The Neurodivergent Professor

For the past twenty-some Episodes, I have been trying to figure out how to formulate my current question of interest.

Generally, I am trying to make the case that Nature provides a wealth of information. Further, I am pleading with humankind to CONSULT nature when making decisions. Especially decisions that affect our species' or planets' health.

I have used evolution and natural selection (with DNA being the mechanism) as filters, of sorts, that approve or disprove of various biological elements.

If something persists in nature through time, we can draw a safe conclusion that this has passed some sort of test.

If a biological feature exists, and persists, we may conclude that this feature is important.

These features, and the mere existence of biological elements, are evidence of their value.

That forms the basis of evolutionary biology, ecology, and arguably multiple religious and/or spiritual systems of thinking.

The leap I am trying to make here, and over much of KEW, is that this part of Nature, this WEALTH OF INFORMATION, might be used as a reference for human decision-making.

Stand on the shoulders of giants. 

Why not consult the natural world when we are asking new questions, addressing old problems, or considering which path to take to the future?

Can we not SEE that nature has been down these roads before?

I argue here that part of our problem is the idea of duality. 

Humans often, and increasingly so, see ourselves as being SEPARATE FROM Nature. 

We are one of many, many biological elements.

Further, as I will discuss in Episode 124, we see ourselves as separate from ONE ANOTHER.

I hope this Episode better explains my thinking and that you might join the conversation.

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While this is not a definitive treatise on Systems Thinking, I wanted to talk a bit about this topic as it is relevant to many of my posts.

People tell me that out-of-the-box thinking is atypical. Most people seem to think of the world in simplified, or at least minimized relationships. For example, you might think your job sucks. When thinking about how to change that or do something about it, you might think about why your job sucks. Many will simply decide that they are unlucky, or a victim. That's a simple model that has two variables. Your job and your victimhood. The energy flows from one to the other or even between them.

In reality, your job probably sucks for many reasons and not the least of which is your attitude. I have personal experience with this as I had a job I hated and decided sucked. Once I finally quit, another person took the job. This person appears to be very happy and content with the job. Does the job still suck? What changed?

Of course, the flip side of the simplified model or approach to life is an overly complex one. Neither approach is appealing because it is either too simple and thus inaccurate, or too complex and thus overwhelming.

As usual the Goldilocks approach prevails where we understand enough about our world and whatever topic is of interest (e.g., your job) to be comfortable in the world. 

To me, a model with a handful of critical variables is often 'enough' to understand the world and make good decisions. Overly complicated models are for engineers and academics, having little value to regular people.

Systems thinking is just an idea that says we can look at our world as having a handful-to-many interacting parts. At the very least systems thinking suggests that things are usually not as simple as we tend to make them, but things are also not as complicated. 

For those of you more interested in Systems Thinking, here is a link to the definitive starter book. 

For a brief introduction and my thoughts about transitioning from an overly simplified approach to decision-making and understanding to a more resolute and informed method, please watch or listen!

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I'm revisiting some of my favorite concepts in this episode. Awareness. Intent. Attention. Consciousness. Will. And how these things work together and facilitate growth. Being human. 

Underneath all of this, I believe that growing to be a 'better' human is a critical requirement of being alive. 
Or, if it is not a requirement, it is a meaningful element whose absence is a shame if not a failure.

We are all humans, subject to the distractions of life. We can become addicted. Be assholes. Make terrible decisions that hurt people. But we can also help. Connect. And grow.

It is easy to blame our shortcomings on 'the human condition'. And it is even excusable. Because we are nowhere near perfect, whatever that even means. And we WILL fail. We will make mistakes. We will accidentally hurt people. We will hurt each other on purpose. 

We will fail to help when the opportunity arises. We will have regrets. 

But we can also choose to rise above the human condition. And isn't being better a worthwhile goal? Not perfection, by any means. No one should hold themselves accountable for the impossible. Given our machinery and evolution we will not be perfect by any definition. But intent matters. 

And I talk about intent, in this Episode, as an intentional direction of attention. 

We are blessed with an awareness. An artifact of our nervous system and 'millions of years of evolution'. Humans seem to have more of this than other animals, but perhaps it is universal. 

We can become aware of our awareness, and this becomes consciousness.

We can then make a choice about how we direct that consciousness. For good or evil. We can remain victims of our other evolutionary machinery, or we can filter this consciousness through some meaningful values or goals. 

Being kind. Being helpful. Being calm. 

Being self centered. Being rude. Being violent.

Our privilege and opportunities (or lack thereof) in many ways guide these choices. But they are still choices.

Learning to direct our attention with intent and will is difficult. 

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I say it all the time. The three most powerful words in the English language are, "I Don't Know'. 

When I worked at a pet store, the boss publicly humiliated me for not being able to say, "I Don't Know'. I learned quickly that it is not only ok, it is not only a good idea, it is not only TRUE, but it is very freeing to say, "I Don't Know".

If you're close to my age you might remember the television show called "You Can't Do That on Television". It was awesome and here's a link to an episode:

The whole Nickelodeon slime thing came from this show. 

You see, when someone said, "I Don't Know", they were slimed.

So even in a show that is super funny and made for kids, they shamed people for saying it.

So it is. We have all grown up thinking it is wrong, bad, stupid, dumb, inferior, sissy, or whatever to say anything related to, "I Don't Know". 

In fact, we will go OUT OF OUR WAY to coerce someone to believe that we, in fact, know.

We want to be smart. To be cool. To be not ashamed. To be tough. 

We roll a lot of our identity into knowing things.

But the truth is? We don't know things.

Like Jon Snow, we often know nothing.

And I'll be the first to tell you. Once you can release your attachment to being wrong, admitting you don't know stuff feels really, really, really good. 

It really is freeing to not be afraid of not knowing. 

In this Episode I talk all about not knowing. What we do know. What we can know. And things we (say it isn't so!) will NEVER know.

Humans are great, but we ain't all that.

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This is really the third in a series about the evolutionary significance of sex. I recorded this Episode first, then forgot about it and recorded the previous two episodes (117 and 118). Funny that this was all on my mind to the point where I forgot talking about it.

But that's how important this is. I can't stress it enough and so give it three Episodes.

The evolution of sexual selection as the way to perpetuate biology near infinitely toward immortality is pretty cool. 

The big downside of biology and life is that it ends.

Or does it?

If we look at life through the lens of DNA, maybe it doesn't end. Maybe DNA just changes vehicles. And the best (as in 'most fit') way to do this is to facilitate variation - or responses to environmental change.

Because that pesky environment keeps changing.

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In part 1 of this series, I introduced the difference between asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction. 

Asexual reproduction is basically mitosis or simple cell division. This leaves little room for variation. Evolution and change are slow, and your kids are basically clones of you.

With the onset and ultimate domination of sexual reproduction, much more change becomes possible. New concepts like gender and parenting evolve. Evolution, itself becomes THE way organisms can adjust to changing environmental conditions. Biodiversity explodes.

The ecological assumption is that reproduction is the loophole that facilitates immortality. All life dies, but through DNA life can perpetuate indefinitely.

It's the most elegant solution to the irony that life is made to die. It isn't, really, Individuals die. Species can persist.

But, to me, the COOLEST thought experiment related to sexual reproduction is all the other 'stuff' that evolved to support this strategy.

In this episode, I'll explore the concepts of diversity, variation, community, communication, gender, sexual dimorphism, parental care, and even Love. 

Yes, the idea here is that our ability to love evolved as a supporting strategy for sexual reproduction and the perpetuation of species.

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Sex.

We're obsessed with it. And for good reason. Sexual reproduction is the mechanism that perpetuates life. We can't live forever, but we can become essentially immortal by passing on our genes to the next generation.

Humans, and other life forms, don't live forever. But one can argue that our DNA does. 

And it's not all sex, but it's more fun to talk about sex. We used to get along great without sex. All organisms reproduced asexually at first. No boys. No girls. No gender at all. Just a bunch of clones. 

I'll even argue that, before sex, there were no species. I mean, there were different kinds of organisms, but the concept of not being able to reproduce with other species was non-existent. Because we only reproduced with ourselves.

In this first installment in a trilogy of sex episodes, I describe the differences between asexual and sexual reproduction. If you haven't thought about this before it's a little mind-blowing. And the onset of sexual reproduction sets the stage for the next KEW arc which explains why Love evolved and why it is so important to feel connected. Or why we are 'driven' to be connected. 

Sex is natural. Sex is fun.

Sex explains everything.

Why not obsess about another aspect of sex, which is why it evolved in the first place?

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What's the point? Of any of it?

For me, it is the unrest that comes from acknowledging what is wrong in the world.

Poverty. War. Violent crime. Social justice issues. Inequality. Racism.

Choose your weapon. It isn't hard to see problems in the world.

My point is not to point them out, but to try and posit solutions. Or pathways to solutions.

Because I'm sick and tired of armchair, short-term, quick-fix 'solutions' sold by various snake-oil salesmen dressed as therapists, coaches, doctors, and insurance brokers. There is no shortage of ways to solve your problems that don't work.

What do all of those things have in common? They address symptoms and not solutions. They're a band-aid you give the rambunctious kid who just needs to learn to calm the hell down.

And like that kid, there are almost always - no, there are ALWAYS other issues working upstream of whatever symptoms we try to alleviate.

I just read a post on Medium that suggests that underneath of, or upstream of, nearly all of our wants and needs is the simple need to be seen for who we are. To be validated and understood. 

I can vouch for that because I just had that experience in therapy. Having someone repeat back to me in their own words what I have shared with them is a good feeling.

It's like Paul Gadola says, everything is either an act of or a cry for love.

In this episode, I talk about reductionism, the enlightenment, and the scientific revolution as having run their course. I think we need the pendulum to swing back to the center where we can examine simultaneously the parts AND the system within which these parts connect.

I use climate change as an example to illustrate these endpoints.

I suggest a systems approach to looking at everything and point to reductionism as being a real problem making us increasingly myopic. 

I make the connection that to solve the problems above, we need to work at the local, reductionist level like we are. 

But, more importantly, we need to consider all the parts and their interactions. And learn how to make changes far upstream and TRUST they will affect the parts.

We don't do that anymore. We are so hyper-focused on the trees we can't see the forest anymore.

I also suggest that, as we learn to look upstream, we reconsider our global values - the beliefs that we share at these most upstream locations. 

Currently these values appear to be wealth, power, and status. 

I think they should be more like love, connectivity, and cooperation.

Like many others, I am calling for a shift from the selfish individual to the shared collective. 

But we can exist simultaneously to meet our individual needs while also living according to communal values.

All we have to do is remember how we used to live.

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My most pedantic episode ever. While I am a pretty touchy-feely hippie kind of guy, I shy away from the overly emotional and more 'woo-woo' concepts. I don't believe in the 'secret' (though I do think a positive attitude attracts positive things) and I don't like gratuitous cheesiness. But I have had multiple experiences that lead me toward Love.

I have had somatic experiences I can't explain other than to say I felt an internal Love permeating toward all things external.

I used to think love was some magical Disney power that you either found or didn't. Fortunately, life experiences changed my mind. I now understand what various types of human love look like in different relationships. Spousal love. Parental love. Sibling love. Friendship. 

I had preconceived notions about what I 'thought' love was. And I was wrong. I think many of us do this. We learn about love from books and TV. Or I guess TikTok and Instagram today. Hopefully, we are lucky enough to have these ideals tested and realize the inaccuracy of popular thought.

All of these lines of evidence suggest to me that love is an internal sensation. Almost like a sixths sense, Love seems to originate from somewhere in the region of my heart and upper abdomen. It feels related to sunlight, but that may just be a correlation to the sensation. 

The key is that love emanates OUTWARD, not the other direction. Most of us think love is something 'out there' that may or may not enter our bodies, minds, and hearts. 

Love is a choice. You have to open yourself to the opportunity of feeling it. Then you can direct it. And then you can receive it. I think that's how it works.

Love is in each of us. We are all equally able to feel, direct, and receive love. But we first have to stop expecting it.

Love is the ultimate non-doing. If you're looking for love, you aren't going to find it. You have to relax back into it.

I truly think you have to feel it first, to understand.

Feeling love can be learned by:

-experiencing nature

-meditating

-psychedelic experiences

-music

and probably in many other ways. 

In short, I think all the poets and songwriters are correct. Love is all you need. Love is all there is. These things are true, just in a different way than you think.

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I continue to be inspired by the interviews on The Great Simplification Podcast, by the host Nate Havens, and by his guests. It is rewarding to find support for ideas I thought were my own. So many thoughts have been swirling around in my head, and this podcast/blog/video channel is my attempt to integrate them. It is happening. Slowly, but surely. And the process has been expedited lately.

The Acid Test idea; that nature and her patterns can inform the big questions about humans and our purpose, is not new. I am truly inspired by curiosity and wonder about where humans are in the evolutionary cycle and how we relate to each other and our universe. At the root, this is philosophy, I guess. But it is also critical that we become aware of ourselves and that we ask these questions. Our future depends on it. 

Yesterday I began the process of 'standing on the shoulders of giants' and I started reading the works that inspired the authors I have recently discovered. I picked up "Consilience" by the great Ed (E.O.) Wilson. In about five pages I realize I have yet another tome that integrates what I have been thinking.

Validation is an incredibly important part of human life. To be seen by others for who you are, and to realize that you are seen, is a great step forward in personal evolution. Or, more accurately, the LACK of validation or of being seen is a huge detriment to living a full life. In these authors I feel seen. Maybe for the first time in my life.

So this is the pro-social element, which I learned from an interview with David Sloan Wilson on The Great Simplification Podcast. Release any pre-conceived ideas about the form of government known as socialism, and think for a minute about what it means to be social - and whether or not being social is a critical element of being human. Spoiler alert: it is. And the lack of social interactions is likely a major cause of the human suffering we see increasingly today.

Much of my work on KEW has revolved around this idea, and the idea that we have neglected the communal aspects of being human and have focused too much on being 'rugged individuals'. Both are important and, in one of life's great paradoxes, we are probably better off nurturing both our individual needs (e.g., the Uniqueness Paradox) AND our communal connections. Well, duh.

Finally, and the most epiphinal thing that has happened to me lately which I share in this Episode and in the next, I have started to experience a somatic feeling associated with this paradoxical simultaneous individuality and communal-ness. Love.

As cheesy as it sounds, my experience of validation and of deepening my understanding of what others' have to say about humans, I have increasing experiences of what I can only call Love.

It is a feeling in my heart and upper abdomen. An experience of energy and light. And it comes in moments of flow, clarity, and enhanced awareness. Through meditation, my IFS work, and everyday mindfulness. I 'get it', that humans are connected by a feeling of attraction and, well, Love for each other.

Most importantly, I realize that this feeling, when absent, leads humans to repel one another. Hear me out.

When we interact with another human, we are looking for a glimpse of acceptance - an element of Love that lets us know the other person is on the same page. I think this actualization was around for hundreds of thousands of years among humans, but has slowly d

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