Does Einstein deserve the praise?
[3:08]
PERCEPTION….. CONTEXT….. STATUS….
Naturally, our brain formed a system one type thinking (fast and automatic). We do this most of the time, the brain reacting quickly and appropriately without stepping back to assess information coming in, from that, habits form and repetitive thought, belief and action patterns. The reason we are mainly of system one thinking is because we have literally thousand of things to contend with through the day. We have no time to reflect and focus…. Within a split second, the brain has formed a rhythmic system of how to respond to any given situation quickly and seemingly appropriately. When we fold our arms when a little nervous in conversation, we did not think to fold our arms, it just happened to us……. 2+2 = ?….we do not need to think of the answer…. BOOM, it’s there!….. Do you love your mum? Boom again, no effort needed! (although I’m still mad at her for hiding the cookies!) System one is there for us, and helps life flow easily.
System one is great although, system two, analytical thinking (stepping back to assess, using research, comparison, reason, debate etc), is very much needed on occasions, but unfortunately due to not being so natural for the brain to produce, we avoid doing so when maybe we should more often. We may conform with the masses and defend our point of view that clashes with another group, and where system two is needed to resolve issues, an automatic system, one of foolish pride often easily rules instead….. Hence the worlds problems.
We judge others, good and bad using system one usually. Not only in our chit chat at the cafe but also with rewarding or punishing individuals on a grander scale. We system one individuals collectively, creating a status hierarchy, where the likes of Einstein is seen as a ‘BRILLIANT GENIUS’, where Usain Bolt for his blistering speed is REWARDED with medals and millions of dollars in endorsements, and where Stephen Wiltshire is seen as AMAZING for his photographic memory, flying over city landscapes and replicating what he saw exactly on canvas hours later. We system one automatically our judgements and offer high praise to the identity that produces the extraordinary, however very rarely do we system two them and view from a different perspective, that these identities had no part to play with their accidental genetic formation or brain detail which turns out to be very different to the norm, and indeed had a major part to play with their eventual elevation.
Einstein for example had a thicker corpus callosum compared to an everyday person, connecting two brain hemispheres with more intensity, said to increase his genius capabilities. Researchers at Berkeley University also found that Einstein had additional glial cells within the brain in key areas, a driving force behind neuronal activity, again seen as a significant factor allowing him genius capabilities. Stephen Wiltshire is an autistic savant, areas of his brain very different to the vast majority of us, and muscle fibers due to genetics very much part of why Usain Bolt is super fast compared to, well all of us! A genetic makeup of which only a tiny percentage would have, so a massive head start he had when viewing from that perspective.
I do not wish to now place these men into the ordinary category. They still have to produce the goods, and I’m in awe of what brilliance they have and do produce, however it is fascinating how most of us bypass, through system one thinking what is actually the main reason why they are so great…. nature beyond the owners control or knowledge, so, very much an accident of sorts, producing an eventual revered identity.
Bolt still has to train, be disciplined and face the pressure of a major event to produce the goods. Einstein still had to battle through much adversity and work long hours to scribble down equations that we are truly grateful for, but…… should we be fully in awe of the identity alone, or should we be offering the ‘brilliance reward’ and our focused thoughts toward genes and the brain instead? It’s like we are blinded, assuming that all the brilliance produced is solely thought up by the individual identity who is just the outer surface of their whole. We cannot activate system two to snap out of that assumption so easily. One of many ways we cannot snap out of system one thinking….
This raises many ethical questions too….. Should a serial killer who when placed under a brain scanner to show little activity in the frontal lobe and tests showing low levels of key neurotransmitters required for empathetic behavior be punished as harshly? We system one jump into assuming ‘bad, bad, bad, lock them up and throw away the key’ all too often, when really the flour, sugar, milk, eggs ingredients were aleady added to their cake mixture and folded in carefully (the accidental unaware part) waiting for the oven only to finally bake the end product (the identity we all know on the surface finishing off the process), if to make that comparison with what nature had dealt them….
By Panayiotis Stavrou
[Video source: DNews YouTube link]
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