III. Caring:  See also Avoiding Error: A Fundamental Emotion.

   Fortunately for us, we humans have a catch-program working within our minds running counter to these stubborn, self-defeating tendencies. It spurs us into action where no selfish motive provides impetus. It gets us going even when weariness gnaws at our motivations. It is human care. When we care, we do. When we don’t, sloth impedes our progress and forces things to unfold in embarrassing ways we would rather not have anyone else make note of!

   Caring is our natural remedy for simplemindedness. It gets us going when nothing else will, when there is no selfish reason for going or we are just too tired (or lazy!) to exert the required effort. Caring provides us with motivation and self-discipline when we know we ought to do better.

   Unfortunately, human cognition is still not without its problems and pitfalls. The human mind apparently is far from being a perfect organ, and our caring emotions don't always direct our behaviors down the right road. We aren't always moved when we ought to be. Our responses at times fall way short of Righteousness. In particular, this happens:

1. If there is no memory in place to spur the caring emotion to begin with, so that we may immediately and naturally empathize;

2. Or, on the flip side, if there are too many memories of prior successes where certain considerations — usually safety or security — were blatantly ignored, overlooked or trivialized in some way;

3. Or if we forget important memories, due to perhaps

   1. A lengthy duration between the event and the attempted memory recollection,
   2. Interference from lots of other distractions happening all around and/or
   3. Problems in recollection.

   Moreover, there are other problems as well. Aside from all the obvious mental deficits resulting from physical infliction, various diseases, stroke or hemorrhage, chemical exposure, suffocation, dehydration and malnutrition, there are also demonstrable genetic and psychosomatic causes for individual differences in the human caring emotion. Among humans, though the genetic and psychosomatic causes may be ever so slight — to the point of perhaps seemingly negligible effect — we must allow for a rare possibility of external environmental or other circumstantial factors potentially exacerbating them. So, we have school counselors to guide our kids when their tempers seem potentially troublesome. Then, of course, there are the psychological causes — bad mood, low motivation, poor personal outlook, excessive fatigue, distraction and diversion, inattentiveness, desensitization, false anticipation, and so on.

   So, what do we do? Throw our arms about and surrender to the forces that be?

   Of course not. There is a solution. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

IV. Programming & Information

    A. Self-Programming:  See also Avoiding Error: Discipline.

   That single feature which separates the higher intelligent animals from the lesser intelligent is the ability to plan, to retrieve information and pause to manipulate it before responding. What separates humans apart from all the other intelligent animals here on planet Earth is our wide individual variability in responding. Past experiences determine considerably how we respond, but not so much as how we choose to respond. With all the other intelligent animals, memory directs behavior more so than choice.

   With humans, our imaginations kick in and provide us with a repertoire of potential responses. Memory then provides us with the probable direction to take.

   Within our memories, we humans have stored a host of "appropriate" responses to various situations and stimuli. Some of these memorized responses are learned, and some are taught. Very few of our responses are innate, like the bee building a honeycomb or a bird constructing a nest. (The innate reflexes human possess are those such as pain reflexes and infantile reflexes.) All our memorized responses are basically little programs in our heads that either we have put there ourselves or have had others put there for us (training, strict discipline, education, instruction, etc.). We invoke these memorized responses to guide subsequent behavior. As we utilize them repeatedly, they become habits.

   So how we humans choose in part depends on how we self-program. If we have learned that responding in manner M to situation S provides us substantially with what we want, we repeat it, over and over. But if someone then tells us that they respond in some alternate manner A to the same situation S and if the reward that they receive as a consequence becomes perceived by us as more desirable, we start responding in manner A as well, and we compare the results to formulate a preference of response.

   Okay, so where is this leading? The point is that how you decide in part depends on how you perceive the situation and in another part how you have programmed yourself into choosing among alternative responses. If you have decided to handle matters probabilistically, you may wind up making the gambler’s error: though a dire outcome to your decision may be rare, it may nevertheless still be possible. Or, if you decide to handle matters apathetically, you may wind up facing another who may not respond so appreciatively to your chosen mental detachment.^* Additionally, if you decide to choose perceptively, you may wind up committing an error that might have been easily prevented if you had made an attempt at validation. So to avoid all potential for mental error, we can either work hard at ascertaining that our perceptions are indeed 100% accurate or we can do something else: Question our own self-programming.

   Have you ever written a computer program? Or provided someone with verbal directions or instructions for making something? More than likely you already have, and you know the potential problems involved. For writing a computer program, you don't know how the user will respond, and you must imagine each potential response so that your computer program won't crash. For providing someone with directions or instructions, again you don't know how they might misinterpret what you are saying and wind up doing something entirely different from what you had meant. So the point is that just as we must go the extra mile to make sure that others understand exactly how we intend on guiding their behavior, so must we go the extra mile to ascertain that our own programming flawlessly guides our own behavior.

   This is called robust programming. Computer programmers do it all the time. And, as intelligent humans, if we don't want anything stupid to happen as a consequence of our own actions, we must make sure that we do the same before we act. A decision is robust only when overview is attained and every potential possibility that might enter into the scenario has been amply prepared for. Therefore, either work to make sure that all the inputs which you perceive as entering into the situation and all the outputs that you have decided to prepare for are precisely as you perceive, with not a single one overlooked or trivialized in some way, or stand at the ready while you carefully watch how matters unfold so that you may halt the process should something unwanted occur. Stated more simply, either

Don't think you can do that? Too much effort required? Too difficult? Why? Surely you can accomplish this simple(?) feat somehow. Can't you? Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

   This is the simple motivation behind the mental rule,

Imagine Reasons To Care!

You don't want to overlook anything out of ignorance. So, imagine reasons why you should assist, protect or provide. Imagine reasons why you should say, "Yes,” instead of, "No.” Imagine reasons why you should work to verify your assumptions or check to make sure, rather than idly or arrogantly assuming that how you perceive matters is precisely how matters really are (because of all the similar situations you may have experienced before). Situations can be extraordinarily complex at times even when they seem so simple! Why should you blindly assume consistency to Reality? Reality is ever-changing. Like a wild river, Reality at times does things we would never anticipate: Sometimes the current changes swiftly and begins to flow actually up rather than down!^**

Imagine what you might be overlooking!

   How you program yourself to do determines how successful you may subsequently become. Program yourself or Discipline your thinking into

• caring via your imagination rather than your memories alone,

• preparing (future) and checking to make sure (past, present) AND

• remaining concerned about what may potentially happen if you don't!

   Imagine reasons why you should help another rather than concentrating solely on self. Care, Concern, Competence and Preparation can go a long way to Preventing unwanted scenarios from surprising us and leading to circumstances we may later regret.

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   ^*For example, a trapper who traps a cub may subsequently encounter the parent bear nearby! Note, however, that bears are ignorant of their own "mental error." So, if you happen to stumble upon a trapped cub in the wild, leave it alone! And call the authorities! Otherwise, a parent bear might perceive you as an aggressor!
  ^**Most persons are unaware that river currents can actually do this. But they do, causing extreme havoc for licensed boat captains and other mariners. The cause of an opposite flow may customarily be due to some unseen, isolated pocket of erosion that has occurred beneath the surface (though other factors may result in the same effect — an underwater, man-made obstruction for example), resulting in currents that swiftly turn around and actually run contrary to themselves, sometimes very powerfully and for months or even years duration (until the eroded pocket or man-made obstruction or ... is finally swept away). So here is yet another example of the importance of total overview, total competence at knowing what you are doing, rather than blindly assuming that your perceptions are all 100% accurate!

All opinions expressed in this web site, unless otherwise noted, are my own, Michael Gaspard. If you notice any errors or have any suggestions for improvement, please let me know by e-mailing webmaster@mdpme.com. Thank you!

This web page was last updated on Monday, February 2, 2004.
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