Researchers have developed an economic game in which a participant is confronted with the fair behavior of one player and the unfair provocations of another player. They observed which areas were activated as the participant experienced unfairness and anger. Then scientists gave the participant the opportunity to take revenge. They thus identified the location in the brain of activations that are related to the suppression of the act of revenge in the dorsolateral prefontal cortex. [1] We believe it is our brain (not us) which makes us do things. Our brain makes us want revenge. Our brain suppresses the revenge desire. But a rock cannot want revenge from another rock. A pile of dirt cannot forgive another pile of dirt. And the more we try to use our brain the more we distance our self from what makes us us. We hold in high esteem actions like performing mathematics or playing chess. And yet, what we think as the “finest” acts of humans, like mathematics and chess, can easily be conducted by (lifeless) computers. It is the simple little things which prove our greatness. Things which cannot be attributed to anything physical. Things more simple than a rock and yet more complex than the most complex quantum computer. The quarrel with your kid. The kiss after the quarrel is over. A hug. A smile. You are God. Complete in your incompleteness. Powerful in your weakness. Greatest than the greatest lifeless universe. It is the little things you need to concentrate on. There is nothing bigger, is it?
(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…
(c) Philosophy WIRES - Commenting world news from philosophy's perspective…
