Why spend time studying wisdom? Charles Munger gives a compelling reason: "I think it's a huge mistake not to absorb elementary worldly wisdom if you're capable of doing it because it makes you better able to serve others, it makes you better able to serve yourself and it makes life more fun.. .I'm passionate about wisdom. I'm passionate about accuracy and some kinds of curiosity."
This book is for those who love the constant search for knowledge. I have focused on explaining timeless ideas. The number of pages I have devoted to each idea does not reflect on its importance. My goal is to lay the foundation.
16th Century Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes said: "He that publishes a book runs a very great hazard, since nothing can be more impossible than to compose one that may secure the approbation of every reader." You may feel that much has been ignored and what is left has been exaggerated. Since I am writing this, I take full responsibility for the content. Any mistakes or inaccuracies are my responsibility. If you, the reader, are convinced that I am dearly wrong about anything in this book, please send me an e-mail at the address given in the beginning of the book.
I have cited quotations from a wide range of sources. Some books and material have been especially useful. Obviously, books about Charles Darwin. Also speeches and reports from Charles Munger and Warren Buffett. Most of these quotes are excerpted text from the excellent newsletter, Outstanding Investor Digest. The reader should refer to the source note section for the source of the excerpt. Robert Cialdini, Regents Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University, gives an excellent summary of findings in social psychology in his great book Influence. Psychology Professors Daniel Kahneman and the late Amos
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Tversky's work on decision-making has also been useful. Richard Feynman (1918-1988), perhaps the most brilliant and influential physicist of modern times, was also a spellbinding teacher. I love his books and autobiographies. The late Human Ecology Professor Garrett Hardin is one of my favorites. His books are treasures and offer many ways for dear thinking. I have also been fortunate to visit the Neurosciences Institute in California. Every time I'm there, I learn something new about how our brain works.
I sometimes write in terms of "we", and other times I address "you", the reader. Just remember, "you" includes me, the writer. Italian mathematician and philosopher Gian-Carlo Rota's said in Indiscrete Thoughts: "The advice we give others is the advice that we ourselves need."
Instead of writing "he" or "she", I have used "he". To quote the British zoologist, Professor of the public understanding of Science at Oxford University, Richard Dawkins from The Blind"Watchmaker: "I may refer to the 'reader' as 'he', but I no more think of my readers as specifically male than a French speaker thinks of a table as female."
Let's start the journey for wisdom. I hope it will be inspiring.
Peter Bevelin April 2003
The Second Edition
The Second Edition has no major changes. Two short paragraphs have been added to Part One regarding sources of genetic variation and the benefits of bacteria. Otherwise, there are only minor clarifications. I have also corrected a few mistakes in the text.
January 2005
The Third Edition
The Third Edition has been revised. Some of the content in Part Two has been rearranged. New material has been added to all Parts.
February 2007
IV
- PART ONE -
WHAT INFLUENCES OUR THINKING?
And men should know that from nothing else but from the brain come joys, laughter and jests, and sorrows, grief, despondency and lamentations. And by this ... we acquire wisdom and knowledge, and we see and hear and know what are foul and what are fair, what sweet and what unsavory... and by the same organ we become mad and delirious and fears and terrors assail us.
- Hippocrates (Greek physician 460-377 BC)
- ONE -
OUR ANATOMY SETS THE LIMITS FOR OUR BEHAVIOR
To understand the way we think and why we make misjudgments, we must first determine what influences our behavior.
Why can't we fly?
To do what we do today demands the proper anatomical foundation. To fly we need wings. To walk we need legs, to see we need eyes, and to think we need a brain. Our anatomy, physiology and biochemistry are the fundamental bases for our behavior.
If we change anatomy, we change behavior. Birds can't fly if their wings are
located in an area where no bones are present to anchor them. Apes can't talk because they need speech organs and these must be positioned in a certain way. For example, a small change in how our speech organs are positioned could make speech impossible.
Another example on how a change in anatomy changes behavior comes from the Neurosciences Institute in California. In one experiment, scientists took a small portion of developing brain tissue from a quail and put it into the same spot of a chicken embryo. When the chick hatched, it had both quail and chicken nerve cells. Depending on what cells were transplanted, the results were either a chicken that crowed like a quail or a chicken that bobbed its head like a quail.
Studies have also shown that damage to a part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex (lying behind the forehead and eyes), results in a tendency to show a high degree of disrespect for social norms, including violent behavior. A classic example is that of railway construction foreman Phineas Gage. In 1848, he was victim of an explosion that drove an iron rod through the frontal region of his brain, damaging his prefrontal cortex. Before the accident he was considered stable, dependable, industrious, and friendly. Phineas survived the accident, but his personality changed. He became a drifter who was unreliable, arrogant, impulsive and inconsiderate.
Other studies show that damage to the amygdala- a region of the brain, linked with emotional states and social behavior - reduces the tendency to feel and
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respond to fear. Stimulating the amygdala can elicit intense emotional reactions. In 1966, Charles Whitman killed 14 people and wounded 38 from the clock tower at the University of Texas, Austin. An autopsy revealed he had a tumor pressing against his amygdala.
It is our brain, its anatomy, physiology and biochemistry and how these parts function that set the limits for how we think. But since our brain's parts also interact with our body's anatomy, physiology and biochemistry, we must see brain and body together. They are part of the same system - us.
Let's consider the anatomy of our brains to get a better understanding of what influences our behavior.
What we feel and think depends on neural connections
A lot is known about the brain, but far from everything. There are many controversies and unanswered questions.
Nobel Laureate Dr. Gerald Edelman, director of the Neurosciences Institute says:
The brain is the most complicated material object in the known universe. If you attempted to count the number of connections, one per second, in the mantle of our brain (the cerebral cortex), you would finish counting 32 million years later. But that is not the whole story. The way the brain is connected - its neuroanatomical pattern - is enormously intricate. Within this anatomy a remarkable set of dynamic events take place in hundredths of a second and the number oflevels controlling these events, from molecules to behavior, is quite large.
Weighing only three pounds, the brain is composed of at least 100 billion nerve cells or neurons. It also contains tens of billions of other cells called glial cells supporting neurons. Neurons are connected to other neurons and interact. Each neuron has a cell body with tiny branches called dendrites that receive information from other neurons. Extending from the cell body is long fibers called axons that send information to other neurons.
Since it is the connections between neurons that cause our mental capacities, it is not the number of cells that is important but the number of potential connections between them.
How do neurons connect and communicate?
Every neuron can connect with other neurons at contact points, th
e space between one neuron and another, called synapses. When a neuron fire an electrical impulse down the axon, the impulse is released as a chemical substance
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called a neurotransmitter. When this chemical reaches the dendrite of another neuron it triggers an electrical impulse. Thereafter a series of chemical reactions begins. Some stimulation must happen for the neuron to fire. The strength of this firing and what kind of neurotransmitter is released depends on the incoming stimuli.
How does the neurotransmitter cause the electrical impulse? On the surface of the receiving neuron are proteins called receptors and every receptor is tailor made for a specific chemical. The chemical acts as a key, and the receptor, or the lock, only "lets in" the right chemical.
Why does it feel good when our loved ones give us a kiss or a compliment?
It is the neurotransmitter dopamine that is being released. Dopamine is involved in the brain's reward and motivation system, and in addiction. High levels of dopamine are believed to increase feelings of pleasure and relieve pain.
Another neurotransmitter is serotonin. Serotonin is linked with mood and emotion. Too much stress can lead to low levels of serotonin and low levels are associated with anxiety and depression. What happens when we take an antidepressant drug? The drug increases the amount of serotonin in our brain. The drug mimics the structure of serotonin. Antidepressants don't make us happy; they just treat the state of unhappiness. Observe that even if neurotransmitters and the drugs that affect them alter our mental functions, they are part of a complicated system of interactions between molecules, cells, synapses, and other systems, including life experiences and environmental factors.
So far we know that the brain is a chemical system, and that neurons commu nicate with each other through the release of neurotransmitters (chemicals that carry messages between neurons). What we think and feel depends on chemical reactions. And these chemical reactions are a function of how our neurons connect. What determines how these neurons connect and their patterns? Our genes and life experiences, situational or environmental conditions, and a degree of
randomness.
Genes control brain chemistry but are turned on and off by the environment
What is a gene? What does it do?
Genes are what makes an individual, for example, to be built with two blue eyes, two arms, one nose, and a brain with certain architecture.
Our body is made up of different types of interconnected cells functioning together. Each cell has 46 chromosomes or a chain of genes. 23 chromosomes come from each parent. Every chromosome is made up of the chemical DNA or
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deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is our inheritance; half is from our father and half from our mother. Genes are segments of our DNA and the units of our inheritance. A gene consists of four chemical molecules: adenine, cytosine, guanine, thymine or A, C, G and T joined together in a chain. The short chemical name for a chain of any number of these molecules, in any order, is DNA. The order of these molecules provides coded instructions for everything a cell does.
The job of genes is to make proteins - the building blocks oflife. Proteins are molecules that carry out most of our biological functions and are made up of amino acids. There are twenty kinds of amino acids that can be used to make our skin, hair, muscles, etc. Some proteins called enzymes cause certain chemical reactions. One example is neurotransmitters. Proteins are also hormones that act as messengers between our cells.
Sometimes a gene is "switched off" and can't make proteins. Messenger RNA is a genetic material that translates DNA into specific proteins. The Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2006, discovered a mechanism called RNA interference that could "switch off" a gene by blocking this process. RNA interference plays a key role in our defenses against viral infections.
Recent studies also suggest that genes do more than make proteins. For example, there is a gene in yeast that turns on and off another protein-producing gene without making any protein itself
Every living thing uses the same genetic code - from cats to humans. This means we can transfer a single human gene into a cat and the cat "can read it" and follow its instructions. But no individual has the same DNA or the same versions of genes (except for identical twins). Not all things are "spelled" alike. That's why people differ in eye color, height, etc. The closer related one living thing is to another, the fewer spelling differences. But even if the differences are small, gene expression - where and when they are turned on or off and for how long - is the key. As an example take our closest relative - the chimpanzee. Genetic studies show that humans and chimpanzees share at least 94% of their DNA sequences. This means that less than 6% of our DNA is responsible for the traits that make us different from chimpanzees. What causes the large difference in behavior? Studies show that the human brain shows strikingly different patterns of gene expression compared to the chimpanzee's brain.
Since we inherit all of our genes from our parents, why don't we look like a mixture of them?
In most organisms, genes come in pairs. We inherit two versions of each gene for
a particular trait (for example one version for blue eyes and one for brown eyes)
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from each parent. When a father and mother's genes combine, the effect of one gene may dominate the effect of the other. Certain characteristics are dominant. This is why a child who has one parent with blue eyes and one with brown doesn't have eyes that are a blend of blue and brown. The child has brown eyes because the brown-eyed gene won the race. Blue eyes are recessive. But since the child inherited the blue-eyed gene, it could still be passed on to future generations. Since the recombination of the versions happens by chance, they can always produce a new combination. On the other hand, if both the child's parents have blue eyes, the child has no choice but to be blue-eyed.
Some versions of genes are dominant, in some cases they blend, and sometimes we'll see an equal expression of both versions. Since several pairs of genes govern most traits, lots of combinations are possible.
Interaction and flexibility characterize our biological functions
Does each gene have its own specific part to play?
No, we can't isolate one gene as causing something or arrange them in order of importance. They are part of an interconnected system with many possible combinations. And most genes contribute to more than one characteristic. Genes can have different effects, depending on where, when and how they are switched on. Interaction is a fundamental property in biology. There are interactions between molecules, genes, neurons, brain regions, cells, organs and among these individual systems. Each system does its own job but they are all coordinated to produce a functional and unique individual.
But doesn't the left and right side of the brain have different functions? Dr. Ralph Greenspan at the Neurosciences Institute says:
... although in some sense it's poetic to speak of a "right brain/left brain'' difference. The fact of the matter is that things that are "right brain" are really happening everywhere and things that are "left brain" are really happening everywhere. There are certain aspects ofit that may be more biased to one side versus another, but the brain is not highly localized in any sense at all. Everything that ever happens in your brain is happening as a unification of many, many, many areas at once.
He continues:
Isaac Newton might have liked the neat view of biological systems made up of dedicated components, with causal roles that can be studied in isolation, and in which particular conditions give rise to uniquely predictable responses. Charles Darwin, by contrast, might
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have felt more at home with the idea of a complex, emergent system made up of many non-identical components, with non-exclusive roles, non-exclusive relationships, several ways of producing any given output, and a great deal of slop along the way.
The most striking result of our interactive network is flexibility. A flexibility to take on new roles as conditions changes and an ability to pr
oduce the same result in different ways. For example, studies show that different configurations between neurons can achieve the same result. The configuration depends on which alternatives that are available at a given moment in a given situation (since behavior depends on context or situation), an individual's life experiences and an element of chance. Having alternative ways of producing the same outcome gives us a great benefit. For example, we can compensate for injuries and readapt to new conditions.
Do our genes have a lift of their own?
No, gene expression depends on environmental conditions. Genes control the chemistry in the brain but need to be activated by the environment. An environmental event must switch them on, or modify their level of activity, before they can start making proteins that influence neural connections. Our genes determine if we inherit a particular characteristic but it is the environment that causes our genes to make proteins that produce certain "response tendencies." So our behavior emerges from the mutually dependent activity of genetic and environmental factors.
Seeking Wisdom Page 2
