Page 15 - 2011 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - March 2011

Beyond The Super Computer BEYOND THE SUPERCOMPUTER: SOCIAL GROUPS AS SELF-INVENTION MACHINES Continued from Page 14 4) Now the fourth principle of the complex adaptive system enters the petri dish: the resource shifters. Those stranded in the desert are deprived of nutrients, which their location cannot provide, of companionship, and, most important from the point of view of the group brain, of what might best be termed popularity. Meanwhile, those who find an overflowing buffet eat their fill and command the attention bacillus subtilis reworked its genome in an perception of the world, a view so distinctive and protection of a gathering crowd. They are effort to gain sustenance from the now (to it) that it can give outsiders the impression of a transformed into leaders, guiding the group barren waste, the newcomer would rush to mass delusion. Pressures to conform arise from mind. "For he that hath, to him shall be given: reproduce, taking advantage of the fact that the urge to belong, the fear of social ostracism, and he that hath not, from him shall be taken subtilis' inedible slabs are its entrée du jour. As and the appeal of role models. Nearly forty even that which he hath" (Mark 4:25). Should the two groups struggled to take over the petri years ago sociologist Erving Goffman things prove truly grim, however, and even the dish, would a new innovation emerge from the (Goffman, 1959) demonstrated that even much most strenuous searchers confirm that food is contest, an innovation of the sort which enriches of what we think of as our most willful behavior nowhere within reach, another diversity the fate of a species for eons? One which is guided by scripts drafted for us by the social generator, the most startling of them all, may transforms ever more of this once entirely organism of which we are a part. rouse to meet the challenge. It is a mechanism barren planet into food for life? which James Shapiro calls the "genetic Ample evidence indicates that complex DIVERSITY GENERATORS. engineer." Explains Ben-Jacob, "the cell carries adaptive systems, with their enormous a complete set of tools for genetic self- competitive advantages, have progressed from All cultures impose conformity. Yet all reconstruction: plasmids, phages, transposons, kin groups through to mega-societies with little benefit from the contribution of their marginal and too many others to mention,... the same or no regard for the interests of solitary selfish personalities--those who do not fit the mold. tools, in fact, used in the lab today for genetic genes. This is particularly apparent in large- Numerous tribal groups turn their cross-dressers engineering." A microscopic research and scale human societies, societies seemingly ruled and their insane into shamans or seers and use development squadron goes to work recrafting by the same five principles which structure the quirks of their vision as a guide in times of its own genetic string. Which raises a colonies of bacillus subtilis: uncertainty. Large-scale societies benefit even question: does the genomic skunk works merely further from singular individuals and trot out pre-fabricated parts which have worked CONFORMITY ENFORCERS. unorthodox subcultures. Between 361 and 206 in the past? Or is it capable of true innovation? BC, the Chinese empire gained its unity, its Explains Ben-Jacob, "We've tried exposing Humans are biologically programmed to bureaucratic structure and its standardized bacterial colonies to conditions so novel that the "fit in". For example, an infant's brain is shaped writing system from the most eccentric section creatures could never have encountered them by the culture into which it is born. Six-month of the future country, Ch'in, a territory before. Tough conditions, conditions of life and olds can either distinguish or produce every constantly nourished by the input of traders death. We wanted to know how inventive the sound in virtually every human language. But shuttling between one culture and another. The colonies could be in reworking their genetic within a mere four months, this capacity has religious non-conformists of 17th and 18th code. For example, we took bacteria that can't decreased by roughly two thirds (Werker, 1989; century England were excluded from the move on agar but are able to roam freely in Werker and Desjardins, 1995; Werker and Pegg, country's official schools. Formulating their liquid. We put them on the wilderness of their in press). This slashing of ability, like other own educational substitute, they abandoned the worst nightmares, agar, and deprived them of cultural blinkers of perceptions (Eisenberg, traditional Latin trivium and quadrivium in food. The need to branch out in search of 1995; Segall, et al. 1996; Shi-xu, 1995, Lucy, favor of the newly emerging sciences. grazing land was a true creative challenge." By 1992; Berridge and Robinson, 1995; Lancaster, Forbidden to participate in traditional high- forming a modular network beyond the 1968; Emde, 1984; Belsky et al. 1996; Bower, status occupations, they turned their attention to supercomputer, by assembling a group mind, 1995; Caporael, 1995; Nisbett and Ross, 1980; such déclassé new enterprises as canal building the massed genetic engineering teams were able Shweder and D'Andrade, 1980), is accompanied and the mining of coal. The result: the non- to solve the problem. Thanks to the synergy of by extensive alterations in the cerebral tissue. conformists saved Britain from possible the conformity enforcer, the diversity generator, During human development, brain cells are stagnation and helped usher in the Industrial the utility sorter, and the resource shifter, the measured against the requirements of the Revolution. colony was capable of something numerous physical and socio cultural environment. The Productive deviants frequently benefit humans never achieve--creativity. 50% of neurons found useful thrive. The 50% from "field independence" and a strong 5) In a natural environment, the fifth of which remain unexercised literally cease to be "internal locus of control" (Lefcourt, 1982). All a complex adaptive system's principles would (Gould, 1994; Young et al. 1994; Nadis, 1993; too often, one era's despised tinkerer--an isolate presumably come into play: the intergroup Levine, 1988; Elbert et al. 1995; Barinaga, like Gregor Mendel--will lay the groundwork tournament. Alas, Ben-Jacob has studied each 1994; Pascual-Leone and Torres, 1993; Holden, for a later generation's innovative whiz kids. colony isolated in its own petri dish, sealed off 1995; Korein, 1988.). The cerebral floor plan by glass walls from competing groups. But as underlying the mind is redrawn to conform to a Continued on Page 16 the resources which feed the bacillus subtilis larger social pattern. run out, imagine what might happen if a spore Experiments by memory researcher of another bacterial species were to drop in, a Elizabeth Loftus (Loftus, 1980), psychologist Visit species which found the inedible plateau on Solomon Asch (Asch, 1956), and numerous Howard Bloom which the subtilis was stranded to be more others have demonstrated that even among Online at nourishing than roast beef and Yorkshire adults there is a propensity to form a shared pudding. The race would be on. While the www.HowardBloom.net