The Prehistoric part of our Brain
Never underestimate the power of your delusion
The author of this article, at work
Many situations exceed our brain’s limits, because our brain has not been able to keep up with itself.
One part has taken the highspeed train, while the other part is still trying to light a fire.
This is a thought I had, after watching the Biden/Trump US presidential debate
Parts of our brain is an inch of evolution away from a worm’s ganglion.
For instance, our brains tell us „there’s a tiger – run!“ the moment we need to make a presentation in front of some other prehistoric brains.
We don’t even see the disfunction, we believe the information is real - it must be real, because why on earth should our brain tell us this, if it wasn’t really necessary and urgent?
Explaining the working direction for a new project to some other Prehistoric Brains, while running away from a tiger is really stressful, believe me!
So what? To save us from pain, our brain takes some shortcuts and/or creates some distractions. Makes sense to me!
My favorite Prehistoric Brain hack is called „more of the same“, described by Paul Watzlawick, in the following story:
A drunk is searching for his house keys, at night, underneath a street lamp. When a helping policeman asks, whether this was really the place the keys were lost, he answers „no, I lost them over there, but it’s too dark, over there!“
Due to its Prehistoric Software, our brain can’t correctly assess situations as they really are.
Don’t worry, soon there will be FOTA (flash over the air), with new Software Downloads, offered by Apple and Google, directly to your brain. With commercial advertising about Kambodscha popping up, like on youtube, in the middle of your rumination about where to go for summer holidays.
But, thanks to the Dunning Kruger effect, smart people like ME, for instance, wouldn’t actually need to suffer.
While writing this, I am feeling really smart, because my Prehistoric Brain is telling me so.
But - only thanks to my family and my best friends (funk you!), I know I have Homo Erectus Fullofshitus – a shamelessly self involved assholic Neanderthal, living in my head. So, I suffer. And, therefore I need to write.
LUCKILY- some people do not have this malaise of having selfish people, who make them suffer, around them. They only have people around them, who truly care for their feelings and don’t disturb the genius function of delusion their heroes are blessed with.
If you need to see some examples, prompt youtube with “Trump speech” (for US readers), or “AFD” (for German readers)
Those are TRULY BORN LEADERS. They are also very often referred to as A(α)-personalities, which I dislike. Calling them A-holes is not fair, because they do not know about their condition! It‘s their Prehistoric Brains‘ fault!
Sometimes, we conveniently redefine our problems into slightly different ones, which are easier to solve.
Those problems will then disappear into an abyss of relentless recycling and reemerge as supposedly new problems, later.
This is a very important part of the basic training for politicians.
In Germany, for instance, there is a tradition of perceiving the Status Quo as a problem.
Here, the resistance towards the “no problem” attitude is enormous. The „easy going“ attitude is a privilege, usually reserved to ‚other countries’.
Some of these ‚other countries’ might be popping up in your prehistoric brain, right now.
So, while maybe even solving more problems in Germany than in many other countries, we also literally create some more problems.
I think this is due to the inaccurate comprehension of problems, with our anachronistic brains.
It‘s a bit like when your dentist tries to remove a tooth and accidentally smashes it into pieces, which now need to be removed, one by one.
Or, like trying to control a shitstorm by reacting to it.
I would like to tell you a recent experience, in which my brain was trying to trick me.
I was trying to find out, why about a fifth of the German Citizens would seemingly prefer to live in the Germany of the early 1940s. (Recent voting for European Council)
Many are saying, it’s because of all the problems in Germany, and because the current Government wasn’t doing anything to solve them.
But, I remained sceptic. Knowing how much my Prehistoric Brain can create a Bias towards other people, who don’t share my same beliefs, I decided to dig deeper!
So, some said they voted for the Nazi®, because they weren’t earning enough money and because inflation was high, which sounded like a really good, an existential reason to me.
Compared to the rich xenophobic pricks in Sylt, these people seemed to have a good reason.
To get some good advice on existential problems, I asked some Latin American friends, who are living in a poor country, whether they thought poverty was a good reason to vote for the Nazi®.
To my total astonishment, they absolutely rejected the idea, they showed no understanding whatsoever.
Now, my prehistoric brain was starting to trick me. I started thinking, Europeans were just racists towards other humans.
Fortunately, after days of reading the most popular German Newspaper, I learned that I was biased.
The reason I believed my South American friends was because I was feeling more sorry for them, than for our own.
I was blaming the victims of bad policies in Germany - as if I could simply measure up one form of poverty against the other one!
My PREHISTORIC BRAIN was more comfortable blaming them, instead of opening my eyes and my soul and show some understanding for the situation of these poor Nazi® voters.
Problems are complex, and we seem to be too stupid for them.
Apparently, we don’t know how to help people who are feeling left behind.
As a result- many people in European countries are now looking for a real leader, a real A-personality to help them.
Fortunately, much better help is on its way. A new horizon, a new hope.
Artificial Intelligence will solve all problems for us!
In „The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“, by Douglas Adams, a huge super computer, named Deep Thought, is given the task to find the ultimate answer to all the Universe’s questions.
After thousands of years of calculations, it finally comes up with the answer.
The answer is 42.
This is true! Ask ChatGPT! Write the following question into your ChatGPT prompt, or your Google search:
„What is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything?“
So, following Douglas Adams’ tradition - “DON’T PANIC”!
The Techies from Clockwork Orange County are already creating a supercomputer with your real life human data - because this is the only real source for solutions to our problems - and the computer will soon solve all of our problems!
THANKS FOR READING