Billion a Second…

This meeting was no different than any other.  No different from the hundreds of meetings in the days, the months before.  Where I’m on to the next meeting while attending the one in front of me.  Meetings with a replicated loop.  Mind whirring…processing.  Me pushing. Me prodding. Agitating.  Me wanting and needing more. Extraction. Creating discomfort.  Manufacturing urgency.  I’m not looking for you to love me.  That’s what your dog is for.  This morning, my level of consciousness had been ratcheted up by a few lines from Daniel Bor the night before.  And, I roll into the first meeting of the day.  I’m listening.  I’m watching.

Her suit is crisply pressed.  Her shoes had the look of someone who rushed out of the house.  She’s briefing me on a client matter.  Fully on top of the details.  A perfectionist looking for a nod.  A recognition of being on track.  She’s tapping her foot as she rumbles through her report…knowing that the audience could pull on a thread that she’s failed to account for.  There is growing unease.  His behavior isn’t following a normal pattern.  She’s fidgeting.  Bags under her eyes, and the same eyes are now averting the stare.

She asks: “Are you paying attention?  You hearing me?”

I respond with “Of course.  Terrific work.  I especially like what you’ve done with…”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.”

“That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

I shake her hand and leave the room.

Human eyes have around 100 million photoreceptors, each of which can pick up about ten visual events every second, so our eyes are effectively receiving a billion pieces of information each second.

~ Daniel Bor, Cambridge Neuroscientist Daniel Bor

In the “The Ravenous Mind“, Daniel Bor, a Cambridge Neuroscientist…”builds on the latest research to propose a new model for how consciousness works. Bor argues that this brain-based faculty evolved as an accelerated knowledge gathering tool…he explains our brains’ ravenous appetite for information and its constant search for patterns.  Why, for instance, after all our physical needs have been met, do we recreationally solve crossword or Sudoku puzzles? Such behavior may appear biologically wasteful, but, according to Bor, this search for structure can yield immense evolutionary benefits—it led our ancestors to discover fire and farming, pushed modern society to forge ahead in science and technology, and guides each one of us to understand and control the world around us.”

Quote Source: Explore & BrainPickings.  Image Source: ilikeproserpina