What’s Going On?

So I wake in the morning and I step outside
And I take a deep breath and I get real high
And I scream from the top of my lungs
“What’s going on?”

Linda Perry – 4 Non Blondes – song “What’s Up?”

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“The future is already here – it’s just unevenly distributed”

William Gibson – author

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Wide range of recent info flows. Over the past few weeks I’ve worked from home (my usual routine), traveled to Europe for work, attended 4 different conferences/events both online and in-person, read books, watched movies, talked with family, friends and strangers, spent time alone – and slept.

The volume of information we each process on a given day is truly amazing. Just having a smartphone with network access has opened floodgates of text and images and sounds that were hard to imagine just a few years ago. Add to that available energy and transportation technologies and we can directly interact with hundreds or thousands of people in a very short period of time. Not possible a century ago.

But our brains are still structured to process basic, simple life patterns – recognize friend/foe; care for children; store, prepare and share food. It takes time to gather enough information to detect patterns, but the current rate of new information makes it difficult to keep up. It’s easy to get completely overwhelmed and wan to just give up, or go ‘full Luddite’ and reject it all.

Human brains are complex. I’ve mentioned the Amygdala in a previous post (What Are You Afraid Of? Grab ’em by the brain. – Independent Vote 2024).
Another important structure is the Reticular Activating System (RAS). The RAS is a network of nerve fibers in the brain that contributes to several functions such as regulating the transition between sleep and wakefulness. Two key functions include:

• Attention – deciding if information is relevant or not. If new information is perceived to be a Value or a Threat Signal then it is passed through to the other parts of the brain to be fully processed. If information is perceived to not be relevant then it is filtered out as Noise. This Info Filter can be trained/tuned over time, based on perceived rewards/punishments.
• Focus for Goals – the RAS can help to focus on information that could help achieve goals (desires).

When we’re young we don’t have conscious awareness of how to train our attention. We learn directly or indirectly from our adults – parents, relatives, neighbors, teachers. Over time as we mature we learn to train our attention on things we Value (what we are Attracted to) or things we perceive as Threats (what we are Repulsed by). Attraction / Repulsion become driving forces for tuning our Attention and Focus

If we remain in a ‘childlike’ state (which is easier than ‘adulting’), then we remain susceptible to significant influence by those who want to control our Attention and our Effort. Other people will tell us what we should fight for; what we should be willing to die for. If we can mature in a healthy environment, we start to make our own choices.

This Information Filtering also influences Fight-Flight-Freeze responses. If we have learned from an early age to be afraid of dogs, then when we see a dog our Fear responses are triggered. But if we train ourselves (or with help of others via counseling/therapy/etc.) to overcome that fear, then our RAS gets reprogramed to not send a Threat response every time we see a dog.

For better or worse, many humans are aware of this process, and have used it to either help others (teachers, counselors, etc.) or to control others (mass media marketing, political propaganda, etc.). I recently heard about some media that has been used to associate Wind Turbine images with “left-leaning / liberal agendas”. For people who are not used to discerning this type of intentional mind control, it can be easy to let those messages permeate and over time become “facts”. “Well everyone knows that Wind power is a ‘leftist/lib’ idea. Just ask any of my friends.” But with a little bit of independent thought it becomes easier to make the distinction between physics (electrical energy generation) and politics (groups of people who share concepts of governance).

Another recent set of events – dtrump claimed that immigrants are “eating pets” in Ohio, and a video gets shared of a woman eating a cat in Ohio. Those biased to believe dtrump saw this as reinforcing evidence and it was sent to me by a friend. But when I dug just a bit further I found the video was of a mentally ill woman who was native born US citizen, and it happened in Canton Ohio, on the east side of the state. Different from what dtrump claimed, which implied illegal immigrants in Springfield Ohio (west side of state).

We need to make clear distinctions between seemingly related pieces of information in order to make good decisions. Unfortunately info arrives so fast that it’s often difficult to do the processing so inaccuracies can be introduced.

This is how many conspiracy theories continue to propagate. Sometimes through intentional misuse and sometimes through unintentional amplification. Don’t share emotionally charged content unless you’ve done some work to clearly understand the content and context.

Back to the question – “What’s Going On?”

MANY things, at MANY levels.

Global – Climate, Environment, Conflicts, etc.
National – Political, Economic, Technological, etc.
Regional – Land Use, Housing, Farming, Labor, Transportation, etc.
Local – Families, Communities, Healthcare, Shelter, Food, Quality of Life …

Huge forces at play, all emergent from Human Group Structures and Behaviors.
A single Individual has almost no perceptible impact on the large scale Physical world.
But a single individual’s words and actions can influence many others, and that can have a significant impact.

How we share information, how we process it, and how we respond to it – these are critical skills to be aware of and work to improve.

Misinformation / Disinformation is a major potential threat to humanity, given our technology to amplify it.

Just like the Atomic Bomb changed how Humans perceive and act during wartime, our Information Networks need to be considered whenever signals may be misinterpreted or misused.

Take care of what info you consume. Take care with what info you share.
Take care of yourself. Take care of others.