Century Celebrations (or Micky Mouse Prevails)

In 1901 Americans celebrated the first year of the 20th Century.  They understood then that a century ends after 100 years.  It must have been explained to them by the press, who had it explained to them by those who knew about such things, that the first century went from 1 AD to 100 AD, etc, and that just as the 19th century went from 1801 to 1900 the 20th would go from 1901 to 2000.  But those were the days when experts were listened to, and Joe Public believed that experts know more than he did about their subjects.

But now, after another 100 years of Mass Man's rising wealth, and the entitlements to stature that wealth brings, those so-called experts, who probably earn less than the average Joe, deserves to be put in his place!  Intellectuals, in general, are to be resented (see Resentment Against Achievement: Understanding the Assault Upon Ability, Sheaffer, Robert, 1988, Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Press).  So when the year 2000 approached the intellectuals again counseled the press, and the press tried to explain, but Joe Public would have nothing to do with what the intellectuals said.  Those three big zeroes spoke themselves, to Joe Public at least, and there was no persuading him that the 2000 was the last year of the 2nd millenium.  He insisted that it was a significant year, and he was going to celebrate it as a beginning.  After all, he had to begin to use a "2" instead of a "1" in the first digit of the year designation.

This is "intuitive" thinking.  And since humans are inclined to think intuitively with their ancestral right brains, and eschew the new left brain's logical style of thought, Joe Public was finally going to have his way of believeing what his intuitive right brain wanted to believe.  So the newscasters were ignored, the newspapers were ignored, and the patient letter to the editor by those who knew calendars were ignored, and within a few months the year 2000 has become the first year of the new millenium!  Just this week I heard Peter Jennings, of ABC News (owned by Disney Corp) refer to 2000 as the first year of the new millenium.

Congratualtions, Joe Public, you've won a battle with the intellectuals.  But more importantly, you've won a battle with your atrophying left brain.  Stay tuned for more battles won by the know-all right-brained Joe Public!

Anthropomorphizing Black Holes

The newspaper syndication Knight Ridder News Service issued a story August 13, 2000 describing black holes in the universe.  I think it was meant to inform, and not to entertain - but I'm beginning to wonder if there's a trend to the latter.

Read the following paragraph:  "Although black holes are invisible, scientists can spot one by its effect on its surroundings.  [So far, so good.]  Stars, dust and gas caught in the vicinity swirl rapidly around the hole, like water gurgling around a bathtub drain. [Well, analogies probably are useful to keep the casual reader interested, so I won't complain about that one.]  The closer the material gets to the center, the faster it spins and the hotter it gets in a vain effort to avoid being gobbled up."

Wow!  Maybe only a scientist would laugh at that last analogy, but it's pernicious!  In case the reader doesn't "get it," the material swirling inward toward a black hole is not getting hotter in order to avoid being gobbled up, it just does what matter does in accordance with the basic laws of nature.  If a stone falls from a steep bank, it does not "hurt" nor does it care that it fell!

What's going on here?  Well, consider that anthropologists find that primitive societies anthropomorphize everything, animate and inanimate alike.  For these clueless people, gods blow the wind, make lightning, and even raise the sun each morning.  Slowly, during Mankind's gradual ascent, and I use the term "ascent" intentionally (and if you object to the word Mankind, recall that with a capital "M" it refers to men, women and children), some of us have learned how things really work.  The bulk of people living in modern societies belive that the world consists of living things and inanimate, or non-living things.  And the material spiralling inward toward a black hole is non-living.  (Some of us also believe that all living things are subject to the same laws of nature as the non-living, and that this means that every living creature is a robot.  See MeRobot).

Where does this tendency to anthropomorphize come from?  It comes from the illogical right brain, a cerebral hemishpere with an understanding of logic measured to be zilch!  The right brain is good at what it's good at (recognizing faces, sensing vague danger, etc), but it needs to be kept in its place when considering things that the left brain is good at.  The left brain, or LB, is good at logic, as mentioned, but also at understanding the physical world.  Over time, by which I mean a 100,000 years or so, LB has usurped more and more of what used to be RB's domain.  Initially, LB was used for only speech and sequential tasks - such as throwing a stone or spear with accurate timing.  It otherwise served as a co-equal back-up for tasks that were essentially RB tasks.  When a part of LB was injured during an intertribal battle, the homologous part of LB would take over, a role of additional redundancy to RB.  But as the world Mankind created for himself relied more and more upon LB specializations, a growing percentage of LB's cerebral cortex became devoted to LB-specific tasks.  During the Holocene (the past 11,000 years) the human LB has become an indispensible tool for dealing with the ever growing world of LB demands.

So how does RB "feel" about being denigraded (do you like that anthropomorph?)?  Or, to put it with greater technical accuracy, what is the dynamic between RB and LB modules that are "competing" for taking on tasks?  Cerebral modules must assume responsibility for tasks (i.e., processing and motor control response) based on their resemblance to what worked in the ancestral environment.  Thus, when a hiker comes upon a rattle snake, RB and the subcortical limbic system take over, and adrenaline behaviors are produced.  When a thunderstorm approaches both RB and LB are engaged in monitoring the situation.  However, RB will employ anthropomorphized responses to guide behavior ("the thundercloud is angry, it might want to wreak revenge upon me for past evil deeds, so seek cover") whereas LB will rely upon educated insight to guide behavior ("lightning can kill if it strikes you and large amounts of electricity flow through the body, so seek cover").  Usually, both RB and LB point to the same action.  But when they don't, what is the result?

When LB and RB disagree on how to interpert a situation, or what to do in response to a situation, there is "cognitive dissonance" (Leon Festinger, 1957, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Stanford CA: Stanford Univerty Press).  The stronger competitor wins (i.e, the brain circuit with more electrical flow inhibits the other one and assumes control of cognitive processing and motor control reponse - at least I can back-up my little anthropomorph phrases with the technically correct, but longer version).  The individual should hope thtat his RB and LB are in proper "balance," that LB assumes control of LB tasks, and RB assumes control of RB tasks.

Not all people have a proper balance between RB and LB.  It is difficult for this balance to be achieved, or learned, when we live in a world that has recently changed so much from the one our ancestors survived.  I claim that many people are persistently "unbalanced" in certain cognitive realms.  Religion is a biggy.  Often, the genes (that construct us - for their reproduction) mislead us for their own purposes.  We have many genes that evolved to handle tribal living, yet we no longer live in tribes.  These genes are quite guilty of misleading individuals, and thwarting LB attempts to lead logical lives.  The imbalance is so strong for many ideas and behaviors that outside influences will have no effect.  But some matters are ill enough defined so that outside influences can have effect.  And this is why I complain so much about an isolated phrase in a newspaper article.

When a reporter confuses the reader by stating that "...the hotter it gets in a vain effort to avoid being gobbled up." I cringe.  The thought of pandering to an RB predisposition on matters "in the balance" (for most people) makes me angry.  I want to live in a world where people rely on LB instead of RB on many matters.  RB-style people are dangerous.  They incite others for wrong reasons, and create a more troubled and less tolerant society.

But this commentary on a newspaper phrase should not turn into an "essay" on the war of the brain halves.  I shall have to do that on another web page (book in progress).

By the way, the title of the Knight Ridder article was "Black Holes Gobbling Up Matter in Different Ways."  Ugh!

This site opened:  August 13, 2000.  Last Update: August 13, 2000