DECISION MAKING AT A BASIC LEVEL or
TRICKING THE SYSTEM INTO SELF-DESTRUCTION

I recall as a young man in one of my philosophy classes being very strongly impressed by the hedonist Greek philosophers and their idea that all humans seek to escape pain and to embrace pleasure. I bought the idea then, and, at some level, I’ve always steered near that conclusion. I’d say that recent research in evolutionary psychology tends to support a hedonist’s basic contention.

From THE ORIGIN OF MINDS by Peggy La Cerra, pp. 124-126:

The collection of nuclei called the “basal ganglia” feed “three distinct dopamine pathways.... These dopamine pathways play critical roles in the construction, modification, and activation of the ARNs [adaptive representational networks or memory clusters] that guide human behavior and thought. In effect they [the dopamine pathways] are the control machinery of our intelligence systems and our minds.” They give emotional weight to ARNs of successful or unsuccessful attempts to adapt for survival. They produce feelings of pleasure when we move toward things in our would that are adaptive” and the nigrostriatal pathway... “flags stimuli in the environment that are reliable predictors of rewards.”

It’s obvious to me that this human guidance system is much more than nearly automatic. Guided by chemicals, the human intelligence steers from one choice to another motivated mainly by chemical reactions which produce feelings of pain or pleasure.

On pages 112 and 123-124, La Cerra writes, “neurotransmitters—serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline [are] messenger molecules that chemically ferry information from cell to cell in your brain across synapses” [and] “the dopamine and noradrenaline systems are designed to help you generate behavior that will keep you viable”. Further on (page 128), she writes that “... serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline work together to produce global calibrations of your intelligence system.... they function [in cooperation], making offers that your system finds hard to refuse.”

Our adaptive representational networks (ARN) are an archive of our ups and downs in our efforts to remain viable in our life courses. On page 128, La Cerra adds, “Imagine this episodic memory record as a sequential string of positive and negative [chemical] values.... The sum is either negative or positive. If it’s positive, the trajectory of your life is viable.” If not viable, your system signals distress in many ways, from stress reactions to heart attacks, from depression to neurotic behaviors.

But how does your behavioral system know that it’s time for course changes, and how would it “implement” [choose] a change in direction? The basil ganglia does it. It’s an accountant with a chemical abacus board. It can shut down or slow down behavioral motivation and help you cut your loses and “put you on a new course to viability.”

The basal ganglia “is positioned between the neo-cortex—which stores the ARN record—and the motivational centers of the LHRS [life history regulatory system] that drive the planning and initiation of behavior. One of its primary functions is sequencing behavior—arbitrating between various competing possibilities as represented in your neocortex and then selecting an action. It’s also the core machinery for the generation of behavior. In effect, the basal ganglia is the only system that would ‘know’ when you should abandon your current strategy and would ‘know’ how to change your life course.”

In short, depression is trying to tell many of us Americans that we need to make course changes, but instead of changing course, we take chemicals, antidepressants, to try and trick the survival system and bull ahead on nonviable courses of behavior. Could that be a true conclusion? Could humanity be on a course of self-destruction?


WILLY LOMAN STRIKES AGAIN

I just checked out from the library and watched for a second time, Dustin Hoffman’s portrayal of Willy Loman in “Death of a Salesman”. All I can say is, “Wow”! It was better the second time around. I saw the original production made for TV years ago and recalled that all the performances were great, and they are still great. John Malkovich plays Biff, the son who gets honest with himself, and Charles Durning as the compassionate and wry next door neighbor was excellent too. In fact, every part was well played. I choked up a few times, recalling my own struggles with myself (as a young man) and my fears that I was sinking into middle-class nothingness. Poor me! I even recall the original movie portrayal by Frederick March as Willy Loman. That has always been a powerful drama for me.

Finally, I tried to watch the “Personal Conversations” after the play, the stuff that DVDs have a lot of. My copy was a VHS production. I can tell you that I don’t appreciate all the stuff added after the play. To watch the guys joking around and being their artistic selves is much less interesting than the play itself. To watch it right after watching the genuine stuff just ruins it for me.

When I finally get a DVD player, I’m going to look for simple inexpensive DVDs without all the extra sugar. All the outside the box stuff is just an excuse to overprice the DVDs. Screw ‘em!
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"To the person with a toothache, even if the world is tottering, there is nothing more important than a visit to the the dentist." —George Bernard Shaw