#biology #rationality #mind #psychology #transhumanism # [[Epistemic status]] #godel-uncertain   Last modified date: 2022-10-07 09:47 Commit: 36 # Monkey brain ![[Pasted image 20231019180807.png]] ![[Pasted image 20220806074102.png]] >Layer 1: An ancient part of the brain, at its base, found in species from humans to geckos. This layer mediates automatic, regulatory functions. If body temperature drops, this brain region senses it and commands muscles to shiver. If blood glucose levels plummet, that’s sensed here, generating hunger. If an injury occurs, a different loop initiates a stress response. >~ [[Robert Sapolsky - Behave - The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky|Robert Sapolsky]]  Within the maze of man's own mind, The battle rages on each day; Between the neocortex's light, And primal urges in disarray.  The monkey brain, a slave to urge, Seeks only pleasure, short and sweet; While neocortex, a master sage, Seeks logic, reason, to defeat.  Passions flare and instincts roar, Yet neocortex demands control; With wisdom born from higher thought, To tame the monkey's savage soul.  But monkey brain won't go so meekly, Fighting every step of the way; Neocortex must be ever vigilant, To keep the beast at bay.  For man, the battlefield is set, Between two forces innermost; And only through a balance struck, Can he prevent his own downfall.  So learn to heed the wiser voice, To hear the whispers of the sage; And let the monkey play his part, In an ordered, balanced stage.  >The old mind is the mind that is frightened, is ambitious, is fearful of death, of living, and of relationship; and it is always, consciously or unconsciously, seeking a permanency, security. >~ [[Krishnamurti|Jiddu Krishnamurti]]  >Layer 2: A more recently evolved region that has expanded in mammals. MacLean conceptualized this layer as being about emotions, somewhat of a mammalian invention. If you see something gruesome and terrifying, this layer sends commands down to ancient layer 1, making you shiver with emotion. If you’re feeling sadly unloved, regions here prompt layer 1 to generate a craving for comfort food. If you’re a rodent and smell a cat, neurons here cause layer 1 to initiate a stress response. >~ [[Robert Sapolsky - Behave - The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky|Robert Sapolsky]]  >Layer 3: The recently evolved layer of [[Neocortex|neocortex]] sitting on the upper surface of the brain. Proportionately, primates devote more of their brain to this layer than do other species. Cognition, memory storage, sensory processing, abstractions, philosophy, navel contemplation. Read a scary passage of a book, and layer 3 signals layer 2 to make you feel frightened, prompting layer 1 to initiate shivering. See an ad for Oreos and feel a craving—layer 3 influences layers 2 and 1. Contemplate the fact that loved ones won’t live forever, or kids in refugee camps, or how the Na’vis’ home tree was destroyed by those jerk humans in Avatar (despite the fact that, wait, Na’vi aren’t real!), and layer 3 pulls layers 2 and 1 into the picture, and you feel sad and have the same sort of stress response that you’d have if you were fleeing a lion. >~ [[Robert Sapolsky - Behave - The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky|Robert Sapolsky]] >Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious. >~ [[George Orwell]] [[Zero-sum thinking is a relic of our evolutionary history]] >The first is associated with the older parts of our brain. Although our neocortex endows us with superior intelligence, 30 percent of our brain evolved much longer ago and creates our more primitive desires and actions. Our neocortex has invented powerful technologies that are capable of changing the entire Earth, but the human behavior that controls these world-changing technologies is often dominated by the selfish and shortsighted old brain. >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] ![[DALL·E 2022-07-14 22.16.01 - Man wrestling with an ape, by Picasso.png]] >So, even though we are intelligent, our old brain is still here. It is still operating under the rules laid down by hundreds of millions of years of survival. We still fight for territory, we still fight for mating rights, and we still cheat, rape, and trick our fellow humans. ~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] >The mental “I” that exists in our brains wants to break free from its genetic servitude, to no longer be held captive by the Darwinian processes that got us all here. We, as intelligent individuals, want to live forever and to preserve our society. We want to escape from the evolutionary forces that created us. >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] ![[Pasted image 20220613213613.png]] among all softwares, humans' is the buggiest one >**We human mammals are the victims of a recurrent dispute: a tussle between the old reptilian brain, which unconsciously runs the survival machine, and the mammalian neocortex sitting in a kind of driver’s seat atop it**. This new mammalian brain—the cerebral cortex—thinks. It is the seat of consciousness. It is aware of past, present, and future, and it sends instructions to the old brain, which executes them. >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] At noon, emotions blurry out our vision, at night, guide us in the dark [[Man is trapped within a survival optimised machine]] >**The old brain, schooled by natural selection over millions of years when sugar was scarce and valuable for survival, says, “Cake. Want cake. Mmmm cake. Gimme.”** The new brain, schooled by books and doctors over mere tens of years when sugar was over-plentiful, says, “No, no. Not cake. Mustn’t. Please don’t eat that cake.” >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNbNrdX2-zc [[Richard Dawkins]] says that we can turn against our [[Selfish gene]]s and instill altruism at the macroscopic level, we are able to fine tune our [[Memetic]] >**Humans are defined by our genes, and the purpose of life is to replicate them**. But we are now emerging from our purely biological past. We have become an intelligent species. We are the first species on Earth to know the size and age of the universe. We are the first species to know how the Earth evolved and how we came to be. We are the first species to develop tools that allow us to explore the universe and learn its secrets. From this point of view, **humans are defined by our intelligence and our knowledge, not by our genes.** >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] >Why is human nature what it is? ~ [[Hume]] >The emotions that direct our behaviors are determined by the old brain. If one human’s old brain is aggressive, then it will use the model in the neocortex to better execute aggressive behavior. If another person’s old brain is benevolent, then it will use the model in the neocortex to better achieve its benevolent goals. >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] >false beliefs can be difficult to eliminate, and how false beliefs combined with our more primitive emotions are a threat to our long-term survival. >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] >Science tells us we are merely beasts, but we don’t feel like that. We feel like angels trapped inside the bodies of beasts, forever craving transcendence. >~ [[Ramachandran]] [[Krishnamurti]] talk about [[Freedom|freedom]] in the following way: >To what extent can a person control his own actions?” A person does not control his own actions if he has not understood environment. Then he is only acting under the compulsion, the influence, of environment; such an action is not action at all, but is merely reaction or self-protectiveness [[Are you passenger or driver]] >Older parts of the human brain control the basic functions of life. They create our emotions, our desires to survive and procreate, and our innate behaviors. >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] Can't we transfer this [[Philosophy/Epistemology/Knowledge|knowledge]] to the [[Neocortex|new brain]] which seems to run a better software? >Our fear of death is created by the older parts of our brain. If we detect a life-threatening situation, then the old brain creates the sensation of fear and we start acting in more reflexive ways. When we lose someone close to us, we mourn and feel sad. Fears and emotions are created by neurons in the old brain when they release hormones and other chemicals into the body. The neocortex may help the old brain decide when to release these chemicals, but without the old brain we would not sense fear or sadness. >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] ## Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman ![[Pasted image 20220904074613.png]]  In the midst of June, summer's pride, The meadow waits for reapers to arrive, The first scythe's whirl will ring through skies, As life buzzes with bees, and greens thrive. With mornings full of larks' sweet hymns, The heart is cheery as life peaks a prime, But with it, shadows lurk about leaf and stem, For time and mortality bind man in one-line. Man, who thinks himself a master of all, Can't control winds, tides, or other natural call, Unaware of his role in the universe's grand plan, He's bound to a ball hurtling across infinite span.  In his heart, he knows all his struggles will be in vain, Life's end will be dark, and his legacy will wane, Yet he persists to build, sow, and plant, Hoping to leave a trace of his existence to grant.  His brain is a monument of ego and desire, But the neocortex strives to be an idealist's fire, While his animal instincts dread death with fear, The Superman embraces it, joy in its sheer.  Between ape and Superman lies man's stance, A tightrope walk over life's deep abyss expanse, It isn't without purpose, for in reaching to our best, We find ourselves, and life's meaning is thus addressed. The **monkey brain** is what is deep seated in our nature, what evolution learned to survive in a mammoth populated environment. It is a kind of analogy of [[Kahnemann]]'s system 1. >System 1 is effortless, automatic, associative, rapid, parallel process, opaque (i.e., we are not aware of using it), emotional, concrete, specific, social, and personalized. System 2 is effortful, controlled, deductive, slow, serial, self-aware, neutral, abstract, sets, asocial, and depersonalized ![[DALL·E 2022-06-17 20.42.45 - Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss, oil on canvas.png]] >Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss. ~ [[Nietzsche]] ![[DALL·E 2022-06-18 19.47.34 - A man holds a rope with a monkey at the end..png]] ![[DALL·E 2022-06-18 19.49.13 - Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Superman—a rope over an abyss, digital art by Picasso.png]] ## Society programs us >But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought >~ [[George Orwell]] [[Do not rely on authority|Independent thinking]] ## [[Status game]] ![[DALL·E 2022-06-19 11.27.54 - The hedonistic race pursued by men, the exhausting thirst for status and power, by Picasso..png]] >A young female chimpanzee generally must leave her mother's group and join a strange group dominated by unfamiliar males. To do so, she must gain favor with the females that already live in her new tribe. A male, by contrast, stays with his group and allies himself with powerful relatives in the hope of inheriting their **status** later. ~ [[Biology/Matt Ridley|Ridley]] ![[Pasted image 20220806074614.png]] **Status** allows you to have more mates. It is a product of [[Biology/Sex|sex]]. >Men are particularly concerned about status, reputation, and hierarchies because elevated rank has always been an important means of acquiring the resources that make men attractive to women. It is reasonable, therefore, to expect that a man will be concerned about the effect that his mate has on his social status—an effect that has consequences for gaining additional resources and mating opportunities. >~ [[David M. Buss]] Women are probably less prone to **status games** because male needed status. **Status** is a [[Zero Sum Game]], it is not aligned with an [[Utilitarianism|utilitarian]] mindset, it is not beneficial for society as a whole. Among monkeys, **status** make you an alpha or a beta. But in modern society is it necessary? ## The ego - [[Ego]] ## Sex > “I have a dream,” said Harry’s voice, “that one day sentient beings will be judged by the patterns of their minds, and not their colour or their shape or the stuff they’re made of, or who their parents were. > ~ [[Eliezer Yudkowsky]] ![[Pasted image 20220806075439.png]] >We are the first species in the known history of three and a half billion years of life on earth with the capacity to control our own destiny. The prospect of designing our destiny remains excellent to the degree that we comprehend our evolutionary past. **Only by examining the complex repertoire of human sexual strategies can we know where we came from**. Only by understanding why these human strategies have evolved can we control where we are going. >~ [[David M. Buss]] - [[Biology/Sex]] - [[Philosophy/Psychology/Sex]] ## Brain food ### Craving new information The human animal is craving for (new) [[Information]], it must be an evolutionary trait learned by our [[Genome]], probably that it helped survival. New [[Information]] about the activity of the mammoths allowed to properly kill it. In modern society, you can easily see this pattern, just walk in a park, the random male will always be distracted by an animal of the opposite sex, even if its fitness is low. For this example, I recommend walking while watching the ground, its patterns are homogeneous, therefore not bringing new [[Information]]. [[Attention optimization]] Especially in modern society, [[Information]] has a higher distribution of [[Noise]] than [[Signal]]s, if you let too much [[Noise]] come in, you will die intellectually. When man is passive, he is obviously using his senses to try to get some more new [[Information]]. ### Non-exploration [[Noise]] one must still have some little amount of [[Noise]] in its [[Brain nutrition]] though, otherwise no new [[Philosophy/Epistemology/Knowledge|knowledge]] can be inferred. One must be aware of its ratio of [[Philosophy/Rationality/Models/Exploration vs exploitation|Exploration vs exploitation]] to maximize the positive [[Asymmetric actions]]. Fear of the unknown is common in the human [[Mind]], probably, [[Hunter gatherer]]s had a low ratio of exploration, they stick to the bare minimum for survival? ## Groupism - [[Groupism]] ## Localism - [[Localism]] ## Can we really always take over control on the monkey brain? >The neocortex can temporarily control breathing, as when you consciously decide to hold your breath. **But if the brain stem detects that your body needs more oxygen, it will ignore the neocortex and take back control**. >~ [[Jeff Hawkins]] https://www.youtube.com/embed/xNbNrdX2-zc