meta [part the first]

[Robin Landseadel]

On Dec 14, 2009, at 9:37 PM, Doug Millison wrote:

> Yeah, I like Robin's posts, absolutely.  Partly because he's reading  
> and talking about things that interest me, and always because I  
> consider Robin a friend, since I had a chance to meet him in person  
> and talk Pynchon quite a few years ago, in Berkeley. I lost touch  
> and was happy to see him come back on the P-list.
> Rob Jackson is a Pynchon reader worth listening to, in my opinion,  
> even if I don't always agree.  Same with Terrance.  They are  
> familiar with the Pynchon critical literature, and they have  
> original insights into Pynchon's texts as well. I look forward to  
> reading their posts.

For about the last year or so I've been more or less unemployed, so I  
have alot of free time and spend a lot of that  time doing "social  
networking online." I also spend a lot of time over at the Steve  
Hoffman forum, the the bulk of the posting/blogging there is concerned  
with music on record—most of the time with LPs. The SH forum is  
particularly obsessed with Beatles records, particularly since the  
remasters came out.

Just as there's an odd contentiousness on the P-list, there's an odd  
contentiousness on the SH Forum or the Huffington Post website.

I was reading this at HuffPo yesterday—seems to have a bit to tell us  
about what we are doing here and why it comes out the way it does:

	 . . .As this reward-seeking circuit fires up, our ability to hold
	more subtle ideas in mind diminishes: intense activation of the
	limbic system, which fires up with strong rewards or threats,
	results in the de-activation of prefrontal regions needed or
	executive control. An overabundance of dopamine, while it
	feels good on one level as sugar does, creates a mental
	hyperactivity that reduces your capacity for deeper focus. It is
	also likely to reduce one's ability to have more subtle insights,
	the kind required to solve complex problems. The ability to have
	insights is linked to one's capacity to notice 'weak activations,'
	which can be easily overwhelmed by the intense neural activity
	of a dopamine rush.

	I am sensing a dramatic upswing in people's sense of
	overwhelm in the last three years. I don't think it's just the
	uncertainty of the economy. It's social media. Like delicious
	deserts, it's hard to say 'no' to. The brain loves it so (my brain
	included). Getting any work done these days with Twitter on in
	the background is like putting a 10 year-old child in a candy
	story and telling them they can't touch anything; they will be
	constantly distracted. What happens when you're distracted a
	lot? Your IQ goes down, one study (while funded by a tech
	company, was still a study) showed that leaving a
	communication device always on drops IQ by 15 points for men,
	same as taking up marijuana or losing a night's sleep.

	If your job is to stay 'high' all the time and make tons of new
	connections, like a reporter on an entertainment show, then this
	hyperactive, dopamine-high state of mind isn't a problem - it can
	actually help. But if you're trying to focus, do any deeper
	thinking, or perhaps learn something, it's not such a good thing. . . .

More at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-rock/are-our-minds-going-the-w_b_389163.html