Emotions Related To Technology

What is it we feel when an emotion is elicited? Obviously, everyone seems to have emotions, and many emotions are common among people. How do we all know what another person is uniquely experiencing? How certain can we be? Or do we take it for granted far too often?

While thinking about women (which isn't that surprising), I wondered: at what point did women as a species start to experience love? I thought about men too, but felt more curious about women. Has love always been in some way limited to one's options? I suspect that, not that long ago, women would usually marry any man who could pass the litmus test of supplying basic needs: food, shelter, and establishing a family. Even worse would be arranged marriages. It became agreeable to most to marry whomever best satisfied their most basic needs. With technology, we are now able to choose from a much larger pool, to find someone who not only satisfies basic needs, but offers specific idiosyncrasies. Then we can experience a much deeper and greater sense of love. Are technological advances allowing us to experience a greater sense of ourselves and our capabilities? Is this a completely new, unique experience, or does it serve the same purpose, only associated with a different emotion?

It seems that freedom allows for a greater sense of emotion. Imagine groups of people who endured slavery: the Israelites of Biblical times, or more recently the Africans here in America. It's difficult to empathize with the lack of emotional freedom associated with slavery, or any type of repression. I can only relate to this type of mindset when compared to the limitations and controls I put on my own emotions. Throughout history the church, government, society, and other established organizations have attempted to repress particular emotions within the population. It seems that it has been done mostly for control purposes, particularly men of women. In those times, if/when we did experience a banned or controlled emotion, we would feel guilt and subsequently seek forgiveness.

Can we speculate what type of emotions we have the opportunity to experience in the future? How will future humans reflect upon us and how we experience life emotionally? Perhaps present day society manages their emotions like rebellious teenagers: demanding immediate gratification without a care for tomorrow.

Our Redundant Lives

Our lives have become redundant. Few ever take time or energy to question what is giving us life. Every single second we lose ten million cells (that's 10,000,000). And then we make another ten million. We are mostly unaware that such profound creation and destruction is occurring every minute of every day. Or, is there a separate mind managing this process?

 Our hearts pump 10 gallons of blood each minute and over 100 gallons in an hour. In one skin cell, there is one hundred thousand chemical reactions taking place every second. Multiply this by our trillions (1,000,000,000,000,000 = one trillion) of skin cells. Are we trying to take care of our skin processes, or are our checkbooks sufficient? 

 It appears that there is a part of us we are mostly unaware of that loves life so much more than we know. A part of us that loves ourselves so much that caring for us goes unmanaged by our conscious minds. It also demonstrates a will that is so much greater than the will of which we are aware.

 Neuroscientists suggest that most humans express about 1 1/2 % of our genetic code (DNA). 98.5% is considered unused or unexpressed DNA. DNA is the blueprint for our bodies and minds. The 98.5% contains unfathomable potential. Genes aren't static (constant). Genes are actually either off or on, like switches. What turns certain genes on and others off has to do with our internal environment. It’s the redundancy of the same chemistry from the brain to the body, and body to the brain, thinking and feeling, feeling and thinking. Both, in the same way, keep genes either turned on or turned off. If the average person only uses 1.5% of their DNA, and 98.5% lay dormant, what potential is available to us by learning how to "switch-on" other unused DNA?

 Are there longevity genes currently going unused? Guess what....the longevity gene has been identified! If we constantly think the same thoughts, we will have the same feelings. If we experience the same feelings, this causes us to think the way we feel, and thus create the same chemicals. This cycle of thinking and feeling sustains the redundancy of keeping the same genes turned on or off. If we can learn to control this process and change our thinking, we can use the untapped power of our unexpressed genes. We are heading for our unique genetic destiny. 

Everyone decides to act as though something is true

Influence -- it's why we communicate. The egoic mind thrives on the successful influencing of others. It's how we get what we want, even in seemingly insignificant conversations. The socially egoic identity uses language to influence others to reach a desired outcome. We all do it.

Conversely, we are not as easy to receive new information as we are to give it. We receive any new information with mentally guarded reservation. New information received is carefully filtered through our current status, which includes our belief structure, habits, and values. Newly obtained information either supports and emboldens our current status, or creates a position for us to defend our status. It's much like our immune system. Our body attempts to ward off strange and potentially harmful things to keep a balance. Anytime we have a sickness or illness, it’s a result of some kind of imbalance in our body of systems. 

Anytime the system pushes back or fights against new and strange stimuli, the process is called homeostasis. Our brains attempt to maintain balance with the information received and processed through homeostasis. Homeostasis occurs almost constantly in our brains. The process of homeostasis releases hormones and chemicals to maintain the balance. This occurs all the time for some people, depending upon their life situation and/or profession. So, anytime you are speaking with anyone and felt defensive, that's homeostasis. 

Attorneys, for instance, can be a prime example of the egoic social identity influencing another. Since I have an attorney as a sibling who seems to appreciate meta-cognition (thinking about thinking) I'm comfortable using his profession as an example, although almost all people are attempting to gain influence in some capacity.  

Attorneys spend nearly all their time either defending or supporting a position. Picture in your mind an attorney in a court room addressing the jury. Every juror has unique, independent, and varying life experiences, belief structures, and constructs of thinking. Every juror’s brain will defend each of the above through homeostasis. Groups of neuronal activity form these identities and each are constantly changing, even if ever so slightly. With every sight, smell, and sound, our brains physically change and homeostasis is occurring to create stability.  

The attorney's job is to influence each juror’s brain by fighting through the homeostasis to create new neural pathways that support the attorney’s argument. Two things occur: new neural pathways can form, and two, old neural pathways and groups can weaken and dissolve to leave only traces of the previous existence and its potency. The result can be a new perspective with a new belief and point-of-view. This is the desired outcome of the attorney, or anyone who is compelled to influence another. The attorney who is more successful in establishing more neural activity (alpha waves) connected with their influence will be victorious in the case. An attorney is not only making counterpoints to the opposing attorney, but also the opposition represented in the juror’s mind as homeostasis. 

Almost everyone performs this in everyday life, whether we are making an argument supporting the new coaching situation at UK or something more profound like politics and support for a particular ideology. Those who are in leadership positions influence others regularly. Teachers, but especially ministers and salespeople, have a goal to influence another to gain a desired outcome. In all of us, we wish to have our socially identified ego validated by influencing another that our perspective, ideas, or points-of-view are more correct. We need to be mindful that we are not really the attorney, but only our socially identified ego is the attorney. 

For A Change....

When are we going to realize the fact that small things make up the big things?!? We are all complaining about the global crisis currently impacting our lives in a negative way. Everyone has an answer and most commonly it has to do with someone else doing something wrong. Or, people blame the system itself for being corrupt or dysfunctional. Political figures can blame big business. Big business blames the irresponsible consumer, or the government intrusion. Why don’t we all just admit to ourselves that we Americans want our way of life and desire the faceless unknown to pay for it regardless of any suffering as the cost?

I personally know of no one who lives completely responsibly. That admission shames me. Not I, my family or friends, or anyone with whom I associate can be a role model. We are all taking advantage of another or something somehow. Most of my family members are Christians, yet, sad to say, none of us could be a model citizen or even human being for that matter. I’m unaware of anyone in my family or friends who contributes directly to the poor, shut-ins, homeless, or otherwise less fortunate. Few of us recycle as much as possible or live in a way that doesn’t harm our environment. We don’t really give much thought to our daily actions. I have a friend who complains about the way of the world as he throws a cigarette butt on the ground!

More often than not, I suspect there is a lack of complete disclosure and transparency when necessary, specifically in financial matters. Most of us always try to get something for nothing, or less than the value of it. All of us have bad relationships in more than one instance: either with other people, food, possessions, substance abuse of some kind, and with some of us, we just can’t allow another person to have an opinion and admit we could be, or are wrong.

How can we say a word about Wall Street bailouts, a war we may not agree with, political/government regulations which seem or appear to not be in line with our world view, when we do not think one moment, ourselves, about taking that plastic bag at the market to haul all the glutinous junk food we just bought at the local market? Do we think our bodies are designed to function optimally from consuming Sierra Mist, 16 oz rib-eyes, mac-n-cheese and powdered donuts? Then we take our diabetes medicine to offset the impact of such a meal, or years down the road pay a heart surgeon $100k to perform bypass surgery to clean all the plaque from our arteries! We all want a bailout!

If all of us should focus on the “mote” in our own eyes! Government cannot fix our problems. Let’s take responsibility for ourselves. Live consciously. Let’s stop simply existing from emotion-to-emotion and take control of our lives! Let’s stop making excuses for ourselves! Why not set a higher standard than merely what the law allows or demands? The law should cover the least common denominator for setting the standard. Surely we are capable creatures….or are we? 

Dealing With Certain Emotions

How human are our emotions and feelings? Are people who experience less emotion less human? Are emotions a human strength, or a weakness? Are we being controlled by our emotions or can we better manage our emotions and take control to better benefit our life experience? What are emotions? What happens in our body physiologically when an emotional state becomes noticeable to us?

 

Many people will be familiar with the following mindsets or levels of awareness. The thing is, everyone is experiencing all of these levels according to the topic or subject. A ditch-digger will have particular knowledge and awareness that an astrophysicist doesn't. What is the biggest difference between knowing something, and doing something?

 

1.       Unconscious Incompetence - You don’t even know that you don't know it.

2.       Conscious Incompetence - You start to become painfully aware that you really don't know how to do a certain thing.

3.       Conscious Competence - You’re competent, but you still need to think about it.

4.       Unconscious Competence - You're so good at what you do, you don't need to think about it. You just do it.

 

An example of something, I think, unfamiliar to most is the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment currently undergoing in Europe. This could be the single greatest scientific experiment ever. It certainly is the most expensive and most elaborate.  Yet, I suspect most people remain unaware of this experiment (fit the category of Unconscious Incompetence). Once this new experiment is introduced to a person, they begin to filter this new information through their own belief system and world-view and that elicits an emotional and visceral response. We start to feel a particular emotion or tension and can become overwhelmed. The new information impacts our status, or how we view ourselves in relation to others. Many times our status is weakened by new information and a defense mechanism (hormone cortisol) is triggered within us. We start to ask questions and make comments which supports our position prior to the new information being received. Most people can consider a day either good or bad relative to our status being threatened or emboldened.

 

Anytime we feel the slightest bit threatened, especially socially, but physically too, and anytime we feel that our status may change, like someone else might win an argument or someone might think poorly of us, or any way our status may change, our brain gets overwhelmed with electrical activity and bursts of the hormone cortisol is released, which is a stress response in the brain. It causes us to become tense and make sudden unexpected brain connections. We are very focused on status and on potential threats. The electrical activity involved in noticing these threats very easily overwhelms the steady and easy function of the brain.

 

I view and compare this hard-wired brain function to a PC that has anti-virus software installed. It’s always running in the background even though you don’t need to be aware of it. It also consumes some of your computers resources to function. When it detects a potential threat, it requires all your computers resources to operate. You have to shut down all other programs to run the program.

 

Since we filter any new information or stimulation through our belief systems, world view, and life experience stored in our brains, the older we become, the more hard-wired functions we’ve created. With more life experiences comes more threats. Perhaps this is why older people are more generally more fearful.

 

Some people may say, what is this airy-fairy California stuff? For some people, better understanding one’s own human experience may explain or define a belief structure or world-view.  Some religious belief structures renounce this type of thinking. For some, this new personal understanding can embolden one’s own faith. Regardless of a person’s particular belief system, understanding how your body functions is our own responsibility. Denying ourselves continued understanding is accepting our current position in life and a depiction of an idle mindset. 21st century technology has offered each of us incredible insights into how our body functions. Previous generations could not understand and thus either believed it to be supernatural involvement, or chalked it up as impossible to understand. I've learned that in most everything I do, to ask the question: “Why?”

I challenge myself

Most good things in life for me have come without much focused effort.  As a result, I readily admit these good accomplished things are mediocre in grandeur. A person can reach an age to be able to start to reflect. Notice trends and tendancies in life. Begin to realize similar decisions are made consistently. Also, see specific periods of life. Remember that angry stage? Or, the period when you felt love? Then, there was the time you were most interested in personal style and kept up with top 40. Worst of all was that lonely phase. 

The subject matter that always interested me has been science and business. Over the past 10 years, my science interest has moderately and steadily increased til about two years ago when I discovered what has been going on the field of neuroscience. In the past two years, my interest level has now peaked to where I am constantly in a state of wanting to know more about the study of this science. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience 

Since this particular science study is only 40 years old, many people remain unfamiliar with the significant benefits it provides. The science allows for insight into the functionality of our brain, how we process information and how the environment impacts us. I started examining my life through the filter of neuroscience. So many consistent behaviours become apparent. Much of the way we function in life is a result of our unique world view or our belief structure. 

I have written very few things in my life, and this is a daunting undertaking for me. Or, at least I view this writing as daunting. If you become a follower of this blog, you will come to understand how "attention" is so important and how it actually changes the physical structure of your brian. So, this blog will not only allow for me to write about things I've learned, but it will further "hard-wire" the concepts into my brain.