The Subconscious - Why Doesn't It Just Speak To Us?

My Take On How A Mind Is Constructed

In a recent post in the journal Nautilus, the American novelist, playwright and screenwriter, Cormac McCarthy (notably, the author of No Country For Old Men), discusses the question of why our unconscious mind, which can send us coded messages in dreams, doesn't just speak up.

First off, much of the material linked to, above, was way over my head.

Nevertheless, I have a model for the mind's basic organization, that readers might find interesting.

The problem with being able to access the unconscious is that it is merely data (for example, McCarthy's piece describes a famous chemist waking up with a hunch on how to solve a problem he'd been struggling with; his hunch is based on a dream image).  Accessing the data in our unconscious can be done intuitively, with dreams for example.  Or, it can be done consciously, using thought.

One can think of our experienced-based data as a computer.  Either we guess what we're looking for, or we search using key words.  Guessing is an intuitive approach, searching is a more analytical way.  Either can be inefficient and take longer.

The key is guessing correctly, or knowing the key words to search for.  This is called wisdom and is something that, ideally, we work on all our lives.

And now the problems encountered with each system:
  * Guessing, or imagining the relevant data configuration, is only possible if our minds are free to let ideas bubble up.
  * Likewise, analyzing a problem goes nowhere if we have ulterior motives and can't control our reasoning powers.

That is, our dreams can turn to nightmares, and our reasoning can be self-serving.  That's why we should all be seeking both freedom and justice in our lives.
And when we do have both, they reinforce each other.  Leading just lives allows us to be freer, which allows better guesses to bubble up, informing us of how to better analyze our experiences.

Which is all a terribly dry way to say that our unconscious accumulates experience over our lifetimes and so, usually, allows for a wiser perspective.  But the data itself can't tell us the answer.

Update: 5/12/17
Ok, I've had criticism about this post.  Essentially, the problem is that the analytical and the intuitive approach are almost always combined in some way:
  * We dream intuitively, but remembering/interpreting a dream takes analysis.
  * We think through important decisions, but imagining alternatives involves intuition.
Not that this changes the model, which is best understood when divided into its distinct component parts.

Twitterfied Triumphs

Treasured Tweets From A Few Favorite Writers

As I've said in previous twitter-centric postings, retweeters (those who re-publish other people's content) have a key role to play, fishing for tweets we wouldn't normally see.   But, as before, we'll be focusing on original content.  And, to simplify, I'll comment on a single tweet each in seven categories (click the underlined category to see the tweet on Twitter):

The Witty:
"Based on comments from winning players, it's remarkable how much time God spends to help athletes defeat their opponents."  Neil deGrasse Tyson, 3:28 PM, 10/18/13
Comment: Keeping it light, and yet, what a skewering.

The Observant:
"Wonder if this was intentional: New gop.gov site features pic with sign saying 'No Right Turn'".  Garance Franke-Ruta, 11:34 AM, 4/10/14
Comment: Looking for irony is a good bet.  The photo shows a street sign outside a storefront office. The headline on the photo is "An America That Works."

With Syntax Entangled:
"'The crows did it!' squawked Polly."  Alison Tyler, 11:29 AM, 1/22/16.
Comment: The timing here is key.  Ms. Tyler came up with this challenging six-word story in an astounding five minutes.  We know this because she was replying to "In six words or fewer, write a story about an unsolved murder." which had been posted at 11:24.

Humorous:
"Dogs writing in a Hello Kitty diary: 'Your life is a lie'." Dogs Doing Things, 1:27 PM, 8/28/14.
Comment: Absurd often makes it funny.

Cutting Edge:
"Just one more time this pic is really awesome." Ta-Nehisi Coates, 7:34 PM, 12/24/14.
Comment: Photo: Barack Obama posing for a photo with five Brownies (pre- girl scouts).  Cutting edge because black and white mix here.  The girls, all smiles, sensing Obama's goodness; his own Blackness and upbringing, agreeing, hence the ready smile.

Trompe L'oeil, In Writing:
"On NBC in Iowa after the Belmont Stakes: An ad for @GovernorPerry" Kasie Hunt, 6:25 PM, 6/6/15.
Comment: Keep it understated.  The context behind the tweet will then suddenly occur to the reader in a thunderclap of bliss.  Here, the key is that the horse reaching for the Triple Crown failed.  Perry, in Iowa, is remembered for bungling a debate appearance in which he whiffs... "...and the third is...whoops, I forget."

Mine (From my own smorgasbord):
"Have to admit, this seaweed-that-tastes-like-bacon seemed like a dead ringer for fake news, wasn't:" Me, 9:31 AM 12/11/16
Comment: Maybe half of what I tweet about are articles I link to and comment on; in this case, an article about a newly discovered seaweed that tastes like bacon, but is especially nutritious.  "Fake news" was a hot topic at the time, too.

President Barack Obama: A-, B+, or lower?

Looking Back -- From 2045

Seven elections ago, in 1992, we elected George H.W. Bush, who is now considered an average to good president.  There's a consensus on this.  Sure, Bush will get a B or B- from some historians; while others will grant a C or C+; but there's a bandwidth there.

Now imagine the year 2045, seven elections into the future.  At that point the consensus around Obama will probably be uncontested.

Below, is my own estimation, imagining the view from 2045:

I note Obama's 10 greatest hits (based on the 50-greatest list published by Washington Monthly, where I got the idea (note: my #1 is not on their list).  Following my list is the original ranking (the Monthly's center-left opinion) and a somewhat reasonable Republican's view (the 25 ***s).   The latter involves a lot fewer hits than 50, of course--Rs are generally not fans of government.

For a short run-down on each accomplishment, click the Washington Monthly link, above.  This list will be just the hits themselves, without the background information.

1. The Most Graceful Presidency Ever
2. Rescued The Economy
3. Passed Health Care Reform
4. Expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection
5. Secured US Commitment To A Global Agreement On Climate Change
6. Ended US Combat Missions In Iraq and Afghanistan
7. Passed Wall Street Reform
8. Improved School Nutrition
9. Education: Kicked Banks Out Of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Funding, and Created The College Scorecard
10. Avoided Scandal

And what grade will history assign?  My guess: in the B to A range--in the company of FDR and Lincoln.

Washington Monthly's list (reasonable Republican ranking = ***)

1. Passed Health Care Reform (***20 )
2. Rescued The Economy (***1)
3. Passed Wall Street Reform (***7)
4. Negotiated A Deal To Block A Nuclear Iran (***4)
5. Secured US Commitment To A Global Agreement On Climate Change (***23)
6. Eliminated Osama Bin Laden (***3)
7. Ended US Combat Missions In Iraq and Afghanistan (***19)
8. Turned Around The US Auto Industry (***2)
9. Repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
10. Supported Federal Recognition of Same-Sex Marriages

11. Reversed Bush Torture Policies (***18)
12. Established Rules To Limit Carbon Emissions From Power Plants
13. Normalized Relations With Cuba
14. Put Medicare On Sounder Financial Footing (***17)
15. Protected Dreamers From Deportation (***16)
16. Established Net Neutrality
17. Protected Two Liberal Seats On The US Supreme Court
18. Boosted Fuel Efficiency Standards
19. Kicked Banks Out Of Federal Student Loan Program, Expanded Pell Grant Funding
20. Improved America's Image Abroad (***15)

21. Left His Mark On The Federal Judiciary
22. Diversified The Federal Bureaucracy
23. Passed Fair Sentencing Act
24. Revived The Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division (***14)
25. Expanded Wilderness and Watershed Protection (***13)
26. Gave The FDA The Power To Regulate Tobacco (***22)
27. Trimmed And Reoriented Missile Defense
28. Kick-Started Clean Energy Investment
29. Reduced The Threat From Nuclear Weapons (***25
30. Passed Credit Card Reforms

31. Cut Veteran Homelessness By Half (***12)
32. Enacted Government Surveillance Reform (***11)
33. Expanded Overtime Pay
34. Cracked Down On Bad For-Profit Colleges
35. Cut The Deficit (***5)
36. Created The College Scorecard
37. Improved School Nutrition
38. Expanded The Definition of Hate Crimes
39. Recognized The Dangers of Carbon Dioxide (***24)
40. Strengthened Women's Right To Fair Pay (***10)

41. Secured The Removal of Chemical Weapons From Syria
42. Protected LGBTQ Americans From Employment Discrimination
43. Reduced Discrimination Against Former Prisoners In Federal Hiring
44. Won Major Victories Against Housing and Mortgage Discrimination (***9)
45. Expanded Broadband Coverage
46. Expanded Health Coverage For Children
47. Improved Food Safety (***8)
48. Let The Space Shuttle Die and Killed The Planned Moon Mission
49. Rebuilt and Fortified The Gulf Coast Post-Katrina
50. Avoided Scandal (***6)

Grading The Trump Team

Good News: National Security Advisor: From 'F' to 'A-'
Bad News: Many More 'F's than 'A's and 'B's

The Bumbler 45000 has grown tired of Trump's steady 40%-45% zone approval rating.  So, it's breaking out a new scoresheet to be updated in the months to come.  It'll track Trump's key appointments, leaving out personalities it feels aren't worth the necessary computing power.

Vice President: Mike Pence
Chief of Staff: Rince Priebus
Chief Strategist: Stephen Bannon
State: Rex Tillerson
Treasury: Steven Mnuchin - a Democrat, corporate variety: C
Defense: James Mattis - Thinking man's advisor; though civilian control of defense is best: B+
National Security Advisor: H. R. McMaster - Another independent thinker; also military brass: B+
Attorney General: Jeff Sessions
Interior: Ryan Zinke - Shot down public lands selloff; is an outdoorsman: C+
Agriculture: Sonny Perdue (nominated)
Commerce: Wilbur Ross
Labor: Alex Acosta (nominated)
Health and Human Services: Tom Price
Housing and Urban Development: Ben Carson
Transportation: Elaine Chao - former Sec. of Treasury: C
Energy: Rick Perry
Education: Betsy DeVoss
Veterans: David Shulkin - Able administrator with no axe to grind: A-
Homeland Security: John F. Kelly - somewhat independent minded: C+
UN Ambassador: Nikki Haley - former Governor: C
Budget: Mick Mulvaney - deficit hawk: C
CIA: Mike Pompeo - knowledgeable, no torture: C
Environment: Scott Pruitt
Legal Counsel: Donald McGahn
Press: Sean Spicer

All the missing grades are 'C-' and below.  They will be held for further review.  Let's give these people a chance to either be replaced, or find a way toward the light.

A note: men are over-represented in the above list (21 out of 25), as are other obvious categories (only one black American, one Latino, one Asian-American).

The easiest way forward is canning the worst and bringing in a good choice, as was done with the shockingly unfit Michael Flynn at National Security Advisor.  This would be a good time to be looking for a new Attorney General, for example.

Just 10 of 25 receive passing grades!

My Third Suggestion For The Trump Administration

Gameshows Forever

To recap my first two suggestions:
#1: A lottery contest aimed at making ObamaCare TrumpCare stronger
#2: An international contest highlighting best investments

And here's #3: The Best New Ideas Contest

Another contest!  That's because our current president has the experience in this area (slickly produced competitive television shows), so if he focused on it, he'd likely do better than, say, I would.

How does this one work?

Announce an annual contest that highlights new ideas.  Proposals can be in any field.  Also invite talent agents, HR personnel, venture capitalists, etc., to be in the audience.

Prior to the event, the field is winnowed to perhaps 50 contestants.  Then, over a week's worth of presentations (10 a day), finalists (3 each day) are selected by the in-house audience; also: 3 fan-favorites from those watching at home.

To avoid the buzzkill of young inventors choking onstage, finalists collaborate with contest personnel to each produce a short video.  These, along with some on-stage pageantry, constitute the run-up to each night's finale.

The sixth and final day would have the 18 finalists' videos screened again.  1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners would be picked.

The final day's event would take place at the White House with Trump and a few select audience members choosing the winners.

Republicans admire rags-to-riches self-improvement.  This would be institutionalizing the concept.  And in the years to come, if any winning ideas reached the big time, Trump could rightly claim that he, in fact, did create good jobs.

The Bumbler 45000: A New Reading

Checking In On A First Move

My new contraption, the Bumbler 45000, has registered an (anticipated) rise in President Trump's approval rating, now inching into the low- to mid-40s, and threatening to reach 46--at which point the Bumbler shuts down.

And yet, there is reason for concern.  On January 29th a raid on a Yemeni village went off the rails.  This was President Trump's first military operation, and establishes a pattern, as such, for the future:  little consulting with experts, just an off-the-cuff ok--reportedly over dinner.  Hopefully, this pattern won't be repeated.  (Could this have been US military // intelligence wanting to let the new President see what happens when the odds aren't good? --but on a small scale, a hedge against something much bigger.  Maybe.)

Well, as I've mentioned before, my intention in writing about the Bumbler 45000 is primarily to offer a suggestion.  In this case, it's: get out of Yemen.  With 80% of the population needing international assistance, and that population growing rapidly..., sure, offer humanitarian assistance, but let the locals sort out their own affairs for the most part.

Instead, take a 'big picture' approach to foreign affairs.  Implement an appropriately outlandish idea that accentuates the positive in a big-hearted way.  Like this:

  * Hold a competition among nations, like a gameshow.
  * Entering countries describe what they're going to do that'll improve things for their people.
  * Judges then look over the proposals and pick one that wins for that year.
  * That nation receives a 'jump-start' aid package that gets its economy growing.
  * About half is public financing, half private.  Public monies come from an arms sales tax.
  * Mainly, this is to get low-income nations noticing and copying their neighbors' good ideas.
  * And, this shifts attention away from the bad to the good.

I wrote about this idea (in somewhat more complicated form) in this article that appeared a few years ago (item #3 on the list).

So, in general, Mr. President, trust your instincts that say we should be working on the U.S., first.  Aren't you glad we aren't bogged down in Syria?  Save for humanitarian assistance, and staying the course, stay out.

2/25/17 Update:  The Trump administration has asked NATO countries to all live up to their pledge to spend 2% on defense.  Kevin Drum at Mother Jones has a handy chart that compares selected countries.  And, he makes the case that as a percent of per capita GDP the US is the major country spending too little.

My own twist on this is to suggest that NATO:
1.  Allow NATO countries to instead contribute $$ to fund the above competition.
2.  These monies can be contributed in lieu of spending on the country's military.
3.  Also, impose a 1% tax on arms sales and increase the rate from 1% to 2%, etc., over time
4.  Meanwhile, get other countries outside of NATO to voluntarily join the self-imposed tax.
5.  Use the collected revenue to enlarge the competition to allow at least one winning country from each continent every year.

Variant: *Equalizer* Scrabble

My View: It's Brilliant

Brother Tad's bright idea to equalize draws in a 2-player game:  use two draw bags, and eight additional tiles from a second Scrabble game.

Players draw from their own bag; and in their bag are the same tiles set as in their opponent's bag.

The eight additional tiles are: one each from the eight letters that have an odd count: "z", "q", "x", obviously, and five others (see chart on your Scrabble board).

This variant, we discovered, tackles two problems with Scrabble:
  * no player can complain that they drew inferior, low-point tiles; likewise, 's' tiles and 'blanks' (frankly, two blanks drawn by a single player during a given game is very hard to beat).
  * this variant rewards longer words, as a player can be 'ahead', but have tiles left in their bag when another player uses her last--so, much more interesting, as this negates the obsession with the 'perfect' play that only a Scrabble geek can fathom.

If you try it, you'll have to separate your 100 + 8 tiles into two stacks of equal numbers of 'a's, 'b's, etc., before the game can begin.  But, it's worth it!