Brain

The human brain is very complex, and some consider it perhaps the most complicated structure in the universe. I can understand why. It is an amazing piece of equipment. Barely a couple of kgs and capable of so much. However, it is not perfect. There is this idea that prevails even amongst smart and educated people that because something evolved to be a particular way it must be the best possible design. That is flawed thinking. Evolution does not work that way. Evolution is trial and error. Just because we evolved to walk upright doesn't mean that walking upright is the best thing. Just because our brain evolved to be the way it is now, doesn't mean that it is the best possible design for a brain. Evolution is always correcting. Billions of species of lifeforms have become extinct. They evolved in a certain direction and that didn't work out and they went bust. This flawed idea of evolution is very prevalent in the health sphere and the conclusions they draw are sometimes outright harmful. But in most cases I would say we don't know and we should use evidence as of today to make judgements. e.g. the whole idea of eating only particular foods because our ancestors ate those foods. Just because our ancestors primarily ate some foods doesn't mean that other foods are bad for us. We don't know if they are. There are no hard and fast rules, so scientific evidence is something we need to rely on when it comes to such things. If tomorrow we discover some totally new grain or fruit or even make a totally new food form in the lab (e.g. lab cultured meat) - it is totally fine to consume it if science finds it safe. Just because our ancestors didn't eat that doesn't make it bad. Like I said, evolution is not perfect. In fact, it is very flawed and that is how it works.

Coming back to the brain. It is a masterpiece in the way it works. But it also quite a shabby patchwork. Like I said, the human brain wasn't designed (there is no such thing in evolution), but it evolved through trial and error. So it is more like this - imagine a bicycle. Then you fit a motorized engine on the bicyle and make it run faster. It becomes a motorcycle. Then maybe you take another similar motorized bicycle, place them next to each other and put a body around it and make it sort of a car. It works. It is better than any other bicycle out there. But it is not perfect. It is a patchwork.  We didn't set out to design a car and make the perfect car considering aerodynamics, efficiency, comfort, safety etc. So our brain is like this patchwork of a car. We still have the bicycle inside but we also have the modern GPS system. I like to think of my brain as 3 systems - the primitive lizard brain, the middle brain which is more like the higher mammals - maybe a primate and the front brain which makes me human. So in me are actually a lizard, a monkey and a human. And they work together though there are no hard and fast rules. The lizard, being the oldest and hence the most respected and powerful usually takes precedence and overrides the monkey and the human. And it doesn't usually listen to the human.  The human can influence the lizard in indirect ways - not by talking (or thinking). The lizard learns with repetition - you have to train it. You cannot talk to it. That is why sometimes when you are feeling extremely anxious, just thinking your way out of the anxiety doesn't help. The lizard doesn't understand words - it is too primitive for that. You need to train it by feedback. Actually imagine training a lizard to do something - you can't talk to it. You have to train it with incentives and rewards. Something similar can be said of the monkey as well, but it is much better than the lizard and it can actually be trained to 'listen' to words.

anyway, just my rambling thoughts. If anyone is reading this, just know that I don't edit my posts so many times they might not seem coherent or well structured. Have a good day!