading to a dance club). I went speechless so long that my friends were asking if everything was OK. I could see it clearly, like it was happening right in front of me ..but I couldn’t put it into words. I responded with a curt “uh, nothing.” For better or worse ..or for whatever reason I may never know ..it altered the course of my life and set me on a path that I’m still on today. It informs almost two-thirds of what I see and do ..while the rest remains a mystery, which is where it’s likely to stay.

Following Charlie

If I follow the stream of utterances coming from Charlie when he’s raving like a lunatic; I can sometimes pick up a tread of coherent thought. This morning it went something like this (edited for sanity):

“Americans are psychopaths!”

“They’ve got the mentality of high school jocks!!”

“Their idea of getting ahead is self-promotion and putting other people down. Pumps their head full of artificial well-being.”

“Look at facebook, man .. it’s a campfire of vanity. In other parts of the world they’re using it as a tool for revolution. We’re using it as a tool to avoid dealing with the rest of the world.”

“It ain’t look’n good for Ron Paul either. He’s a truth-teller, you know that..? His opponents are a bunch of jocks. They’re going around saying he’s too extreme. Think about it, man. What are they saying ..? They’re saying the truth is too extreme ! They know voters prefer the comfort of phoniness to the cutting edge of reality !!”

“Listen to this, man ..says here: ‘a group of Korean monks, practicing Sunmudo, successfully repelled a Japanese invasion during World War II. The Sunmudo master said it had nothing to do with show-of-force and everything to do with balance. Practicing martial arts for show is a deterrent to balance ..and balance is what’s necessary for success’.”

“Doncha’ see, Bill ..?”

“We’re fucking doomed, man ..!”

Deception detection

“An operation called Fast and Furious allowed weapons to be sold to gun smugglers in the U.S. so they could be traced to drug cartels in Mexico. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which ran the operation, lost track of the weapons ..one of which was used in the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry near Tucson in December 2010.”   LA Times 

In his deposition to congress, Kenneth Melson, former head of ATF, says he was “..never advised” by his staff that they were involved in a program of selling illegal arms along the U.S./Mexican border. “My chief of staff never came in and told me either, and he’s on the same damn floor as I am.” Which leads me to suspect a cover-up. The phrase “I was never told” does not automatically register as “I didn’t know” in my suspicious brain. What I do detect is his use of pragmatic implication to deceive me into thinking that he didn’t know. Furthermore, not once in his deposition did he ever come out and actually say: “I did not know what my department was doing” ..which would have sounded incredibly stupid. So, instead .. he uses phrases like “I was never advised ..” or “no one ever told me ..” not only to avoid sounding stupid but to help him dodge any future accusations of perjury and obstruction of justice [link]. Members of the Justice Department coached him well. Now they too are saying that they were never told about the Fast and Furious program ..and cite his testimony as evidence. Which leads me to believe that they too were fully aware of what was going on. Lack of oversight ..I don’t think so. What I do think is that Fast and Furious was directed by the U.S. State Department and carried out, with full cooperation, by the ATF. When it resulted in the unfortunate shooting of a border patrol agent ..the operation became public; and the cover-up began. In order to conceal involvement by the U.S. government, Justice officials immediately began advising ATF against full disclosure ..telling them “it is a long-standing policy of the Department of Justice that we don’t talk about ongoing cases.” Which leads me to believe that the Department of Justice is also in the business of obstruction of justice.

Prophesies of Mad Max

In the science fiction epic ‘Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome’, there was a post-apocalyptic town located in the middle of the desert called Bartertown. Underneath Bartertown was a huge operation that converted hog waste into energy needed to fuel the town ..providing inhabitants with electricity for light and utilities. Turns out the prophesy of Mad Max has been fulfilled. A hog farmer in North Carolina, with the help of Duke University ..has installed a new processing plant that converts hog manure into energy he can use to run the farm. It provides the additional benefit of producing more nitrogen-rich fertilizer, which allows the farmer to grow more profitable crops.

On authority

About this time last year my father and I were discussing the Arizona law giving police authority to detain individuals suspected of being illegal immigrants. SB 1070 gives law enforcement officers the right to do this, but only in cases of “..lawful stop, detention or arrest.” My father is a Tucson resident and agrees, saying, “the law is the law.” I can’t argue that. It’s just that the police have a history of abusing authority, especially when it targets members of an ethnic minority. So, I have a theory that says whenever you give anyone that kind of authority, it will be abused. My father thinks I’m being overdramatic.

Turns out the Maricopa County Sheriff’s department did not disappoint. They interpreted the new law to mean it’s OK to launch sweeps of Phoenix communities in search of illegal immigrants ..with or without probable cause. Forget the part that says “during lawful stop, arrest or detention.” They essentially made foreign-looking sufficient cause for police action, which oversteps their bounds and violates our constitution rights. My father believes I come from a generation that doesn’t respect authority. I believe I come from a generation that doesn’t trust authority. So, way to go Maricopa ..you have helped make my case, and reinforced my distrust in authority, especially in cases where it’s based on fear and discrimination.

Mr. Charlie

Continued from [link]

In a fit of paranoia, Charlie fled Seattle in a stolen SUV ..and wound up in the Bahamas ..arriving by plane he’d stolen somewhere in Indiana. Charlie’s no angel and he’s definitely not a pilot. But he taught himself to fly by playing video games ..listening to aircraft VHF frequencies and watching planes take off and land at an airport near the slough where he lived. He was charged with taking stolen-aircraft on joy rides across eight states. He crash-landed once near Bonners Ferry, Idaho ..but made it to the Bahamas ..where they busted him riding a stolen skiff into Romora Bay. Charlie has a history of amnesia, neuro-cognitive impairment and untreated PTSD. He was dumped on the streets by psychiatric techs and immediately surrounded by Seattle police in a case of mistaken identity. Things quickly went from bad to worse when the charges went from malicious mischief to armed robbery. It was enough to flip a paranoia switch that told him he better get out of town ..and just keep going. He escaped from a halfway house. After his arrest, a movie studio bought the rights to his story, which Charlie immediately used to repay his victims. After considering his history, the judge called it a case about ‘the triumph of the human spirit’ and put him on probation .. releasing him back to the custody of the psychiatric community.

5-HT Charlie

Charlie takes a whopping dose of over-the-counter serotonin (5-HT) every night before bed. Says it gives him vivid dreams that he’s able to remember during dream-work therapy the next day, which pleases his therapist.

“He says I’m making progress ..I should be finished soon.”
“Have you told him about the 5-HT ..?”
“Hell no, I don’t want to get disqualified.”
“Do you think it’s helping ..?”
“Hell yes, I wake up much more alert ..I’m keen for the rest of the day.”
“Ever notice things that may not be there ..?”
“Well, yeah .. doesn’t everybody. Don’t you see man, that’s precisely the kinda’ shit I’m afraid of ..something like this coming-up and sabotaging my progress.”
“Just keep in mind what you’re taking is a neuro-transmitter in the brain.”
“No it’s not ..it’s a neuro-enhancer!”
“..only in it’s absence. I think a better word would be neuro-regulator.”
“WTF are you talking about ..?”

I did my undergraduate thesis on serotonin and how it helps maintain a steady-state of consciousness. It keeps signals that are ‘out of the ordinary’ from reaching the brain and producing hallucinations. At night, it drops to levels where we experience dreams [link]. So naturally I feel like I gotta’ share this knowledge, and go “Charlie, the 5-HT you buy is bogus. It may look the same but it doesn’t act the same as natural 5-HT. It doesn’t filter unwanted signals ..but tells the body to shut down 5-HT production, which opens the floodgates. That’s why your dreams are so vivid ..and why they continue during the day.” To which he replies “Bullshit!! Nobody really knows how it works ..” and I go “Well OK, suit yourself man ..but it helps explain what got you into this mess in the first place [link].”  Charlie slumps down in his chair looking deflated and I feel like Mr. know-it-all who just ruined his trip.

Inference making

“Your job as a reader is to use your imagination and analytical skills where the author has left off.”

Intentional fallacy: it’s not what an author means to say that’s important ..it’s how the reader interprets what they say. What they intended is subject to interpretation, which isn’t necessarily going to turn out  the same. But if we’re the readers, our interpretation is what matters. Communication is mostly an interpretive process. We add our perspective and ingenuity to whatever we hear or read. Attempts by the writer to narrow it down are futile ..or sterile [link]. In Harry Potter, some may see Dumbledore as gay; others might view him as quirky and without a particular sexual identity. I'm reminded of the ghost in “Hamlet” and how little we really know about him. Is he the spirit of his murdered father asking to be avenged ..? Is he a hellish apparition sent to make Hamlet commit murder ..? Or, is he just a figment of Hamlet's imagination ..? And who really gives a shit now what Shakespeare meant ..?

Immateriality

“Each person is capable of perceiving infinitely more. The universe is funneled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system ..what comes out at the other end is a measly trickle.”

From ‘The Doors of Perception’ by Aldous Huxley

Only 20% of available ‘matter’ - at home or in the universe - is observable by the senses. This includes the composition of our bodies as well as all it’s surroundings. The remaining 80% is not even visible using the most sophisticated instruments of science. It’s a mystery supplied by indirection and the divinity of inference. What does this mean ..? Ordinary reality represents only a fraction of the energy that exists in the universe. The forces at work in my life are largely invisible. Perhaps the limits to what I can see are not so much physical as they are mental, like Huxley said.

Hwy one

Continued from [link]

San Francisco (1977): The next day Russ and I go for a walk around Lake Temescal ..get stoned in a wooded area ..drive across the Bay Bridge ..stash the car ..and go on a walking tour of The City. He shows me how you can get anywhere in San Francisco by using cable cars, muni, taxicabs and the Bart. The next morning we go for a walk around Lake Temescal ..drive across the Bay Bridge ..stash the car .. hang out at the Mark Hopkins hotel and attend the APA convention .. asking irreverent questions at a symposium on juvenile delinquency. The guy sitting next to us is doing his internship at San Quentin. Says he’s counseling an inmate who threw his co-worker off a telephone pole while they were repairing the line. When he asked him why he threw his co-worker off the telephone pole, the inmate replied “..because I didn’t like the way he looked” as if it were a perfectly legitimate reason. “Now I’m on edge” the intern says “..and you wanna’ know why? Not because I’m sitting there talking to a psychopath, but because I’m sitting there wondering what he thinks about the way I look.” 

 

Along the way I remember eating at fish restaurants in North Beach .. giggling while watching a floorshow at Sutter’s Mill ..another one on Broadway .. going to see ‘Beach Blanket Babylon goes Bananas’ at Club Savoy ..and falling in love with San Francisco. A few days later Russ drops me off on highway 101 near the airport and, in spite of his objections ..I begin my hitchhiking expedition back to LA. 

 

Continued ..

Hwy one

Rusty: One of the more memorable events of my life occurred during the summer of 1977, between college and grad school. I rode up to San Francisco with my friend Russ ..then hitchhiked back down the coast, on my own, camping-out along the way. But first we were going to spend a week in San Francisco. Russ is from the Bay area, and since this was my first visit ..he was thrilled about having me there to show around. Our first destination ..as well as where we were going to stay ..was his father’s place in Berkeley. On the way up, Russ told me that he had planted marijuana in the garden during spring, so he was rubbing his hands in anticipation of ‘the harvest’ ..unless his dad had mistakenly ripped them out while weeding (he told me his dad wouldn’t know the difference). This did not turn out to be the case, however ..and we were in for our first surprise. When we arrived, his dad was in the kitchen ..trimming and cleaning freshly dried marijuana like a pro. The aroma hit us the moment we walked through the front door. Stunned, Russ rushes in screaming “Dad, what are you doing ..?!” He shows us the other packages in the freezer and tells us how his girlfriend had turned him on ..and how they found them growing in the backyard ..and how it was helping him with deal with his anxiety (Russ’ dad was an executive for an energy company). Now Russ’ biggest concern is how to divvy up the ‘bounty’ between him and his father ..who was like “Oh, those were yours ..?”

 

Continued [link]