from the why-didn't-I-think-of-that...oh-wait dept.
Neuroscience Proves Nietzsche Right: Some People are Wired to be More Spontaneous than Others:
“Why can’t you just relax into it?” is a question many of us have asked in frustration with ourselves or others – be it on the dance floor, the sporting field or in rather more private circumstances. The task typically requires us to respond spontaneously to external events, without any deliberation whatsoever. It ought to be easy – all you have to do is let go – yet it can be infuriatingly difficult.
“Stop thinking about it!” is the standard remedial advice, although cancelling thought with thought is something of a paradox. The retort, “I am trying!”, is equally puzzling, for deliberate intent is precisely what we are here struggling to avoid. So what is this act of choosing not to choose, of consciously relinquishing control over our actions? Our new study, published in Communications Biology, has finally provided insights into how this capacity is expressed in the brain.
Astonishingly, this fundamental human phenomenon has no name. It might have escaped academic recognition entirely had the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche not given it a brilliant gloss in his first book The Birth of Tragedy, itself a paradoxical work of philosophy in tacitly encouraging the reader to stop reading and get a drink instead. Whereas other thinkers saw culture on a single continuum, evolving into ever greater refinement, order and rationality, Nietzsche saw it as distributed across two radically different but equally important planes.
Perpendicular to the conventional “Apolline” dimension of culture, he introduced the “Dionysiac”: chaotic, spontaneous, vigorous and careless of the austere demands of rationality. Neither aspect was held to be superior, each may be done badly or well, and both are needed for a civilisation to find its most profound creative expression. Every Batman needs a Joker, he might have said, had he lived in a more comical age.
Of course, Nietzsche was not the first to observe that human beings sometimes behave with wanton abandon. His innovation consisted in realising it is a constitutional characteristic we could and should develop. And as with any behavioural characteristic, the facility to acquire it will vary from one person to another.
Tests were performed with people undergoing an MRI and observed trying to discern which of two nearly simultaneous lights was first illuminated.
We used magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the brains of people performing the task, focusing on white matter – the brain’s wiring. A striking picture emerged. Extensive sections of the wiring of the right prefrontal lobe, a region heavily implicated in complex decision making, was revealed to be stronger in those who were worse at the task: the Apollines. The more developed the neural substrates of volition, it seems, the harder to switch them off.
So, "smarter" people are less able to be spontaneous?
I would posit that those who are more sensitive to negative feedback (i.e. have developed a part of the brain to detect and avoid potentially negative consequences) are less spontaneous. They strongly consider how others react to their actions and such thinking takes time. Those who are less concerned about other's perceptions have a less developed region and thus it takes less time for them to go from conception to action.
Think of the speed of a computer program. Those programs having exhaustive input validation and with thorough error checking of intermediate results run slower than "proof of concept" code which performs only minimal checking, if any at all.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23 2019, @10:05PM (5 children)
Apolline and Dionysiac are just cultural constructs. I can choose whether or not to be spontaneous each morning and I can even be somewhere on the spontaneity spectrum.
Thought for the day: In 30 years, will millennials be saying "Hey you kids, get out of my safe space".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23 2019, @10:34PM
Yes, generally we have much more control over how we act than the other thing you're thinking of. Unfortunately, the other thing is baked in and cannot be reconfigured.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23 2019, @10:49PM
Too Late! https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/3/21/18275839/trump-free-speech-executive-order-turning-point-usa [vox.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 24 2019, @03:23AM (2 children)
I don't know about choosing to be spontaneous. I am pretty sure though, that spontaneity changes with the environment. Take millions of young school boys, and put them in a dance class, partnered with girls their age. Those boys develop three left legs, with backward knees on each of them. Put those same boys into environments they are comfortable with, and very few of them have more than one left leg, and all the backward knees are gone.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday March 24 2019, @06:38AM (1 child)
I think Gloria Allred would be very very impressed with my third leg.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 24 2019, @07:06AM
She's not impressed with your third eye, or your missing brain.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23 2019, @10:37PM
You know, I'd like to accept this research ... but I'm not quite ready yet. But I'll think about it; I really will.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 24 2019, @03:06AM (1 child)
Why does everybody get so excited? He thinks the way we all should. He cuts to the chase, no bullshit... As far as all that nihilism stuff goes, there's nothing wrong with that either. We can do shit just for the fuck of it if we want. It's all about the dopamine...
I think that guy, what's his name, Malthus? is misunderstood too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 24 2019, @06:35PM
Hitler used some of his terminology and ever since he has been tainted by people who are not very smart. Also, see Jung.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 24 2019, @03:42AM
Sniff you cats butt.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/253802.php [medicalnewstoday.com]
(Score: 2) by shortscreen on Sunday March 24 2019, @10:37AM (2 children)
Post as AC. No need to worry about negative feedback then.
Posted as AC. In the interest of eating one's own dogfood.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 25 2019, @12:24AM (1 child)
I'd prefer if everyone was forced to be AC. All that social hiearchy crap is a distraction. Me me me me me me me.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday March 25 2019, @05:46PM
The trick is to figure out how to dump the hierarchy without dumping responsibility/accountability. Otherwise everything goes to shit, for the same reason that the hierarchy often causes those at the top to go to shit. Zero consequences for their actions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 24 2019, @12:51PM (1 child)
What part of the world is that phrase common? I can't relax into it in part because I never heard such butchery of the Queen's English in such a way.
Trumpian Tweets are one thing. Strange regional dialects that come across as a variation of "Hick" are quite another.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday March 24 2019, @02:41PM
Well butchering Engl-ish is like shooting up ambulances anyway.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Sunday March 24 2019, @01:58PM (1 child)
>Astonishingly, this fundamental human phenomenon has no name.
Gamers have a name, being in the flow. Instinct takes over, you turn shoot what you just begin to notice and then you think "wow did I just do that".
Another word defining what Nietzsche theorizes is "inconsiderate".
Without trying to get in Nietzche brain, I would also underline that what makes him important is success and what makes something successful is OFTEN fitting someone's agenda. Now, "Let go, don't think" is an even bigger meme than philosophy itself, currently. The dual of "fear god" (fear the middleman, to be precise).
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Sunday March 24 2019, @02:45PM
I thought it curious the article examples were vigorously social-phobia oriented, whereas two examples I immediately thought of the same phenomena are kids learning to drive and elderly learning computer stuff.
I believe to a lesser extent it also applies to welding, cooking, and basic aircraft piloting skills (not the ground school meteorology or procedural stuff, but airframe familiarity stuff like flying turns around a point)
Somewhat more questionable examples: gardening, raising children, boring programming and sysadmin tasks, fine woodworking (especially finishing, but also obscure wood joints).
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 25 2019, @04:17PM (1 child)
While it's good to be spontaneous and unpredictable with some things. It's definitely not good to be that way with regards to most things. Put another way, people won't trust you, if you're just as likely to push them off a cliff as to look at them. Due to perceived "spontaneity". Just let go, just do it, or relax and let your mind be free. All of those phrases are about giving in to something and have nothing to do with being spontaneous.
Personally, I like to be a bit spontaneous and think that it's a key part to having fun. While You don't have to be spontaneous to have fun. I do think it's likely that you will have more opportunities to have fun, if you do some things spontaneously.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday March 25 2019, @05:57PM
Politicians are practically as non-spontaneous as you can get; but how much do you trust THEM? Sometimes having everything perfectly planned out makes you less trustworthy than just doing what feels right in the moment. The key is striking the right balance.