Hello Dear Readers,
My life has slowed down considerably as I recover from post-flu fatigue. The best part of the slowing down was that I became more deliberate in my reading. I am not a fast reader anyway but I am, quite frequently, a distracted reader.
Being in a restful mode for the past few weeks let me focus on a single or a few things at a time. After years of multitasking, single-tasking seems refreshing whenever I do it.
Now, you may ask, how can one multitask while reading? One cannot and should not, and that's the whole point. However, it is multitasking if I am constantly aware of the time I have set aside for reading and the things I need to do after my reading session.
You are multitasking when your brain is in plan mode for a future activity while engaged in a completely unrelated activity in the present. I do that often.
The brain is always in plan mode, so when it switches to execute mode, it doesn't have to waste time. This happens because you have stuffed too many activities into your schedule and to-do list. When you deliberately cut out activities, you can afford not to plan and relax.
If you feel you don’t have enough time for intentional reading and focused writing, you have to prioritise and let go things from your to-do list.
Groupthink
I am reading Susan Cain's book Quiet as quietly and meditatively as possible. Owning a copy is an advantage over borrowing one from the library when you want to dig deep into a book. You don't have the sword of the due date hanging over your head. I had to abandon a textbook on Sustainability since I couldn't keep up with the due date. (Another example of cutting out activities that you can't finish.)
But returning to Quiet, I contemplated the author’s insights into 'groupthink.'
Groupthink occurs when a group's decision influences the individual members irrespective of how their opinions differ. In an experiment to demonstrate groupthink, researchers found that the individuals who went with the group despite their differences did so not because they were undecided or because they resisted standing out but because they thought that all of them had serendipitously arrived at the same conclusion.
Do you see how dangerous that is? They end up in a delusion that everyone believed in the same thing; secondly, that everyone used some rationale or logic to conclude; and thirdly, that they came to the correct conclusion.
Do you see how the group tricked everyone into believing that there could be only one way of thinking? The group members were unaware of how much the group influenced them.
Do you see groupthink playing out in WhatsApp groups and the other social media echo chambers? The biggest red flag is when differing voices are ignored or, worse, drowned.
Delusional as a Species
Can we, as a species, be delusional too?
When I read Intertidal by Yuvan Aves, I returned to my childhood when the outdoors mattered as much as the indoors. A mango tree in our backyard or a tree laden with guavas were as real as the characters we watched on the screen, if not more.
When did we create a delusional world for ourselves in concrete and then in bytes? A world that completely ignores the living, breathing planet.
When did we begin to ignore the biological processes that happen organically around us and instead worry more about the mechanical efficiencies we created for our comforts?
The textbook on Sustainability (which I had to abandon midway) offered a balanced view of the climate challenges we face and how we could find solutions to mitigate them. Professor Robert Brinkmann explains how human activities have resulted in many problems and how human innovation is needed to tackle them only if we recognise them.
As I read through the chequered history of climate activism, I noted different types of climate deniers.
-Those who believe that climate change is a hoax, a conspiracy to deny growth to the developing countries of the world. They do not worry about solutions because they see no problems.
-Those who do not believe that climate is changing due to human activities but because of how cyclical natural processes are. They focus on building systems to make us resilient, e.g., walls to keep the sea out, akin to giving guns to primary school teachers to prevent gun violence at school.
-Those who do not understand the science and choose to remain ignorant.
-Those who don't care because the impacts seem too far away to bother the current generation.
Has groupthink made us all delusional about climate change?
The Pace of Technology
Talking about delusions, nobody today believes that the inseparability of technology from our lives can be ignored. A decade ago, I knew people who thought robots were too far into the future. But such naysayers are rare today.
Neither are robotic capabilities slowing down, nor is the march towards automation. (Watch some of the Boston Dynamics videos if you don't believe).
My latest short story is based on two of my favourite characters, Percy and Vix, who were born through my weekend story writing exercise. Those who read my science fiction shorts would have met them before.
The inspiration, though, came from a real-world headline. Read the story to know more.
I’ll be travelling next weekend so there won't be any newsletter or short story for the next two weeks unless I manage to type one out on my phone.
Until then, keep reading and stay happy!
Sudeepa
Interesting point about groupthink in Quiet.