Tom's Views

Dear [Mentat],

I’ve seen the imaging pictures of the head during various sorts of   brain use.  These images appear to me show that just about all of the brain is used through the course of the day, whether you’re a janitor or a Nobel Prize-winning physicist. The images imply that most all the neurons keep busy doing   something   if not aiding conscious thought and performance.  These pictures would seem to debunk the   ten percent myth,  that says that humans only utilize twenty percent of their brain matter for beneficial thinking.

I should have said in the post that sparked this discussion, that we utilize only ten or twenty percent of our mental potential, which is quite different than the percentage of neurons that fire within the brain. Of course, even this exact figure is difficult to prove, even for the experts. I might have said, instead of using an exact percentage, that humans have vastly unrealized mind potential and left it at that. That would have done just as well to help further the argument I was making and show why I do not believe in the ten percent myth.

There’s a process that runs on all Windows-based computers called the ‘idle’ process. It’s part of the operating system and contains essentially an infinite loop. When the CPU is not executing instructions from desktop programs, drivers, the kernel, handling interrupt requests from peripherals, and such, it switches context to the “idle” program. Though in terms of   real   work the CPU is indeed idle in this state, it is nonetheless, still busy executing instructions as it spins around in this idle-process infinite loop. This would be akin to a car engine that idles with the transmission in the “park” position. The engine may not be pulling the car anywhere, but its spark plugs, fuel injector system, sensors, computer modules, battery, and such are still operating. Its crank shaft still spins, it still consumes gas (though not as much), and it still makes noise and exhaust. As well, the CPU is still   running   a program even when it’s considered to be idle by the operating system.  Contrary to the ten percent myth, the human brain is also fully at work even if we cannot yet exactly attribute specific brain functions to each and every brain cell.

If you could do the type of imaging on a CPU as is typically done for the brain, you’d find that most of the CPU electronics are ”busy” even when no real work is being done. The same for the car engine so long as you don’t turn the key off. The only time that the CPU is truly idle is after it executes a STOP instruction or when powered off. But this doesn’t happen normally because in order to get it running again, you must reboot, a notably undesirable occurrence. The only time a car is truly idle is when you turn the key off. And of course, you’d need to start it up again make it run more, idle or not. The brain seems to work much like these simpler systems.

From what little I know of the brain, it functions in many ways much like the CPU. There are indeed neural activities going on throughout the brain all of the time, even when it sleeps, insufficiently challenged, or otherwise idle. Imaging would show the car engine busy though the car is standing still, so long as the engine is running. It would also show the CPU as busy though no meaningful programs are being run.

So the imaging may show activity in the object under examination. But it does not tell us how much real work the system is accomplishing or whether the true potential of the system is in fact being utilized maximally. Clearly, the idling car is capable of moving at speeds of up to one hundred twenty miles per hour and beyond. The engine may appear busy in the pictures but clearly when it’s idling and out of gear the car’s potential is mostly untapped. Likewise, the CPU could process gigabytes of data per second if allowed to run an appropriate program for doing that. In fact, the images of a CPU doing real work wouldn’t look much different than those of a CPU just executing the idle process. And the brain? Well, we still don’t know what its upper limits really are even if the images say that all its neurons are firing. A fully active brain in the neural sense by no means implies a fully-utilized, actualized brain.  The ten percent myth has never been shown to be true, and cannot be, just by examining brain scans.

Some suggest that one-hundred-percent-busy neurons means a one-hundred-percent-utilized brain. But this is clearly not the case. While scolarly skeptics refute well the ten percent myth, they unfortunately do less well at establishing that the brain is fully used. Admittedly, there is much imprecision here in the word definitions. Just the word “utilized” seems to take on multiple meanings in this global discussion. So we may be debating apples and oranges.

But I’ll certainly refrain from mentioning exact percentages of brain utilization in the future. I certainly wouldn’t want to give any credence to the psychics’ position that very little of the gray matter inside our heads does anything at all to help define the sorts of people we are.

Tom Hesley

References

• Ten Percent Myth    explanation on Wikipedia

I received the piece below from [Emmy] in a comment for another blog post.  But this was so well expressed that I though it deserved main post status here on my blog.  This mirrors my feelings about America’s overuse of   makeup and cosmetics   to increase chances of finding true love.  She details how makeup not only creates false beauty standards, and how its use might not be honest.  But she further explains how the women who wear copious amounts of it hurt the feelings of those who wish not to fuss with cosmetics.   Is a person who wears makeup really any further ahead of one who does not?  [Emmy] has a definite opinion about that.  Enjoy.

——

Dear Tom,

I agree with you that having   makeup   and the latest fashion only gets you so far in a relationship.  You could be totally ugly under all that stuff.  On the contrary, you could be as beautiful as the model on the run way, but have a nasty, unattractive streak in you.  As the saying goes “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.   I believe this with all my heart.  Having the best cosmetics and the latest styles will only get you as far as a few dates if you’re lucky.  But when you reach the second date and beyond, the reality of how you really look to the other person intrudes, and they may not like the unvarnished you. 

Well I know all too well about how the cosmetic industry works.  You can’t turn on the TV and not notice the cosmetic commercials for makeup and clothing flashing before your eyes.  You have to wonder.  What are they trying to say to the average Joe, that you’re ugly unless you wear our products?  Many people could argue this.  In fact I’ve always felt uncomfortable watching these commercials because they emphasize that I’m not good enough as a person unless I wear these products.  I also don’t feel comfortable around people who fuss about how they look.  What the heck I don’t even worry about this kind of stuff.  Sure, I like to look nice but not at the expense of my wallet.  I guess being on a limited income teaches you not to be too greedy with the luxuries of the cosmetic and fashion industry.

I don’t think of myself as a beautiful person, even though I hear it quite often from people on the street, close friends and my boyfriend.  I have always assumed that by using these products, you would attract more dates as well as make yourself feel more beautiful.  By wearing this stuff you prove to society that you’re imperfect and that the products will make you flawless.  I feel like a plain Jane on the street because I don’t fuss over my hair, clothes, or put on makeup.  I know that makeup would probably hide some of my complexion issues that affect me on a daily basis.  I would be deceiving others in what I truly look like.  Sure there’s more to someone than just their looks but I don’t believe that by using makeup and wearing flashy clothes enhances your chances on getting a great relationship from a man. 

I don’t have to do anything to get noticed by men.  I just wear my casual clothing and go about my business.  It’s not like I got any more noticed by wearing flashy clothes or makeup.  In fact there are quite a number of women who hide their facial imperfections with foundation and other cosmetic products.  When my boyfriend and I first met each other, I was curious what drew him to me, it’s not like I had the flashiest clothes or wore makeup.  In fact I just wore casual clothing, ranging from t-shirts, sweat shirts, to jeans and sneakers.  In fact this is how I feel most comfortable when presenting myself to others. 

I’m already hard on myself for not being as beautiful as the girl on the street but no matter how much advice I get from friends and loved ones it doesn’t change my mind.  I want to look like everyone else.  I’m not happy with my looks, some people just laugh at me because they think that I’m gorgeous.  A lot of men probably wouldn’t mind dating me, because they like what they see.  No matter how much fashion or cosmetics I might use, I will never see myself the way that others see me.  In fact, I feel just as plain and ugly with all of the glamorous products, as without them. 

Does a person actually feel more beautiful by wearing all of this crap?  I don’t think so.  They probably just do it because everyone else is doing it, and they don’t want to look awkward.  Their opinion of themselves is probably still there, and they believe that by wearing this stuff, it will boost up their confidence.  It might make you seem more confident to others, but at the end of the day, you are you.  You can lose weight, and change your hair etc all you want but you can’t change others opinions about how they feel about you. 

True beauty comes from within not only yourself but whoever is viewing you.  This is a constant struggle for me because I’m always telling other women how unattractive I am.  Don’t think that makeup and clothes can make others fall in love with you because that’s all in your mind.  The makeup must come off eventually.  So why not reveal your true and honest self to others to begin with?  At least if you show your true self early on, you’re not sending wrong signals about yourself or misleading anyone about how you really look underneath all that goop. 

Men and women alike, appreciate someone who is honest. Right?  So why don’t we all just be honest, and share our true natural selves with others?  If they don’t like us for who we truly are, than who needs them?  We just have to find someone who can accept us for the real us and not the false us.  People like honesty and they like to surround themselves with these types of people.  Let the cosmetics and fashion industry do what they will.  But we need not enslave ourselves to their products.  In the long run I don’t think we’re any better if we wear makeup. People will always judge us, yes.  But we just have to believe that we’re still worth it, even without the cosmetics.  Few people get truly happier by using makeup.

Emmy

Related Posts

• Against Makeup
• Does Makeup Really Work?
• To Find A Good Man, Be Yourself
• True Beauty, Not Makeup, Wins True Love

Many   makeup   and cosmetics commercials dishonestly convey an exceedingly unrealistic and dangerous ideal of how people are supposed to look to society.  Makeup distorts the notion of what   true beauty   actually is, and results in frequent mistaking a false, short-duration love for lasting and thus, true love.  The way makeup and clothing manufacturers pedal their wears really irks me. They seem to be saying that one is not whole or worthy of being loved unless s/he wears their junk on their faces, or garments on their bodies. Why do they do it, and have so many people buy in? Perhaps due to the same reason that the ANT, needs the chocolate covering to appear appetizing, right? Perhaps makeup enables a person to exaggerate their good looks, just as a chocolate coating makes an ant delicious to eat.

I do not believe in keeping things a mystery by hiding behind a face of makeup until it is too late to turn back. That’s a classic bait-and-switch ploy. Generally, I’m romantically unimpressed by a lady’s skill with makeup; I’d rather know what she looks like without the shimmer and glamour of cosmetics so that I can learn straight away if I’m capable of falling in love with the real her.

Many spend so much time faking their beauty that they never learn how to show off their true beauty comfortably. Here, the ant tastes better, minus the chocolate. Rouges, powders, oils, buffers, foundations, mascara, and any other cosmetics may cover true age, hide blemishes, and accentuate one’s desirable features while downplaying the less interesting ones. But makeup cannot very long obscure the truly (or not) loveable parts of a lady; that whole part of her that once revealed, includes blemishes and all. It’s this whole part revealed that makes men and women (at least, those of substance) fall in love if they’re going to.

Such disguises confuse the issue however, by creating fake beauty and dysfunction in relationships. They trick our innocent bystander into swallowing the ant without knowing the true nature of the morsel beforehand. The chocolate hides the “anty” nature of the ant until it’s too late, just as makeup hides a woman’s true beauty until a man becomes too emotionally involved with her to pull away.

What these makeup lovers may not realize is that any love lust they create in another with their visual slights of hand, lasts only as long as the makeup stays in place. Eventually the cosmetics come off though, revealing the true beauty or lack there of. I’m turned if I find that makeup has been used to hoodwink me, because hiding one’s true appearance shows the change artist to be dishonest.

Ideally, men and women would meet wearing absolutely nothing – no clothes, no makeup, no cosmetics, and thus, no pretense. We’d see nothing but them in their unabashed entirety. This would simplify figuring out whom we might or might not love, because we’d see everyone’s true beauty, right up front. Since true beauty lasts, while the fake beauty that comes from makeup does not, we could more remaining attracted to a potential lover much longer than the false love lust that makeup use often generates. Why? The visual impressions that encourage love at first sight would not as likely vanish; not like they do when the skillful application of makeup inspires the love, but then comes off. Love then, would last longer than the first sighting, and in fact, become love at many sightings, an indefinite number in fact.

Since love that lasts looks a lot more like true love than the short-lived attractions for which makeup is often responsible, it hard to ignore the notion that true beauty, not makeup, wins true love. Find love without makeup, and chances are that the love you find will last, and thus, be more true.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Against Makeup
• Does Makeup Really Work?
• Find True Love For Lasting Happiness
• Finding True Love Gives Lasting Pleasure
• Love At First Sight Usually Fades At Second
• Why Men Cheat And Lie
• Why Resist Love At First Sight?

Can we undo the mental changes that occur in response to traumatic or otherwise   bad experiences? 

I think not.  The   life experience   might be a poor workplace, team member, learning problem, customer argument, relationship trouble, or other painful life experience.  But if we learn how to avoid it later, desensitize ourselves to it, or simply to do better next time, then that bad life experience has taught us good lessons. 

Once we’ve learned what we could from a bad life experience, we cannot return to what we were before.  Perhaps in the distant future, humans will learn to completely undo the harmful sorts of trauma to which bad experiences subject us.  Perhaps one day, we’ll be able to purge all memory of the bad experience and any subsequent interpretations of other experiences because of it, from our brains.  Further, we may someday learn to erase the bad experience from the brains of those around us who witnessed our folly.  Obviously, we cannot yet affect such a complete memory erasing of the brain, nor the brains around us. Maybe we should not want to either.

Indeed, each and every one of my bad experiences in life has taught me many enduring and very good lessons; lessons that that have steered my subsequent life in positive directions.  Thus I’ve found that yes, bad experiences teach good lessons, though at the time, they might not feel like it.  Yet over time, once I’ve distanced myself from said bad experiences, I’m actually glad to have experienced them.  Why?  Because I would not have whatever level of goodness about me that there is, without all those bad experiences that came before now.   Chances are that when we behave good in a given situation, it’s likely that we do so because of those good lessons we learned from our bad experiences.  So don’t be sad over all those bad experiences you’ve suffered, because each one imparts the gifts of good lessons to you, and you’ll be happier in the future because of it. 

Tom Hesley

Here are just a few of the many pro gay marriage arguments I support, to promote greater freedom for everyone to marry the person of their dreams and thus, attain greater overall happiness and satisfaction with life.

I wonder if the (currently) 50% divorce rate will drop as same-sex marriage becomes normal. Indeed, with less pressure for gays to marry opposite-sexed partners, fewer “bad” matches would occur. More people could actually marry the folks they love instead of those who society thinks they should marry. So the overall success rates of marriage would likely rise should we support same sex marriage freedom.

Now allowing gay marriage would not necessarily bring out every gay person still in the closet. Nor would this be the only reason that they’d come out if they were allowed to do it. But a pro gay marriage attitude in society would remove one more barrier to acceptance and equality which, over time, would encourage gays to be more openly honest about their sexual preferences. Gay folks would feel less defeated and more respected and empowered to make the sorts of choices that could really enhance their happiness. Gays would indeed be more willing to say, “I’m gay” if we create a society that respects the rights of gays, and allows them to form a same-sex marriage. Supporting gay marriage would be one potent way to further chip away at prevailing prejudices.

Allowing gay marriage would also send a message to the extreme homophobes that society is unwilling to tolerate their bigotry and hate crimes against gays. Can this be denied? I see this as irrefutably logical.

Universal equality and acceptance is an ideal for which to strive. But like most ideals, is not fully realizable. I understand that. Nonetheless, the effort to achieve it is valuable. If not for the long-term goal of universal equality, or at least, of some incremental step along that path as in equal rights for women, these landmark societal developments might never have happened; or at least, they’d have taken far longer than they did to come about. I know we’ll never achieve complete fairness and justice for all. But nonetheless, it’s what we (should) aspire to do, because over time historically, we do in fact move closer to the ideal, even if we’ll never reach it. We simply can’t afford to give up the ideal just because it seems unattainable. That would be monumentally dangerous for society indeed.

Complete gay acceptance is an ideal though, and as such, perhaps may not be immediately practical. Still, that’s not excuse to give up the fight for it. We should keep striving for full equality and acceptance, even in light of the possibility that total approval for all lifestyles will never occur. In fact, there is still lots we can do to become more fully accepting of gays. Supporting same sex marriage freedom is just one positively impacting change we could easily make. Doing so would further reduce the institutionalized bigotry and   prejudice   that has so plagued the gay community for centuries. True, we might never reach this complete equality for all goal. But we can at least practice it to a much higher degree than it is currently by legalizing gay marriage

The ability to treat all behaviors equally (universal acceptance) is not exclusively a matter of eliminating all oppression. But we’ll never achieve universal acceptance as long as prejudice-based oppression continues as a functional component in our collective societal belief system. It’s true that blind oppression is not the only reason that inequality pervades our society. But nonetheless, it does contribute a great deal to that state of affairs. So the more completely we can rid ourselves of blindly oppressive behaviors, the better, and again, allowing same-sex marriage would enlighten us further and carry us further down the road toward universal respect, acceptance, and equality.

Now it’s right to discourage certain behaviors that are demonstrably detrimental to society, such as murder, dating active drug addicts, teaching people to hate instead of love, to name a few. But other deeds are not so clearly harmful, including the allowance of gay marriage. Gays marrying gays has been shown to harm nobody.

Even the supporters of that Proposition 8 bill in California supplied no real proof that their predictions of gloom and doom would indeed happen if society was to legalize gay marriage. Indeed, all these anti gay rights activists could offer were religious dogma and personal preference against homosexuals. They showed no research that proves that gay marrying causes a lowering of life expectancy, creates more unlawful children, destabilizes communities, and so on. Opponents of same sex marriage made no objective case at all. So the California judge ruled against them. Hopefully, the rest of the appellate system will do the same.

Allow same-sex marriage and support those who seek it I ask you, and you begin to dismantle the systems that support the bigoted bullying that’s hurt so many for so long. I support same sex marriage freedom all the way, and I sincerely hope that eventually all of my readers will too.

Tom Hesley

Related Posts

• Support Gay Marriage Rights
• Thoughts On Bigotry