(this took place months before this note’s authored-date)
Earlier today I was watching Jai-Lee’s eye from the side as it rapidly scanned her scrolling phone display. I was struck by how lizard-like it appeared to be evaluating sources of danger and sustenance. Some little primordial thing with a whole bunch of Sapiens higher-processing and modern abstractions plastered over the top of it.
Then, later in the day I’m reading ref_the-righteous-mind-jonathan-haidt and I come across this in the Elephants Rule chapter:
“Brains evaluate everything in terms of potential threat or benefit to the self, and then adjust behavior to get more of the good stuff and less of the bad. Animal brains make such appraisals thousands of times a day with no need for conscious reasoning, all in order to optimize the brain’s answer to the fundamental question of animal life: Approach or avoid?”