LIVING IN AN OPTIMISTIC UNIVERSE
What does it mean to inhabit an Optimistic Universe? Does an Optimistic mind see reality differently from a Pessimistic mind? Do our chances of survival as a species hinge on our frame of mind? What path does the wiring of our brain offer us in navigating a more Optimistic Future?
One cannot stress enough the bleakness of the present moment.
Can we make a Cognitive shift in looking at the reality we are presented with differently? What will that do to us internally, and how will it affect the reality we will eventually manifest and inhabit?
Are there other perspectives available to us to look at our world differently?
How can we shift our perspectives to incorporate other states of consciousness ? What effects will this have on our relationship with the Planet ?
“Earthrise”, William Anders, December 24, 1968
“The Overview Effect” is a well documented Cognitive shift that occurs in Astronauts, that permanently alters their perception of the Planet Earth and their own relationship with it. Documented effects include a greater appreciation of Earth’s beauty, an increased sense of connection to all planetary beings and a deep understanding of the fragility of the planet.
As of April 9th, 2020, 566 people from 41 countries have experienced the Planet from this Perspective.
“For me it was an epiphany in slow motion. It’s a profound sense of empathy, a profound sense of community, and a willingness to forgo immediate gratification and take a more multi-generational outlook on progress. You want people to have that shift in perspective, to think planetary. You want them to come out and solve problems in context of the real world in its entirety, to solve multi-generational problems, not slap band aids on things,” Ron Garan, NASA Astronaut
The Neurology of Optimism
“Optimism starts with what may be the most extraordinary of human talents: mental time travel. That is, the ability to move back and forth through time and space in one’s mind. While mental time travel has clear survival advantages, conscious foresight came to humans at an enormous price - the understanding that somewhere in the future, death awaits. The Optimism Bias, Tali Sharot
“The belief that the future will be much better than the past and present is known as the Optimism bias. It abides in every race, region and socioeconomic bracket. A study of cancer patients revealed that pessimistic patients under the age of 60 were more likely to die within eight months than non-pessimistic patients of the same initial health, status, and age.” The Optimism Bias, Tali Sharot
A number of large societal constructs depend on The Optimism Bias. Financial markets, Student loans, Marriages, Credit cards and Housing. And Vijay Mallya.
We lack a basic mental risk model to account for volatility, stressors and unpredictability. Financial systems that had a ‘memory’ of past uncertainties, like Latin America, Japan and Russia insulated themselves from the Financial crash of 2008 by countering their Optimism bias.
“To make progress, we need to be able to imagine alternative realities, and not just any old reality but a better one; and we need to believe that we can achieve it.” The Optimism Bias, Tali Sharot
THE PAST IS CONSTRAINED. THE FUTURE IS OPEN.
THE OPTIMISTIC MIND MOVES TO INHABIT THAT FUTURE.
If we are hardwired to see the glass half-full, why aren’t we all Optimists? Maybe the answer lies in better understanding our own minds, and creating a larger spectrum of experience. If we’re able to create formative experiences like the Overview effect to create more Neural diversity, there may exist a key in creating more meaningful relationships with our Planet. Our species is in desperate need of these experiences.
HOW DO WE BUILD NEW MINDS ?
The Spectrum Mind vs The Binary Mind
The opposite of Spectrum thinking is Binary thinking, and it had its advantages. It was an evolutionary ‘fight or flight’ advantage, where a quick decision could mean the difference between Life and Death. Binary thinking creates “Either-Or”, “ProblemSolution”, “Cause-Effect” relationships. These are simple, easy to understand and remember, and reinforce deeply held biases and stereotypes.
Accompanying early humans, Thought also descended from Trees. While we left the Trees behind, the Thought patterns remained.
We hold a deeply “Arborescent” thought pattern in our heads, creating flow-chart like organisations. We first manifest these patterns in our minds. It becomes our conception of the family unit, social relationships and eventually, our Institutions.
We Manifest this pattern in our Institutions, Hierarchies and Social constructs.
We spot the Binary Mind in our Politics, in our polarisation, in our illusion of Binary choice.
The Sage and the Stage. Form follows Function. Problem and Solution. Left and Right. Binaries were never valid.
What if our movement from the basic “Binary” thinking paradigm to a more nuanced, balanced, responsive “Spectrum” mind follows the structure of the Brain itself? Our 100 Billion odd Neurons exist suspended in a delicately calibrated dance, where parts of the brain exist to create redundancy, and others take over functions of damaged areas seamlessly.
Your Brain is a Network.
Most commonly known phenomena in our contemporary understanding have moved from Binaries to Spectrums. Can we assume that most existing Binaries will also be expanded into spectrums with a deeper cognitive understanding?
Our current understanding of Gender, for example has expanded massively, creating a rich and varied spectrum of possibilities. In 1968 the Journal of the American Medical Association carried an article by biologist Keith L Moore, listing nine different components of someone’s sexual identity: external genital appearance, internal reproductive organs, structure of the gonads, endocrinologic sex, genetic sex, nuclear sex, chromosomal sex, psychological sex and social sex.
Gender Intelligence Political Opinion Electromagnetism Autism Antibiotics Economics Thought What other Binaries need to be addressed before we can create comprehensive Spectrum minds?
To delve deeper into this, we cannot ignore the wide variety of Tools we’ve used as a species, to create our celebrated ever-increasing Neural diversity. The use of Tools is inseparable from Neural development, and a brief tour of our rich history of tool-making and tool-usage maybe a useful one to chart our development as a species.
SPECTRUM OF TOOLS + SPECTRUM MINDS
The Neurology of Tools
Emerging Neural research points out that human language and tooluse skills have similar hierarchical structures. It proposes that tool-manipulation skills are related to the origin and evolution of human language. FMRI results show an overlap of brain activity for perceiving language and using tools in the Broca's area.
The Acheulean Biface Axe 400,000 BC - 1,50,000 BC
Researchers have found convincing evidence that using a tool for just a few minutes can have a lasting effect on how someone perceives the size and position of their body. Any time a tennis player picks up a racquet, or a woodsman an axe, that person's perceived personal space expands by the length and influence of the tool.
Artist’s Paintbrush 10,000 BC - Present
Think about what happens when you pick up a brush. The Neural extents of your arm effectively grow by 6 inches. You then submit to the vagaries of the paper, it’s wetness, texture and coarseness, successively losing and gaining control over the spread of paint, improvising and gaining feedback in a continuum across Time.
Galileo’s Refracting Telescope 1609 AD
Galileo was the first observer to draw scientific conclusions from what the telescope revealed about the Universe. This instrument also revealed the phases of Venus, the rings of Saturn, sunspots, and a supernova. More importantly, this humble little instrument proved that Copernicus was right, the Earth and planets were indeed revolving around the Sun.
Lysergic Acid Diethylamide ( LSD ) 1938 - Present
LSD and other psychedelics cause an animated sensory synaesthetic experience of senses, emotions, memories, time and awareness for the duration of it’s effect on the Brain. Higher doses often cause intense and fundamental distortions of sensory perception such as synaesthesia, the experience of additional spatial or temporal dimensions, and temporary dissociation.
The Transmission Electron Microscope + Sensor Technology 2018 - Present
Using the Transmission Electron microscope, scientists have glimpsed many types of viruses for the first time. You can see individual atoms with it. Not only could they distinguish between individual atoms, they could even see them when they were about only 0.4 angstroms apart, half the length of a chemical bond. They even could spot a gap where a sulfur atom was missing in the material’s otherwise repeating pattern.
The Hubble Space Telescope 1990 - Present
Hubble has helped resolve some long-standing problems in Astronomy, while raising many new questions. The Hubble Telescope has provided us with the most accurate estimated date of the Universe till date, pegged at 13.7 Billion years. We have peered further into the expanding Universe, spotted Black Holes, and detected a massive 100km deep saltwater ocean on the surface of Jupiter.
Algorithmic computation + Digital Fabrication 1986 - Present
When 3D printing technology is paired with Algorithmic computational processes, what results are artefacts that are outside of Human imagination. Algorithmic computation occurs within an environment of parameters, to set in motion events that are self-recursive and are allowed to mutate and replicate till a series of desirable forms are created. All of this happens outside of the Human brain.
What is like for our brain to witness cosmic events? To watch Atomic bonds break and form? To observe levels of magnification that our primitive Neural nets have always been denied? As we delve deeper, look further, expand our visual spectrums, hear the sounds of black holes collising, do we come closer to gaining interstellar consciousness? How will this change us as a species?
TOOLS EXPAND MINDS.
INHABITING OTHER MINDS
The Brain of the Bumblebee, MicroCT Scan 2016
Bee brains are less than two cubic millimetres in volume, which is only about 0.0002 % of the human brain. Yet bees use abstract thought and symbolic language, routinely solve mathematical problems, mix medications for their hives, can identify dangerous fungii, forage for information and distinguish landscape scenes and patterns. They calculate wind velocities and solar paths, learn categories and sequences and can remember detailed flight route details of upto 6 miles over several days.
The Brain of the Elephant, CT Scan 2013
The Elephant Brain is three times as large as the human brain with individual neurons that seem to be three to five times the size of human brain cells. Elephants can track and recognise the locations of upto 30 Travel-mates simultaneously. They value Matriarchs since they’re long lived animals, and a deep memory goes a long way in developing survival techniques, and a deep memory of past events like extreme droughts and famine.
The Fugaku Supercomputer, Japan April 2021
Boasting nearly 7.3 million cores and a speed of 415.5 petaFLOPS, Fugaku is currently the World’s Most Powerful Supercomputer. Fugaku is intended for applications that will address high-priority social and scientific issues. These include drug discovery, personalised medicine, weather and climate forecasting, clean energy development, and exploring the fundamental laws of the universe. It is already being used in an experimental basis for COVID-19 research.
Data Art / Machine Hallucination / Data Visualisation 1950 - Present
Converting inputs from large databases into immersive experiences allows us to inhabit and experience invisible worlds. We can subject our own brains to the power of Algorithmic experiences, by visualising the interchange of air molecules in an ecosystem, by travelling through the human body, by experiencing what the Speed of Light may feel like. What will this do to our Neural nets?
Bridging Brains
In an experiment that sounds more like science fiction than reality, two humans were able to send greetings to each other using only a digital connection linking their brains. Using noninvasive means, researchers made brain recordings of a person in India thinking the words "hola" and "ciao," and then decoded and emailed the messages to France, where a machine converted the words into brain stimulation in another person, who perceived the signals as flashes of light. www.livescience.com
Scientists previously demonstrated a human brain-to-brain connection that allowed one person to transmit a command to move another person's finger. And other experiments have demonstrated a kind of brain-to-brain connection between two rats and between two monkeys. "The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains," said University of Washington researcher Andrea Stocco, who participated in the experiment, in a statement. "We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain.” www.livescience.com
What happens when we are able to tap into vast Neural networks at will? How will interfacing with a hive-mind, or the mind of an 86 year old Elephant change us?
While the actual linkages to diverse Neural nets maybe a bit further in the future, we can use the tools at our disposal to start getting comfortable with Spectrum thinking, to prepare for the next revolution of mind.
WHAT DO WE DO WITH THESE VAST NEURAL NETWORKS?
The Kardashev scale is a method of measuring a civilisation's level of technological advancement based on the amount of energy they are able to use. The measure was proposed by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev in 1964. A Type 1 civilisation, also called a Planetary Civilisation can use and store all of the energy available on its planet. A Type 2 civilisation, also called a Stellar Civilization can use and control energy at the scale of its planetary system. A Type 3 civilisation, also called a Galactic Civilisation can control energy at the scale of its entire host galaxy. Source : Wikipedia
In a single hour, the amount of Solar energy that strikes the Earth is more than the entire world uses in a year. To put this in perspective, this is around 1,153 Crore times the size of India’s Electrical Grid as of 31st August 2020.
Humbly enough, we are nowhere close to being a Type 1 civilisation. Our young neural networks have not been able to find a harmonious planetary existence, let alone harnessing massive planetary energy. There maybe a clue in tapping into the diversity of planetary intelligences to gain some form of overview, some larger planetary consciousness that may enable new Doors of Perception to open up. A planetary network of intelligences, with long species memory may provide answers to an optimised planetary experience.
What if The Overview Effect is a first step? What levels of consciousness are waiting to be unlocked when we become a space faring, multi-planet species? Will the toxic relationship with Natural systems on our home planet change once we experience together the hostility of Deep Space?
The Revolution happens inside us first.