meta [part the first]

[Mark Kohut]

What essays like this overlook, in my opinion, is how conversation, words, facts, smartly-reasoned arguments from others online can chande via deepening our own responses. 

And that we can learn so much so fast often enables 'thoughts' to exist more fully in the brain.

And, there is sometimes something to be said for fast 'fingertip sensibility' too....ask kerouac.

--- On Tue, 12/15/09, Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: meta [part the first]
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2009, 9:08 AM
> 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
>