Time only goes one way

One Time Dimension

            I am still working my way through Our Mathematical  Universe, by Max Tegmark, and having a good time doing that.   The book describes the current thinking about the Big Bang, cosmic expansion, the size and shape of our universe, and the reasons that it has turned out to be that way.

            Now I am on the part were he begins to describe the possibilities of other kinds of  universes, places that should exist, according to the current theories, but we may never be able to actually verify.  But he gives some limitations to even the strangeness of these places, that are basic to their existence, at least in the way that we understand the word existence.

           

One of these limitations struck me as a very important consideration for those of us who have deal with and explain people’s psychological existence, and usefulness.   On location 2781 of the Kindle editions Dr. Tegmark  states that it necessary for the stability of any universe to have only three space dimensions, and only one time dimension.  “With more than three space dimensions there are no stable atoms or solar systems.  With fewer, there’s no gravitation attraction.”  Ok, fine, I got that. (If you don’t, you can work on that yourself).

            Then he goes on to say, and this is the important part for me: “With more or less than one time dimension,  physics loses all predictive power, and there would be no point in evolving a brain.”

            What he is saying here, and I really agree with,  is that the major reason we have a brain and gain all of our knowledge, is for predictive purposes.  Those of us who survive and thrive are those of us who are best at figuring out what will be happening next, and then also figuring out how to deal with that.

            I have read before, I am pretty sure it was from Daniel Dennett, but he may have been quoting someone else, that the only real measure of intelligence is the ability to anticipate.   To me that means that a great deal of the measures we have of “IQ” are only of things that are one or two steps away from the real skills necessary to survive and be successful. Yes, it is probably helpful to be good at math, to have an extensive vocabulary, and to be able to put puzzle pieces together, but if you can’t figure out which way the bus will be coming down the street before you step off the curb, all those other skills won’t help much.

            We learn from out experiences, how the world works, that is why each of use thinks things work slightly differently.  Smart people can anticipate what is coming next.  Really smart people think about what will happen after that.

            Dr. Tegmark points out that this is only true if you live in a universe in which time only moves in one direction.  If time jumps all around, from past to future, to past , to present. It is useless to try to make any predictions., so don’t even bother developing a brain.  Thankfully, we live in the right kind of universe.  I hope you all can learn to take advantage of that.

Cultures, subcultures

A person's sub-culture, by which I mean the community that he or she identifies with and spends most of his or her time within, is such a powerful determinant of any one's emotions and behavior, but it is rarely discussed  by psychologists and psychiatrists, and  it is not given the influence that it deserves.

Psychiatry has become so biological over the past twenty years.  It is difficult to get any psychiatrist to talk about anything other than brain chemistry when they discuss a diagnosis or treatment.  Psychologists are more varied. They consider a great many family influences and the role of interpersonal relationships, and see how they greatly affect how people think, feel and behave.

Yet, the values, mores attitudes and behaviors of those who anyone sees himself as most like, do so much toward determining what they feel is the right thing to do, or think, or aspire to.

If both your parents are are collecting checks for disability, and your brother is selling drugs and your seventeen year-old cousin is having her second child, and you three best friends have already dropped out of high school, it will be very difficult for you to "pull yourself up by your boot straps" stay in school, go to college, look for, expect to get, and find a well paying job.

By comparison, if you go to a high school from which 98% of the kids graduate, and 94% of those go to college, you will probably not only expect to go to college, you will go.  You may feel badly that you are going off to State U, instead of Yale, but you expectations and aspirations will be so different from the person in the previous paragraph.

Now, this all seems pretty obvious.  What may not be so obvious to many people is that if almost all of the kids who live the lives in the first paragraph switched cribs with the kids in the second paragraph before they were fourteen months old, all of their lives would live up to the expectations of the new subculture.  I think that many people would not believe that, but I am sure of it. Here in America, people still like to believe that kids are born smart or not so smart.  That's not the case.  94.768% is learning how to learn, living up to expectations, and seeing how the world around you works.

I see so many smart, attractive, personable adolescents and young adults who all do marvelous things and live healthy, prosperous, creative enjoyable lives, if they get the opportunity.  But some of them have no one to show them the path, many even have people around them who are negative and discouraging.

I get great satisfaction when I can be part of the process that helps someone find a way to use their talents and skills.  But it is often disheartening to see how some people have so many more obstacles to fight through and overcome.  Forging a life is difficult enough for anyone.  The journey is much more difficult without a guide, or with someone stepping on your head.

We now also have so many examples of how growing up in a very religious community influences the way someone thinks, sees cause and effect and expects change.  What is "normal in that community may not fit in well in San Francisco, and vice-versa, with an emphasis on the"vice."

 No one can get from here to there alone; not John Wayne, and not Clarence Thomas. Our thinking, feeling and behaving is constantly being influenced by those around us, not matter how much we try to resist. Even the act of resistance is created by the living in the community.

None of this may be groundbreaking, but as John says:  Copy, Transform, Combine (repeat).
The more things get brought to light, the better.

Smart?

There is an article in one of my magazines that is based upon a few long-term studies about human longevity.  The conclusion of the article is that there is a strong correlations between intelligence and longevity.  While I certainly am not surprised at this conclusion, I feel that this finding is a bit of a tautology.

My profession, Psychology, especially here in the US of A, has always made a big deal out of "intelligence"   It was the attempt to determine who was smarter than whom that first brought Psychology to prominence, as it was Psychologists who tested young men who were drafted in WWII to help pick the ones who seemed more qualified to be trained as officers.

America, more than other cultures I think, feel that "intelligence" is something you are born having more or less of, and that it is not something that can be trained, enhanced, or improved upon. Most Psychologists take it as a given that this quality, intelligence, is distributed across the population on a bell-shaped curve, with most people grouped in the middle, which is average, and the very smart, and very lacking, out at the edges.

My experience with all kinds of people has brought me to a different conclusion. I feel that there are some very few people with some very special abilities, and that their are some others who clearly, for clear biological reasons are lacking, but almost everyone has a wide range of talents that are unknown and untapped. I feel that most people could exhibit much more "intelligence" if they find a way to learn how to think more clearly.  They can be taught by clever teachers, they can learn from watching clever parents or friends, or they can learn on their own, from seeing what works, and what doesn't.  Usually, they have to be either pushed, encouraged, or somehow find themselves in a position in which they have to persevere  to solve problems.  To me, it is this trait of learned perseverance that really distinguishes who gets to called "smart" and who doesn't .

There are many things about our current culture that move people, especially kids, away from learning how to persevere.  This includes labelling a kid as either smart, or not so smart, and also giving kids a diagnosis such as ADD or ADHD.  Any time you put into someones head that they have some reasons to not succeed at something, anything, you diminish their chances of success.

For generations it was assumed that girls were not good at math and science and boys couldn't sew straight.  But these things are not true.  While it is true that everyone is born with a different brain, and some brains can more easily concentrate than others, and some can learn more quickly to spell,  I feel that in all but the most extreme cases, very extreme cases, that people can learn how to best use the brain they have to get where they need to go in ways that is best for them.

  Really, the whole concept of intelligence can be summarized in four words: "the ability to anticipate."  Smart people are the ones who can see what is happening, and from that, figure out what will happen next. Really smart people are the ones who can see what is happening, figure out what will happen next, and from that, have some fairly good idea of what will happen after that.  It is this third stage where most people fall down.

But, the point here is that the best overall indication of intelligence is survival.  The whole purpose of having all the different skills that make up "intelligence" is to survive, and to have your babies survive.

I really bothers me when someone tells me that someone is "really smart" but never got his life together, and is living in his parent's basement.  To me, either this guy is "really smart" in that he found a way to not care about the traditional trappings of success and is happy and content doing whatever he is doing in that basement. Or else, he is not really "that smart" because for some reason or other he could not figure out good answers to the puzzles of life.

Knowing what Shakespeare meant, knowing all the answers to Jeopardy, and being facile with calculus are certainly valuable and helpful skills, but it doesn't really make you "intelligent" in my opinion. Having those other skill could be very helpful, but not sufficient.

Being able to take good care of yourself, form and maintain good relationships, derive some real satisfaction from work and play, are better indications of being smart.   They will also raise your likelihood of living a longer, happier, more fulfilling life.