Participant: Jeremy Lent
Format: Presentation and Conversation
Themes: paradigm, praxis

The human prefrontal cortex (pfc) is recognized as mediating the executive function which is the underlying driver of our human uniqueness: our ability to plan, conceptualize abstractions, make rules, and impose meaning on experience. This paper asserts that the effect of this pfc-mediated executive function on other aspects of human consciousness has become so overwhelming that it may be analogized more accurately as a tyranny than an executive function.

The unique evolutionary expansion of the pfc in humans combined with the dynamics of culture (itself a product of pfc activity) to create a positive feedback loop leading to an imbalance within the human psyche, both collectively and individually. Collectively, this imbalance manifests in our unsustainable use of natural resources to fuel exponentially accelerating material growth. Individually, this tyranny refers to our unreflective absorption of fundamental values that prioritize abstractions at the expense of other aspects of human experience.

Paradigm: This presentation introduces the discipline of “cognitive history,” uncovering the layers of cognitive structures comprising our modern consciousness and investigating how they have evolved, through hunter-gatherer, agricultural, monotheistic and scientific paradigms, leading to our current unsustainable trajectory.
Praxis: Acknowledging this tyranny is the first step towards achieving re-harmonization within our individual and collective consciousness. Another step involves exploring alternative root metaphors for the pfc’s role in human consciousness, such as “conductor” in an orchestra. The Taoist notion of wu-wei and the Buddhist conception of the self as a dynamically interactive process offer potential paths for achieving a “democracy of consciousness.” These may be integrated with findings in systems biology and complexity science, to offer an alternative, scientifically integrated approach to meaning that could supersede the current pfc-centered dualistic tyranny.