THE HUMAN BRAIN
Our brain needs a critical upgrade in order to tackle Climate Change
It was only designed for the right here right now
Our brain is a survival tool, first and foremost. A larger size brain was selected by evolution specifically because humans with larger brains had higher chances of survival. So what are some of the skills this larger brain specialised in?
Finding solutions for right here, right now
Whether it was making things like tools, getting ourselves out of dangerous situations, or improving existing processes like using fire to cook, the new brain gave us an unbelievable ability to connect different pieces of information together and be able to imagine how they interact. This “scenario modelling”, also called imagination, is what increased our chances of survival. This same creative skill propelled us into developing technology and civilisation.
But there is one catch
This new tool was not made for long-term planning. It was made for finding solutions for problems in the present. From a survival point of view, the “right here right now” is much more important than 10 years from now, or even 10 minutes from now.
If evolution had created a brain that concentrated more on the long term consequences of our actions, we would all be a civilisation of Dreamers. We would be great at imagining a future world, but we would be at risk of not surviving another day.
Dreamers may be intelligent but they don’t get to pass on their genes because they missed the obvious detail right in front of them.
From an evolutionary point of view, long term planning makes no sense whatsoever as a survival skill. If survival was the purpose of evolving a large brain, then survival is always much more urgent right here right now, than later.
Brain Priority: Get to Live Another Day
For this reason Evolution concentrated on selecting brains that were really good at literally “surviving for today”, as back in primitive times we were faced with immediate dangers almost on a daily basis. There was never a “day off” chilling at home watching Netflix and reading Medium stories.
Evolution selected a brain that could help us take care of the problems in the present. If we don’t survive Today, there is no point in thinking about the Future.
The Incredible Limitations of Evolution
Furthermore, Evolution can only respond to current circumstances, not future ones.
Evolution only selects genes and gene mutations to suit the current environment and ensure survival “for today”: the current predators, dangers, and climatic and living conditions. We are only as good as our last “working” version.
In fact, evolution is always playing a catch-up game with time, and is terribly inefficient at that. Selecting and eliminating mutations takes many, many generations. Most extinction events happened because conditions changed so suddenly that species were unable to adapt.
This is precisely the problem Humans are facing. The climate, as well as the artificial civilisation humans have created, are changing way too fast for both our bodies and our brains to evolve and become more forward-thinking, more visionary in order to avert the catastrophe ahead.
A War Between Two Brains
Of course the problem arises when the solution our brain has put together for surviving Today actually comes in conflict with surviving Tomorrow. This is the problem we have today. All of our “survival mechanisms” have short term benefits but long term punishing consequences: resource depletion, consumerism, elimination of other species and habitats to make more space for humans, all have tremendously positive effects in the short term.
This is a war between two brains: The brain of Today, and the brain of Tomorrow. It is very clear who’s winning.
We may think we are intelligent, and we are indeed when it comes to seeing patterns in data, putting together models, and identifying solutions. But overriding all of this is the primitive Survival Brain. The same brain that led Nobel Prize economists across the world to conclude that there is no Financial Crisis on the way. All those sub prime mortgages will somehow get paid off.
Even the climate scientist who knows what is coming will surrender to reality and go home every night to their kids, earn their salary, and focus on getting to live another day.
We may be creating next generation iphones but we are still using Humans V 1.0 when we should be on V 5.0 by now. Climate Change will not be solved using old hardware.
Denial and other Coping Mechanisms
The irresistible urge to focus on right here right now is seen in many of our survival mechanisms. We seek instant gratification in unhealthy foods, drugs, and other habits because they make us feel good right here, right now.
Denial is just a way to put off responsibility and for our brain to select between danger right now and danger later.
We choose to live for the Now, even though this might hurt us later. It seems that this may be part of our Survival Brain’s programming.
What is the solution?
Obviously we cannot get brain transplants. But what we can do is try to tap into the parts of our brain that are most imaginative, creative, spiritual, visionary. We can try and hijack our “right here, right now” strategies to serve the Future by linking them to specific rewards: in this case, our salvation.
At the moment most of us still have no sense of the danger ahead and how the Present links into the Future. If we manage to make this link then there is hope.
If we also mindfully tap into our cognitive failures we can begin to address them.
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