Why can’t we stop thinking?
Try to stop thinking for five seconds.
Ready?
…steady…
……GO!
Okay, now you’re just reading this and not-stopping-your-thoughts!!
So why can’t we stop thinking? Well, this is the handiwork of our old
friend, evolution.
A long time ago moment-to-moment readiness was necessary for
survival. In those days people had
to worry about things like lion attacks, leopard attacks, monkeys stealing
berries, scorpions, falling rocks, drowning, giant snakes, and so on. This required a brain that was constantly
working. Naturally, not every
single cognoscente being had the most efficient brain and thus the process of
natural selection got involved.
Those that ended up as menu items on the savannah could not pass their
genes on to the next generation.
Those that did survive turned out to be our ancestors. This process, generation after
generation, fine-tuned the brain to be working 24 hours a day.
A lot has changed since then.
After all, you’re reading this on a computer monitor and not having it
read out to you around a tree, right?
Well, our brain has not stopped working. This genetic gift from our ancestors is still working around
the clock, but now it has to process different types of information. At some capacity we’re still ready to
react to sudden things like lion attacks, but more realistically car accidents
or dropping a tray of food.
Regardless our brain is still constantly thinking. Our preservation instincts have had to
adjust with the modern times:
“Was that my exit?!?”
“I didn’t know I have a wealthy relative in Angola?”
“So, what will my boss will think of this?”
“I wonder what will happen if I eat that now?”
and so on…
This cerebral power-house works around the clock! No wonder it consumes
20% of our body’s energy! That’s
pretty amazing considering that the brain is a mere 2% of our body mass!
This non-stop thought factory is what makes us who we are so please
remember to think responsibly!
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