If we are going to tackle humanity’s biggest challenges, we will need to use our unrivaled ability to think long-term. Understanding how we developed this ability can help us use it to its full potential.
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by Roman Krznaric

Human beings are quite capable of dealing with immediate crises. A devastating flood takes place and we send in the emergency relief. A pandemic occurs and we shut the borders and develop the vaccines. A war erupts and the refugees are found homes. More or less.

But when it comes to long-term crises, humanity’s record is less exemplary. Our response to the climate emergency — which is already here but whose greatest impacts are yet to come — has been painstakingly slow. We freely create technologies, from AI to bioweapons, that could pose devastating risks for our descendants. We fail to tackle deep problems like wealth inequality and racial injustice, which get passed on from generation to generation.

This temporal imbalance raises a question: is it even in the nature of our species to take the long view? Looking at the record so far, you would be right to be skeptical.

But there’s some unexpectedly good news: we are wired for long-term thinking like almost no other animals on the planet. As I argue in my recent book The Good Ancestor, grasping this scientific truth requires understanding the crucial difference between what I call the Marshmallow Brain and the Acorn Brain.

The Marshmallow Brain is an ancient part of our neuroanatomy, around 80 million years old, that focuses our minds on instant rewards and immediate gratification. This is the part exploited by social media platforms that give us dopamine hits by getting us to constantly click, scroll and swipe, as so brilliantly depicted in the film The Social Dilemma. It is named after the famous Marshmallow Test psychology experiment of the 01960s, where children who resisted eating a marshmallow for 15 minutes were rewarded with a second one: the majority failed.

There are well-known critiques of the test, for instance the fact that the ability to delay gratification is highly dependent on socioeconomic position: those from wealthier backgrounds find it easier to resist the treat, while a lack of trust and fear of scarcity can push kids towards gobbling it up.

A more fundamental critique, however, is that we are not simply driven by immediate rewards. Alongside the Marshmallow Brain we also possess a long-term Acorn Brain located in the frontal lobe just above our eyes, especially in an area known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. This is a relatively new part of our neuroanatomy — a mere two million years old — giving us a rare ability to think, plan and strategize over long timeframes.

But don’t other creatures think and plan ahead? Sure, animals such as chimpanzees make plans, like when they strip leaves off a branch to make a tool to poke in a termite hole. But they will never make a dozen of these tools and set them aside for next week.
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In the last few months I’ve experienced extreme cold (Minnesota) and warm weather (80’s here in Baja). It made me think of summers down here, which are just about unbearable, and the 2 extremes (as applied to being outside—I’m not talking about heaters in the cold or air conditioners in the heat). In the cold, you can bundle up to mitigate the extreme, but in the heat you’re out of luck. One time in August down here, my landlord Yuca and I would go across the dusty road and lie down in the shallow river in T-shirts and shorts, then come back to my room and stand in front of the fan while soaking wet for a few precious moments of coolness.

Fire and Ice 

Some say the world will end in fire, 

Some say in ice. 

From what I’ve tasted of desire 

I hold with those who favor fire. 

But if it had to perish twice, 

I think I know enough of hate 

To say that for destruction ice 

Is also great 

And would suffice.

-Robert Frost

SYNOPSIS:

Fairly dry and warm condition are forecast through midweek, except for a slight chance of rain in the north bay on Tuesday.  Chances of rain increase by Thursday and then greatly increase into this weekend.

The week will start out dry with patchy morning fog in various locations throughout the county.  A light system far north of the county is expected to develop on Tuesday, but is not expected to produce very much rain.  Rain, if any, from this system will be only along the northern county border.  Fairly dry conditions are expected throughout most of county on Wednesday with a very weak system moving into the area late Wednesday night to early Thursday morning where very light rain is expected.  Then,  a much stronger storm is expected to move into the area by late Friday and will produce rain throughout the remainder of the weekend.  Precipitation amounts may range from 1.35-inches along the eastern side and southern portions of the county, and up to 2.54-inches of rain along the coast, higher elevations and along the northern county boarder.  This system is expected to produce heavy rain at times with strong winds throughout the weekend and into next week.

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Full moon Friday night

Jim Morrison said that it wasn’t until The Doors released a record that he was free to get on with creating something new. Now that Tiny Homes On The Move is finished, I’m looking out on the horizon for what’s next. Right now, it looks like this:

Blogs Rick has almost got The Shelter Blog up and running (with a Word Press template). My son Evan is going to manage it. Lew, Evan and I will post stuff on it. All shelter-related, unlike my eclectic blog. The idea is to do online what our book Shelter did in 1973: showcase owner-builders and the lifestyle that a bunch of us share. Providing as much of our own food and shelter as possible (you can’t be totally self-sufficient; self-sufficiency is a direction). As opposed to Dwell magazine, homes rich in color, utility, and good vibes. We intend this to be station central for people of the owner-builder persuasion.

   We’ll post all the stuff we are now getting from people who have been inspired by our books to build something. In this sense it’ll be different from other blogs in that much of the material will be original and unique, not a pastiche of what’s floating out in the web-o-sphere.

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The Sky Ain’t Cryin Big news around here is no rain, and none in sight. Dry dry dry.

The ground is cryin.

Mushrooms are hidin.

Creeks are dribblin.

Hills, usually verdant this time of year, are brownish green, oh my.

People I pass on my walks say, beautiful day, I grit my teeth and agree.

A beautiful day right now would be torrents of rain.

Foraged Firewood I rented a log splitter and Marco I split enough wood for two years in about 5 hours. Usually I pick up oak from the side of the road, but this year there was a ton of cypress and eucalyptus lying around, cut to firewood-sized logs, needing only splitting. Very few people around here get their own firewood these days; probably half the houses in these two small seaside towns are second units for city people who come infrequently. The do-it-yourself era around here ended years ago.

Killer Kayak The Hammer, made by P&H in the UK, is a new and uniquely designed ocean kayak. Check it out in the surf:  

Note: you’ve got to put in a fair amount of time in order to maneuver around like this. If you live in the San Francisco area, check out the California Canoe and Kayak Co. in Jack London Square in Oakland. They must have over 100 boats in stock. If you’re serious about buying a kayak and put down a $300 deposit, they will let you try out any number of kayaks over a three month period, keeping them for several days until you find the one that suits your needs.

Kindhearted Woman Blues – Robert Johnson

Kindhearted Woman Blues by Robert Johnson on Grooveshark