Why We’re Not Like Mr Spock (and why we do stuff)
Mr Spock of Star Trek fame is the perfect rational economic being (well, nearly)…Human beings are not.
Although we can put on a pretty good show of rationality, we are often illogical, unreasonable, neurotic, emotional, anxious, and highly irrational.
As Homo sapiens we are more Homo emotus than Homo economicus.
Estimates put our universe at 156 billion light years across and 14 billion years old. Our solar system was probably formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Homo sapiens have been around for a hundred thousand years — a blip on the radar of stellar time. We left the Stone Age a moment ago.
We do our best to function with the complexities of the modern world, but we do so with a brain that is, at least in part, programmed for Stone Age survival.
The greatest developmental leap in terms of our thinking ability was the growth of the human neocortex. It is in the neocortex (new brain) that we find our language capabilities, conscious thought, fantasizing, planning and sense of ego and spirituality.
The much older brain stem manages the vital bodily functions, such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure while the limbic system is responsible for basic emotions such as lust, fear, joy, sadness and fight/flight/freeze responses.
And so the evolutionary stage is set for a battle between rationality and emotion, between logic and feeling, between reasoned judgment and instantaneous primitive reaction, between discipline and instant gratification.
Imagine for a moment that you are a member of a Stone Age tribe 10,000 years ago:
You are a member of a small band of hunter-gatherers. Life is simple but very challenging. Death is an everyday event and is close-up and personal, either within the tribe or in killing for food.
You feel good as part of the group, as it is essential to your survival. You have a highly developed fight or flight response to any threat. You feel comfortable in your cave, but will dare to go out into the open for food and water.
As you succeed in building a shelter, finding food and lighting a fire your confidence in your abilities increases and you go on adventures to discover your world.
You have a fierce sense of competition to capture and kill your lunch and to prove your value to the tribe.
You will help other members of your tribe to survive through sharing warmth, food, water and emotional comfort.
Looking at modern man, what’s new?
We have a natural ability to feel comfortable with, and work with, smaller groups of people. We feel comfortable having a place within a group/tribe — knowing what is expected of us and being able to contribute.
We automatically categorize people as being one of us (the tribe) or one of them. Our brains get flooded in a biochemical storm when something happens that we had not been expecting — be it a declaration of love or a sudden verbal onslaught from a colleague or manager.
When we feel threatened we are prepared to take massive risk to escape danger. When we feel comfortable we may avoid risk, but we may also venture into the unknown with a sense of optimism and confidence.
Mr Spock is, of course, a highly evolved being. His role in Start Trek prompts some philosophical questions about how it would be for humans to evolve to such an advanced state. Anyway…come back in 10,000 years or so to check out the progress.
In the mean time, organizational size is a critical factor in agility, speed and flexibility — and fun. The fact that we can remember the names, background, abilities, strengths and weaknesses of all the members in a small group is not chance, it is hardwired by evolution.
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Image credit for Mr Spock: JD Hancock via Flickr Creative Commons
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