We desperately need to develop our skills and understanding of the world around us. It's the only way we can boost our capacity to face complex problems that need nuanced responses.
Thank you for raising this topic of the link between biases, progress, democracy, and more. I have been struggling with understanding it for over two decades.
Neurobiology ONLY explains how hard it is for us to make effective choices for the SHORT TREM (!) when we have more than five choices. For the LONGER TERM, our brain can handle more than five choices.
So, we categorize things to make issues simpler for us to process and handle. Still, HOW we categorize and the particular ways we explain things, like our fear of interacting with people who are different, is in our hands. It is more cultural than biological.
The particular way we categorize and explain is not innate nor hardwired. Instead, the nature of our categorization and explanation relies on the cultural norms, assumptions, and habits we are embedded in. WE created hierarchical cultures wherein men are more important than women, white is better than black, and West is more important than East, so the good thing is that we can CHANGE it. There is HOPE!
Thank you Tzofnat for reading and for your excellent commentary.
My goal here was to point out that the biases present challenges to our desire to grow and connect. Insofar as we do have a capacity to overcome the cultural and biological tendencies, I hope that I began addressing that in the follow up essay/video here: https://omniwin.substack.com/p/genetics-choice
Upcoming pieces will address how we can claim our freedom, engage in our own personal development, increase self-awareness, improve our critical thinking skills and ability to make sense of the world.
Thank you for raising this topic of the link between biases, progress, democracy, and more. I have been struggling with understanding it for over two decades.
Neurobiology ONLY explains how hard it is for us to make effective choices for the SHORT TREM (!) when we have more than five choices. For the LONGER TERM, our brain can handle more than five choices.
So, we categorize things to make issues simpler for us to process and handle. Still, HOW we categorize and the particular ways we explain things, like our fear of interacting with people who are different, is in our hands. It is more cultural than biological.
The particular way we categorize and explain is not innate nor hardwired. Instead, the nature of our categorization and explanation relies on the cultural norms, assumptions, and habits we are embedded in. WE created hierarchical cultures wherein men are more important than women, white is better than black, and West is more important than East, so the good thing is that we can CHANGE it. There is HOPE!
Thank you Tzofnat for reading and for your excellent commentary.
My goal here was to point out that the biases present challenges to our desire to grow and connect. Insofar as we do have a capacity to overcome the cultural and biological tendencies, I hope that I began addressing that in the follow up essay/video here: https://omniwin.substack.com/p/genetics-choice
Upcoming pieces will address how we can claim our freedom, engage in our own personal development, increase self-awareness, improve our critical thinking skills and ability to make sense of the world.
I'd be interested in talking more about this and your decades of exploration someday. Let's talk. www.calendly.com/duncanautrey/30min