The Weekly Circle #17
Welcome to the seventeenth episode of The Weekly Circle! A free Circles in Time newsletter released every Sunday.
Hey everybody,
Summer is slowly showing her face again, here in Cape Town.
Fortunately, I was able to get out of the city and into the mountains to experience her presence this weekend. The venture was another reminder of the revitalising potential that spending time in nature with a few friends offers.
One of my ambitions for Circles in Time is to host an in-person variation of the programme in different locations around South Africa. Hopefully, this is something that becomes feasible in the not-so-distant future.
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WORLD VIEWS
Here are the ideas I’ve been circling around this week.
THE WORLD AROUND US
If life had a symbol, it would be a feedback loop
I stumbled across an essay by the biologist, Jamie Davies recently. In it, he elegantly argues that the feedback loop is a better symbol of life than the helix, which currently hold the memetic positioning in most scientists minds. The helix, of course, being responsible for our DNA (genetic fingerprint as Davies’ calls it).
The essay is long and quite a heavy read, so for those who want the gist, here are a few of the key ideas that stood out for me:
“The genes matter – of course they do, because something has to build all these proteins. But the helix seems less and less appropriate as an icon for the all-important control systems that run life, especially at larger scales (cells, tissues, organisms, populations, ecosystems and so on).”
Importantly, this isn’t to downplay the important role of genes. They are just more like mediators than authoritative instructors.
“Genes are therefore essential to self-organisation at all the scales of life – just not in a deterministic way. Rather, the genes are needed to make the machines that mediate feedback-driven self-organisation: the self-organisation is a high-level property that emerges from the underlying network, not a feature of any of the individual components.”
Here is a helpful example to make the updated role of genes a bit more concrete:
“The number of red cells in blood, for example, is set by a feedback loop sensitive to measurements of oxygen deep in the kidneys. When someone goes to live in the thin air of a high mountain, they tend to have more blood cells. Why? Because the ‘normal’ complement of cells is not sufficient in that environment, so the kidneys sense abnormally low oxygen and signal for more blood cells to be made. The effects of environmental sensitivity at a single point percolate throughout the entire organism.
“If we recognise that genes do not make body features, they make the machines that organise body features adaptively, that shift in perspective does much to lay to rest the long debates about nature versus nurture.”
From genes to feedback loops.
“The DNA helix is important, of course. But the most important thing it does is make proteins that can operate in regulatory loops. These loops can also operate at the molecular level: genes make proteins, but these proteins determine which genes are ‘off’ and which are ‘on’, making a control loop at even the molecular level.”
Feedback loops operate at all scales of life. From bacteria to Bach, and beyond.
“Unlike the helix, loops also operate at scales far above the molecular, covering a range of sizes from bacterial colonies to the vast ecosystems of the rainforest – perhaps to the ecosystem of the entire Earth. Beyond Earth, life without DNA is just about thinkable (one can imagine alternative strategies for storing information). Life without feedback loops, though? I have never met any biologist who can imagine that.”
Perhaps the mystical Gnostics, Hermetics and Alchemists were onto something with their famous Ouroboros, representing the cyclical nature of life as a snake eating its tail. The ultimate feedback loop.
THE WORLD BETWEEN US
The power of another’s gaze
One example of the depths of our social nature is the very human tendency to follow the gaze of another impulsively. Like some sort of magnetic force, our focus is pulled toward the object another person is attending to.
This behavioural insight has percolated up into popular culture in recent years and quickly put to work in commercial settings—the most common being web design.
Here are some great examples courtesy of Julian Shapiro.
Now that you know about it, you’ll likely start seeing this tactic everywhere. If you’re a designer, use the tactic responsibly.
THE WORLD WITHIN US
The diminishing marginal gains (and pains) of repeated practice
There is an interesting idea in exercise science called the repeated bout effect. The theory suggests that after a strenuous and painful workout, it is actually better to continue consistently, rather than resting and waiting for the pain to disappear. This may be difficult initially, but the body will quickly adapt to the new baseline as a result of the cadence.
The general idea is that the more we do something, less of an impact it has on our physiology. This is a good thing when it comes to strain and pain. Interestingly though, repeated bouts also have diminishing effects on the more positive aspects of a particular practice. James Clear has some nice examples of repeated bout effects:
“When you haven't done much strength training, doing thirty pushups will make you stronger. After a few months of that, however, an extra thirty pushups isn't really building new muscle.”
“When you drink coffee for the first time, you will notice an immediate caffeine spike. After years of consumption, however, one cup of coffee seems to make less of a difference.”
“When you start eating smaller portions, you'll lose weight. After the first ten or fifteen pounds fall off, however, your smaller portion slowly becomes your normal portion and weight loss stalls.”
“Making ten sales calls on your first day in business may lead to a big jump in overall revenue. Making ten sales calls for the 300th day in a row, however, is unlikely to have a large impact on overall revenue.”
In a world where perpetual improvement is everything, the repeated bout effect means that you have to train harder and for longer continuously. That’s an unsustainable model in my view, and why I prefer that people focus on goals that orientate around particular steady states (like attaining a resting of heart rate of between x and y, rather continuously working to lower ones resting heart rate, which is more directional).
Your body is wired to move towards homeostasis. To find and settle into a steady-state. It just doesn’t necessarily always find a healthy position in a landscape of possible steady-states. It is partially blind to the utility of the behavioural niche it rapidly starts adapting (habituating) to.
Navigating the landscape to find the right steady-stable is the hard work that you need to do, rather than endlessly searching for the marginally better.
As the author Mark Manson warns:
“Beware: The constant desire to improve yourself can itself become a subtle form of addiction.”
This is ofcourse easier said than done in a culture that is deeply wired for perpetual growth.
WISE WORDS
The quotes I’ve been circling around this week
“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” ~ Haruki Murakami
“Don't fear failure. Not failure, but low aim, is the crime. In great attempts, it is glorious even to fail.” ~ Bruce Lee
“He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.” ~ Jean-Luc Godard
“Character—the willingness to accept responsibility for one’s own life—is the source from which self-respect springs.” ~ Joan Didion
"Anxiety is experiencing failure in advance." ~ Seth Godin
“Every time your mind shifts, your world shifts.” ~ Byron Katie
SOMETHING TO PART WITH
Earlier this month the most detailed model of a human cell to date was obtained using x-ray, NMR and cryoelectron microscopy datasets.
It’s hard not to marvel at the complexity of life when you consider the sheer amount of activity that is going on within each one of our cells.
Dylan was right. We really do contain multitudes.
Until next week,
Take care,
David
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