(85) Wrote 16 of Sapolsky's lectures out word for word in 2022 after finishing my schooling endeavors. found them that important you should too.

We think in categories. But there are these problems. The first one being that when you think in categories you underestimate how different two facts are when they fall in the same category. When you think in categories you overestimate how different they are when there happens to be a boundary in between them. And when you pay attention to categorical boundaries you don't see big pictures.

The speaker was leading neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky addressing a 2010 class in human biological behavior at Stanford. Dr Sapolsky is a leading researcher into how stress influences behavior, an endeavor that ranges from tracking brain circuitry in lab animals to studying baboons in the wild. He also possesses that rare gift of being able to communicate complex topics to the general public, with a number of highly readable mainstream books to his credit, including "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers."

Nature via Nurture

"How many people believe in free will?" he asked. He smiled. "That's going to change," he advised. Then he addressed the classic nature-nurture debate. "Who thinks human nature is all explained by nature?" he asked. "Who thinks it's all explained by nurture?" Another smile. "Who thinks there's a magnificent fascinating nuanced interaction between nature and nurture?"

The categories thing again. Thinking in categories does make it easier for us to remember stuff and evaluate stuff, Dr Sapolsky acknowledged. But there are a bunch of problems, especially if you overestimate the importance of the bucket you live inside of. "And thus everything about this behavior is explained by - a gene, a neurotransmitter, a childhood trauma, a living inside one bucket."

Human behavior is harder than that. On one hand:

Sometimes the stuff that's going on in your body can dramatically influence what's going on in your brain. (Such as the food we eat, with the notorious example of the "Twinkie defense.")

And on the other:

Sometimes what's going on in your head will affect every single outpost in your body. (Such as trying to get to sleep as you are contemplating your own mortality. Chances are your heart rate will increase.)

Rather, it's more like ...

...the intertwining, the interconnections between your physiology and your behavior, the underlying thoughts, emotions, memories, all of that, and the capacity of each to deeply influence the other under all sorts of circumstances.

Endocrinolgy? Genetics? Evolution? Development?

First, we ask - what does the behavior look like? Then we ask what went on in that organism a half-second before that behavior occurred to cause it to occur? This is the world of what's going on with neurons and circuitry, but ...

Just as we are about to get happily settled into that bucket, we push back a bit and say what smell, what sound, what sensory stimulation in the environment caused those neurons to get activated and produce that behavior?

And then push it one step further behind, to hormone levels in the blood in the last few hours that changed how sensitive you are to those sounds and smells. Then we work our way further back through early development, fetal life, the genetic make-up of an individual, the genetic makeup of an entire population species.

From an endocrinologist's perspective, Dr Sapolsky goes on to say, Hormone X may explain a behavior. But Hormone X is coded by a gene, so we're not just talking about endocrinology, anymore - we're talking about genetics. And genes are subject to selection, so we're also talking about evolution. And if we're talking about sounds and smells and so on - acute triggers for human behavior - by definition we're also talking about fetal development, which determines how sensitive those systems are to those sorts of stimuli.

Here's the pathological danger of thinking in buckets. Dr Sapolsky asks us to guess who said this:

Normal psychic life depends upon the good functioning of brain synapses, and mental disorders appear as a resultof synaptic derangements. Synaptic adjustments will then modify the corresponding ideas and force them into different channels. Using this approach we obtain cures and improvements but no failures.

The speaker was Egas Moniz, developer of the prefrontal lobotomy, speaking at the occasion of being honored with the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1949. (Yes, you read that right. No, you are not experiencing psychosis.) Adding our own spin to this, it would be very easy to attribute that statement to any leading psychiatrist bought out by the pharmaceutical industry (which would include just about all of them).

Moniz wasn't an isolated example, Sapolsky informs us. Hence the challenge of breaking out of our buckets.

Three Intellectual Challenges

The first, Dr Sapolsky tell us, is recognizing human circumstances where there is nothing fancy about us whatsoever. "Some of the time we are just a plain old off-the-rack animal." (Put two female hamsters in a cage, for instance, and their cycles will sync. Put two female humans in a dorm room together, and the same thing happens.)

The second challenge is that although we appear to be just like every animal out there, we do something different with the similarities. For instance, we get stressed by the inevitability of our mortality or by reading something awful that has happened to a child on the other side of the planet.

The flip side of this is we can have compassion and empathy for loved ones and strangers. "It's the same boring physiology as every other animal out there and we are using it in a way that is unrecognizable."

The third challenge is when we are doing something that no other animal out there has anything remotely similar to. For example - a couple comes home, talks, has dinner, talks, goes to bed, has sex, talks, falls asleep. They do this the next day and 30 days running.

"Hippos would be repulsed by this," Sapolsky lets us know. "Hardly any animal has nonreproductive sex, let alone day after day, and nobody else talks about it afterward."

The old way of looking at human behavior was by thinking of the brain as an intricate clock with pieces you can take apart and study and then put back together. But it is not as simple as that, Dr Sapolsky informs us. Behavior is more like a cloud, "and you don't understand rainfall by breaking a cloud down into its component pieces and gluing them back together."

Dr Sapolsky believes everyone on earth should be forced to learn about behavioral biology. Whether we're on a jury or voting or wondering about a family member sunk in depression, "we're behavioral biologists all the time, so it's probably a good idea we be informed ones."

Check out Dr Sapolsky's 57-minute talk on YouTube.

above credited to: John McManamy

Sapolsky shares Biopsychosocial implications of how we are socialized in our environments and many other neuroscientists suggest as well is how are neural structures become more active than others Cognition/prefrontal cortex (PFC), and Emotion/limbic center. How one adapts to the stressors are a result of the implications experienced good and bad, positive and negative leading to more prosocial behavior or a cascade of developmental issues. I believe empathy or apathy is an affect that becomes innate from these experiences allowing for more resilience or not when future negative events for example, that may lead to feelings of inadequacy when internalized feelings like shame or attachment ruptures/ emotional neglect. nonetheless, the circumstance and situational factors of experience are out of our control come at different time frames and extremes therefore, we have to stay attune to our suffering and the suffering of others through the lens of compassion to find deeper meaning is to develop; to learn, to grow, and to rise above. These conversations with ourselves, and the rationalizing that which challenges us is what develops, strengthens, the pathways that project information between the two different brain regions which also articulates which regions become more active or not. Hopefully the PFC is more active because this is the control center of the brain. Remember, it is compassion that regulates sympathetic arousal, which initiates the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis to regulate the stress response via negative feedback loops. The importance then of empathy cannot be understated in regulating stress and empathy is all about deeper meaning of our own pain and that of others, along with ridding all those stress hormones and chemicals out of the bloodstream so someone can feel less anxious which prevents being angry. This work requires understanding issues at the deeper level from the aspect of multiple fields, which is necessary to make deeper meaning through compassion so that competence prevails in understanding the broader aspect's of the issue's i.e., human condition) to prevent the issues from getting best of you; this prevents burnout. Everything Sapolsky is saying is absolutely true it is keeping the humanness in the equation. Sapolsky says, if you are going to judge a behavior you better know where the behavior is coming from especially if you are going to judge it harshly. Someone in a state of psychological rigidity- entropy may struggle with David Mcclelands (Harvard, 1966) Leader motivation syndrome (power model). The LMS type as someone who is not a happy person, likes to beat people down, expects blind loyalty and is highly disagreeable. Not difficult to see these traits are affiliated to neuroticism, and away from the five-factor personality model the person would lack the important traits that make for a person to exhibit effective leadership skills- conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness, and extroversion. No more fudging it, no more manipulation and intimidation tactics placing stagnation upon others due to one's own inability to achieve positive growth in their own life just does not cut it in the land of the free and home of the brave.

Tribalism us against them by acting out on our pain (antagonism) and take it out on others is what has become anything but stagnant nowadays but this is not the answer. It is displacement, and it may make you feel better temporarily but in the long run just creates more problems. Like Steve Covey teaches, in his "7 Habits of highly effective people" book, begins in the heading of the first chapter "inside out approach". I bought this book right after I stopped drinking in 1997 by chance and immediately integrated the habits into my daily living. I bought the tape set for a hundred dollars listened to them all the time. Years later when I went mountain bike racing in Park City, Utah, I had stopped in to Ogden Utah to Steve Covey's house right on the corner outside the campus of some university got outside of my car and put my hands on the metal fence that surrounded his home and just looked at the house for ten minutes or so. This is how much influence and appreciation that I had for a mento that I had never met but so grateful to have learned from. Nonetheless, I feel just as grateful for the contributions from researchers like Sapolsky, Huberman, Haidt, Goleman, Damasio, McEwen and so many other great philosophers, psychologists, and scientists from years gone past. I want to learn and constantly strive to be something better life is a constant learning phase of growth and development that never ends and just keeps getting better. I can only hope and wish the same for you as well. A guy couldn't try any harder some just do not see it maybe the lectures listed above and reading some books or podcasts of the people I listed above can help you reach a higher optimal level of functioning for your human organism too.

By the way Luna's underground hate group struck last night again.

Thanks guys feel better?

Nice genocidal practices, far past crazy, yes, but why bring and ruin those you cast your spell on (people your paid to be responsible for) and ruin their minds as well.

it relates to what Sapolsky says as people that have a disconnect between these brain regions that can say something is wrong but are unable to prevent themselves from doing so that are the most dangerous type. He says you don't send the fifth grader to school when he is sick, so that he does not get all the rest of the kids sick.

Anyone that has to resort to guerilla warfare has got to be lacking some tools in the shed.

make war on someone then use chemicals in the outlaw practices you engage in.

If Putin used chemical warfare in Ukraine, he would be seen as an international war criminal. Addicted to the thrill of the chase, the hunt down can't get enough of it.

Weekend of 4/6-4/7- had two experience's side effects real dehydrated upon waking Sunday morning 4/7. Then 4/8 as I write this at 2:50 AM dehydrated ears ringing and hands dry. Where do I think this evolved from last from Sunday? Shopping Costco in Norwalk shopped at a place that was patrolled by sheriffs you know who can do what ever he wants. I experienced a few things while buying the chicken that raised a red flag. But it was a chicken that died for to be eaten and what are you suppossed to do throw it away cause it may be tainted by an employee there because he was told to do so. I have a moral conscience unloke others. One thing that I was taught clearly t catholic school on a constant basis was that there are people in the world that are hungry and starving and that you should never waste food.

The rad flag I will not go into detail but someone looked like Luna walking back with nothing backwards the way I was walking out he was walking back to where the chicken was. when waiting in line for the chicken which often forms there it stopped couple people before me then they had put barely enough like 6 or so to get to me or a couple more. Then as I get closer to the register someone around where I saw the guy looked just like Luna walking back lady cleaning sweeping with a scooper bucket. As i write this had a heart fluctuating. I have had a lot of exposure with events like this not sure what is building up in my ssystem- body burden but how could I not be concerned. In 2008 -2009 when after all this began in 2007, I had multiple chemical sensitivity, led to chronic fatigue syndrome. Now i experience more symptoms like build up and an affect in my lymph system, and my stomach is taking the grunt of it as well. I really believe this guy has a program organized and geared at getting rid of people that are seen as unfavorable. Trouble is he gets to make the choice? the thinking of anyone that would partake in exercises or programs of this nature would have to be totally compromised. Driving out getting on Imperial Highway Hae a real loud car like a white durango drive past me then race it and get it all loud. It was all geared around what these sharks do- in your face I ate the food I feel it.

My take- inflated ego what many say is one of the worst most dangerous human conditions. Why? self- righteousness. The having to rub it in after writing this and an e-mail just recently as a follow-up is another sign of self-righteousness that exhibits self righteousness meaning like has to shove it in your face like what are you going to do about it. Maybe taunting but i have been dealing with this so long the more power he gets and every time he has been given a position of power these behaviors and practices begin and slowly become more extreme. Lives for it.

I mentioned before I am empathic, I find it impossible to hate anyone ever, but many people that are in an apathetic emotional state before evil sets in and are on the fence where psychologists say it is just a matter of time before something set them off before they act implosively or explosively. Someone that partakes in these behaviors that I am experiencing being directed at me is like the article states above disconnected when this happens they act on instinct through negative emotions out of the limbic area. Unresolved issues in the subconscious, lacking intuition which is the best thinking available to a human the person dishing this political violence out cannot read where another is coming from in fact they do not care. They are incapable of empathy the problem is the inability to read others therefore setting the wrong person off just creates a hazardous sitituation which an experienced professional leader should be aware of and that that is why these practices should be outlawed. I just cannot figure this guy out or wrap my head around the extreme nature of his views and practices. No limit, no line, no boundaries, no conscience he no care. It really is a narcissist abuse cycle no fun. That meal I had last night was probably the only birthday dinner I am going to have enjoyable? My hands are so dried out they hurt to type this and God only knows what the heck I ingested (i.e, I don't think so) others know. Time will tell I guess fricken animals. update 4/8/24 complete 3:38 AM