On November 1st, I attended a truly fascinating seminar given by a Bangor psychology professor Guillaume Thierry. Initially, Guillaume gave a brief introduction to the theory of evolution, the simplicity of which he apologised for, mentioning that he usually presented the seminar to those not from biological science backgrounds. He had been encouraged to present to SBS by someone in the psychology department who thought it would interest some of the students – it did! Unfortunately, only ten or so people attended the lecture, which wasn’t advertised via Bangor’s mail system.

The professor then discussed the future of evolution, comparing the complexity of the human socio-economic structure to that of a colonial organism such as a beehive or ant colony, where a collection of smaller organisms act as one, forming a super-organism. However, professor Thierry suggested that human society was in fact more unique, in that a single bee or ant may be removed from a hive or colony – and yet the society will carry on functioning as normal. The queen may even be removed, and another individual will take her place. As humans, we are far more dependent on the roles of individuals – if we remove teachers or doctors from society, for example, chaos ensues. Autonomy is also something which segregates human beings from other animals. As humans we are well aware of our position, and the greater goals of society. A bee or ant lacks the cognitive ability to contemplate its own role within its society, it knows what it should be doing – and does so accordingly – but it does not know its own value to the colony. This is a theory which I haven’t heard before, but has some merit, and does raise questions about how much control we actually possess over our own future – we may make choices and decisions which affect our own lives, but we are also governed by laws and taught how to think from a young age.

This brought Guillaume to his next topic – how the human mind works. He showed us a collection of brain teasers, puzzles and images that trick the mind into seeing something that isn’t there or can be interpreted in different ways, depending on how the brain of each individual processes the information. Our eyes see the reality, yet the brain is constantly disregarding and altering information. Why it does this is mysterious – is the brain only focusing on the information it feels is needed to keep us alive? This all happens subconsciously, too quickly for us to consider and process – so how much control do we actually have over how we think?

Please watch this video before continuing:

Professor Thierry wanted us to acknowledge the complexity of our own brains, by showing us how much we take the normality of what we perceive for granted. Of course there are those whose brains function in a completely different way to most of us – people often classed as ‘mentally ill’. Take a look at the following painting of cats, by the artist Louis Wain, whose perceptions of reality completely changed in the years after he was diagnosed with Schizophrenia – the cats eventually becoming little more than psychedelic looking fractals:

http://imgur.com/gallery/15A60

The point is that we still understand very little about how the mind works, despite years of research by neuroscientists. We might have a simple grasp of the mechanics, but no two brains are alike, and we’ll never truly understand the processing power and potential of the human mind.

Finally, Guillaume spoke about what little we can do in an attempt to harness our own minds, and the power of meditation. It is almost impossible to completely clear our heads and think of nothing – something Buddha is said to have done in his quest for enlightenment. Maybe through meditation, we can learn to shut off some of the trivial thoughts that constantly plague us, and begin to notice some of the finer details of the world surrounding us that we usually pay little attention to. My curiosity has certainly been captured, and I’m keen to find out what I’ve been missing in my haste.