INTERESTING TIMES

 

“The state of flow, like the path that bears its name, is volatile, unpredictable, and all-consuming.  Flow feels like the meaning of life for good reason.  The neurochemicals that underpin the state are among the most addictive drugs on earth.  Equally powerful is the psychological draw.  scientists who study human motivation have lately learned that after basic survival needs have been met, the combination of autonomy (the desire to direct your own life), mastery (the desire to learn, explore, and be creative), and purpose (the desire to matter, to contribute to the world) are our most powerful intrinsic drivers—the three things that motivate us most.  All three are deeply woven through the fabric of flow.  Thus toying with flow involves tinkering with primal biology: addictive neurochemistry, potent psychology, and hardwired evolutionary behaviors.  Seriously, what could go wrong?”
 

—Steven Kotler in The Rise of Superman; Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance, p158, in Ch10 entitled The Dark Side of Flow.

We're on season 3, watching the last season of Lie to Me. The first season is perhaps the best, with plenty of good information mixed in about how to read people's emotions on their faces and bodies. The second season turns into a FBI story, and the third season is more police oriented---they were trying for a larger audience but apparently didn't get it. Only dorks like me who are curious about nonverbal communication stick with it.

The lead character, Cal Lightman, is a great study in body language. I don't know the actor's name but I am impressed. He does this thing I call the "Lightman Flop" which is to say that he jumps up into the air and lands on people's couches in a sprawled position that says "I own this place" and also "climb aboard" to any attractive women. He also shows his distrust of various characters with a toothy "smile" that isn't friendly at all---it's more of a snarl, and he is showing his teeth as if to say "Look out, I bite". One other notable thing that Cal the character does is he is very relaxed, intentionally relaxed. Being able to shrug off tension, to grimace and then release the face, is something most of us could use some practice at. Watching his swaying walk and the way his mouth hangs open when he is listening carefully has me experimenting with new ways of relaxing myself, and of conveying that I am paying my full attention. One of the recent episodes in season 3 showed him training a cop to fool lie detection specialists, and the main tidbit I took from it is "relax your cheeks" and keep after it, to avoid showing emotions that you don't want to show.

There's a lot that is said out loud in this program to teach people about nonverbal cues, but there is more that is not said, it is simply modeled, and it is up to the watcher to identify it.

Everybody knows they are going to die,
but no one really believes it.
--Spalding Gray

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NO. Because we are animals. Our instinct is to be wary of creatures that are much different. Unfamiliar races are too strange to our animal selves for us to ever completely override that instinct with intellect. It would take either a LOT of evolution as a global community, or substantial racial blending and homogenization, or both, to reduce this response. It appears to me that before either of these mechanisms is complete way we will have a substantial reduction in human populations and return to a more tribal way of living which will separate us and reduce the blending of races, thus slowing or reversing the process.

Isn't it ironic that the social conservatives in the US today got they way they are by way of evolution? The disposition of being fearfully averse to strange people or unfamiliar situations is instinctive. The people who behave the most instinctively in our society are the ones who wish to deny evolution. =-]
( a couple interesting quotes, nothing on the new research here, all old stuff )

This chapter, entitled Why the worst Get on Top is from Hayek's book The Road to Serfdom. He provides a convincing argument as to why fascists keep getting control of great countries.
( read Hayek's chapter )