The Mirror Reflects on Mirror Neurons

I've been reading about the brain a lot lately, and why not? I have one and this is one of the things in common I share with other human beings, a species I often feel estranged from. We all have brains, which is nice, allows us to say things like "my thoughts exactly," but human minds are also very different from each other and these differences, quirks, are what I find make people endearing and interesting.

Then I heard about mirror neurons, these specialized wires in our neural network that give us monkey-see-monkey-do tendencies. You fall down and I grimace and say 'ow.' The up side is that they help us develop empathy, the "I feel for you, man" sense of connectedness. Mirror neurons seem to be the network that allows people to be Borgish (resistance is futile). However, not everyone has as many or as effective mirror neurons as everyone else, specifically people on the autism spectrum. As a consequence, some brain scientist have speculated, people on the spectrum have trouble linking up to the Borg (acceptance is futile).

Why this concerns me is that Borgish behavior has a highly effective way of isolating and disposing of perceived threats to the Borg. Consider what Dr. Alex Lickerman wrote about mirror neurons recently on his blog Happiness in this World:

"couldn’t we consider the effect of culture as I’ve described it here, i.e., all the advances that arise out of collective consciousness and cooperation, as providing protection against environmental forces that would otherwise select out “undesirable” traits such as mental illness? Not that I’m in any way arguing we shouldn’t treat mental illness, but in doing so, aren’t we relieving the environmental pressure to select it out of our population?"

I read that and felt like a germ in the body of humanity right after it got a shot of penicillin in the ass. Will the quirky, often ill, yet creative and active human brains become endangered species, selectively bred out because of odd deficiencies such as the mirror neuron condition seen in people on the autism spectrum? I hope not, cuz I for one am looking forward to hearing the theories from tomorrows Albert Einstein, reading the next book by the future Virginia Woolf, and playing the next video game by a future Satoshi Tajiri, creator of Pokémon.

Flora Domesticus

Spring lingers this year. Today the sky is clouded and, like many days, it's felt like I live by the sea. The plants are happy. Here are a few happy plants from the garden and our half-made bathroom. The drooping flower cluster is from a succulent my daughter planted. It has been working on this one stalk of flowers for about a month or so. Patience yields rewards here. While, the other lovely example of fungus sprung up over night from a leaky pipe. In this case the gratification might seem instant, but we have been cultivating this mushroom habitat in the bathroom for years. Careful and enduring neglect finally paid off with this fleeting flora. It was gone by the next morning. Nothing but its black spray of spores on the floor to remind us of its presence.

They reminded me of one of my favorite Sylvia Plath poems, called Mushrooms:

Overnight, very Whitely, discreetly, Very quietly Our toes, our noses Take hold on the loam, Acquire the air. Nobody sees us, Stops us, betrays us; The small grains make room. Soft fists insist on Heaving the needles, The leafy bedding, Even the paving. Our hammers, our rams, Earless and eyeless, Perfectly voiceless, Widen the crannies, Shoulder through holes. We Diet on water, On crumbs of shadow, Bland-mannered, asking Little or nothing. So many of us! So many of us! We are shelves, we are Tables, we are meek, We are edible, Nudgers and shovers In spite of ourselves. Our kind multiplies: We shall by morning Inherit the earth. Our foot's in the door.