David Brooks has written an intense and slightly strange article in The New Yorker. It begins ‘brain science helps fill the hole left by the atrophy of theology and philosophy’ and then proceeds, somewhat lyrically, through the life and love of a middle class American and their discovery of deeper forces and meaning. He continues, ‘Many members of this class, like many Americans generally, have a vague sense that their lives have been distorted by a giant cultural bias. They live in a society that prizes the development of career skills but is inarticulate when it comes to the things that matter most. The young achievers are tutored in every soccer technique and calculus problem, but when it comes to their most important decisions—whom to marry and whom to befriend, what to love and what to despise—they are on their own.’

California recently voted down a move to legalize marijuana. Which is a shame. As I heard in this linked biography, all cultures adopt some psychoactive plant and reject others. In Sri Lanka the ruling political party runs under the symbol of the narcotic betel leaf. We, however, seize and arrest people for possessing marijuana. Drug policy is obviously not designed rationally. A recent Lancet study reported that alcohol is by far the most harmful drug (socially and personally), but it is also the most widely used and accepted. As the study’s co-author said, “What governments decide is illegal is not always based on science.” Indeed drug policy is often cultural. In the right social context, a dangerous drug like alcohol can be managed. What many people don’t like to think is that this type of managed intoxication may be possible with other substances as well.

I am, fundamentally, a city boy and I experience the world through media. I read a lot of books as a kid and I still see everything as a story, feeling rather confused that everyone has lost the plot. I was lying on the floor, under the ceiling fan, thinking. Do other people experience media through the world? What does that even mean?

Went to see a play in Hyderabad. Let me say, firstly, the audience was huge. I’ve been in Sri Lanka for years and India is bright lights big city for me. The cast was from film and TV and the scene seemed quite happening. Rajat Kapoor was the star I knew. That said, I didn’t really understand the play and fell asleep during parts of it. Near the end I had about 5 minutes of what felt like lucidation, but I’m not sure. However, I did wake up thinking about it, which is a plus.

Jonah Lehrer wrote about an interesting study on power, and hypocrisy. Basically, people were split into high and low power groups. The high power group tended to cheat more (at dice) and simultaneously moralize more. In other studies people tended to behave the most like ‘assholes’ (and I quote) when they were in a position of power and isolated from other people, and thus empathy. Basically, power makes people more selfish, probably because they can get away with it without the usual social checks and balances. “Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner has found that, in many social situations, people with power act just like patients with severe brain damage.”

These scientists kept getting noise on their radio telescope. They thought it was pigeon shit, or nuclear fallout, but nothing checked out. Then they discovered that it was background radiation from THE UNIVERSE BEING BORN. And then they won the Nobel Prize. True story. I read this is in a Wired article on failure. Its general point seems to be that scientists should try to learn from failure by seeking out diversity, even ignorance and avoid a human neurological instinct to filter out bad information. This may also make some sense in life.

I studied Cognitive Science in University and took some classes at the Montreal Neurological Institute. One brain we studied in great detail was this dude HM, who couldn’t form new memories. He died today. Peace the spork out HM. They removed areas of his brain near the hippocampus, where memories get consolidated, and he simply lost his RAM, effectively. Hard disk was OK, but everything new got wiped. As in, we heard stories about the Doctor walking in, introducing himself, walking out. Comes back in later and HM is like ‘Hi, who are you?’. Made it entirely impossible for him to live a normal life, but led to huge breakthroughs in neuroscience. Again, peace the spork out HM. In exams full of obscure Latin anatomy you were the only dude I knew.

I’ve taken the prose. I’ve also taken enough Psychology to know when a doctor is asking, literally, prescriptive questions. For a long time I was feeling shit for no particular reason. I obviously had reasons, but they were retarded, hence I’m in the Asiri waiting room, clutching a print-out and feeling wholly depressed by my surroundings. Not my life per se, the hospitals just seem kinda hack-job. You get about 10 minutes – often behind a sliding wood door – with a doctor. I’m remembering coming here with a girl, I’m tripping out, need to sit still. Shit hadn’t even happened yet, crazy. Talk to the shrink, who’s treble my age, and realize that I probably know enough to bullshit him. I know just enough psychiatry to be a hypochondriac. The dominant thing, far eclipsing wholly ineffective psychoanalysis, is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. It’s weird, but it’s basically structured, repetitive exercises that can mentally massage out some kinks. But there are like 3 people in the country who do it. The vast majority have their scrips out, ask if you feel heavy, have trouble sleeping and put you on some prose and valleys. And the sad thing is that the pills work. Apparently, it may not even be what’s in the pills, just the act of taking pills at all.

I’ve been reading ‘Persian Fire‘, about Persia and ancient Greece. It has some very interesting things to say about democracy. In these days ‘democracy’ has been hailed as a panacea to all ils, but it doesn’t seem to be working very well. From what I read, democracy was – in those days – a very pragmatic decision, not especially idealistic. The Spartans (SPARTA!) adopted it so men would be equal and thus hold the line in battle. In Athens it was a political ploy by one noble to ensure stability. In the latter city there was, for generations, rotating factional strife. One family then another would amass some men, storm the acropolis and assume tyrannical power – for a time. Then the peace would be broken once again. Cleisthenes, one particular noble, found himself outmaneuvered by another noble and a Spartan King. His own forces decimated, he went to the people, and their rioting forced his enemies to flee. It was a pragmatic decision at the time, but he played it out in a very interesting way.

Was talking to Sanjana about a number of things, including flaming and hate speech online. By chance I saw a very relevant article in the Times today. As I said to Sanjana, “I think part of the problem is anonymity. I don’t tell people to fuck off in real life cause my identity and my place in this culture means something to me. A lot of perfectly sane people are complete sociopaths on the road, when they’re hidden behind a windshield. No one walks like that. I think what we call civility is heavily dependent on facial and non-verbal communications, which simply doesn’t exist on the Internet.”