Q&A 011

First of all, welcome to our new subscribers 👋. This week we dive into the evolution of stories, the limitations of electric airplanes, the indivisibility of body and mind and the wonders of the wood wide web. Enjoy!

🗣Telling stories

Our coverage of the phenomenon that your use of language tells a lot about your personality, enticed me to dig a little deeper into this research area. I find it a fascinating topic. A part of the domain focuses on text analysis. That research has revealed there are clear narrative structures in our stories, both fictional and non-fictional.

Most stories appear to be structured along the lines of stage-setting, plot progression and ending with cognitive tension. Researchers believe these structures have been determined by our evolutionary process; human first learned to apply names to objects (setting the stage) and only later to assign actions to these objects (plot progression). Only when this ability was in place could a human start to understand and appreciate the consequence of those actions (cognitive tension).

“In other words, the ways in which a story’s information is processed may follow particular parameters to which narratives have evolved to adhere, in general.”

This is not necessarily unidirectional; the way we understand stories can influence the process by which we create stories, imposing a particular order on language during storytelling. Further, stories seem to follow certain emotional trajectories. For instance, a consistent rise in positive words during a story is indicative to a positive ending; a decline indicative of a tragic ending. Interestingly, analyses found no evidence that quality or popularity of a narrative were related to the structure.

Curious to learn where evolution will bring us! At least we know what to do to leave a positive impression or a smile on someone’s face when writing an email or essay.

🛩⚡️Flight

While we are busy electrifying our car fleet in an increasing pace, another industry responsible for a large part of global emissions is still way behind in terms of big advances using this technology. I had the pleasure of seeing a small electric plane last year capable of short flights with two people aboard, proving electric propulsion has definitely made its way into a small segment of aviation. Long haul airplanes however, do not look as they are transitioning to electricity any time soon.

Popular science channel ‘Answers with Joe’ on YouTube sums up the current status nicely and full of humour in their episode ‘Are electric airplanes doomed?’. The biggest reason for jets stil lagging is the energy density of batteries. Even with all the advances in Lithium Ion battery technology, jet fuel can still hold 45–90 times more energy per kilogram. Long haul jets needing to carry 45–90 times the current fuel weight is physically not an option. Furthermore, batteries keep their weight during travel, while fuel is burned, improving the weight ratio.

Joe closes his story with the question whether we will be able to innovate ourself out of this predicament or whether we should adapt our behaviour. For the business travel part, I feel the current pandemic has shown we can often do without, while remote meeting technology is still improving at an astounding pace.

💽 Memory

Persons that have suffered from amnesia as a result of a serious brain injury behave -on average- most like themselves in circumstances where they can act as they used to do. This may sound rather obvious. However, the important word in this sentence is ‘act’, because it is meant literally: how you use your arms, legs, hands, feet, body.

​Ben Platts-Mills, who works for a charity that supports survivors of brain injury, notes:

“The places where they [red: amnesia patiens] are most confident in their identities are the ones in which they are supported not merely to think but to do the things they love.”

This phenomenon is ground for the theory that memory is not only constituted by the conscious recollection of past events but that it “involves the whole body”. Another insight is that memory is often seen as the foundation of identity. This way of looking was first elaborately described by the English philosopher John Locke, regarded as one of the most influential of enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the “Father of Liberalism”.

Combining the two insights feels natural to me. Someone’s personality and position in this world is not solely determined by the mind or the body. It’s the entire body. I even would like to go one step further: it is determined by the interaction between (human) beings. Memory will thus exist between people and will defy any damage done to your brain or your body, whether by injury or age (think of dementia!). That’s comforting.

🕸🍄 Network

In this time of year, one of our favourite pastimes is walking in the forest. Even as the lockdown has sparked a wave of families visiting the forest during week-ends, it is amazing how much activity is absorbed and how peaceful the forest still feels.

Fall is also the season that the forest shows an abundance of mushrooms in all sorts and sizes. These wonders are the fruiting and reproductive organs of the much larger organism that lives underground. The fungal network that lives underground is called the mycelium and can grow to an enormous size. One contender for the biggest single living organism on earth is actually a fungus living in Oregon spanning 8.9 square kilometers. These networks engage with the root system of plants and trees, trading their unique molecular compounds for carbohydrates that they are unable to produce themselves.

Like most phenomena in nature, my appreciation has grown with getting a glimpse of the complexity that goes on in these ecosystems. I just saw the documentary Fantastic Fungi, which explores some amazing boundaries of the current available knowledge while showing the life of these organisms in truly wonderful photography. You’ll never walk the forest the same way again.

That’s it for this week! If you got forwarded this newsletter, get your own. Earlier editions can be read in our archive. If you enjoyed this weekly 5-minute read, take a minute to think about friends who share your eclectic taste and treat them to a forward 💌.

As always, we would love to hear your thoughts and tips. Just reply to this e-mail to get in touch with us.

Have a great week!

Quinten & Alphons