L.I.F.T.

Hi all!

Yes, it’s been quite a while! Good to be back. I’m planning on getting back to my old level of activity here in the blogosphere, starting, immediately.

This post is about the Summer School at the School of Exercise and Sport Science that I attended last week. It was held at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. It was fantastic!

The school started (for me) with a 17-hour day of travel, that took me across several time zones, and resulted in my arriving in Copenhagen Sunday the 22nd. Two days after I left!!!

The first day was marked by torrential downpours, which I think are relatively normal in Copenhagen. I made it to a restaurant for some lunch – a salmon club sandwich! – and a large Carlsberg beer.

I was staying at the DGI-Byen Hostel, on Hans Christian Andersen Ave. It was a great hostel, and my three roommates were hilarious – two from Taiwan, and one from Spain.

Only one of my roommates was around in the afternoon, so he and I decided to head out to try to find the University in time for the check-in. After a little negotiating of bus stops, and talking to a couple of the incredibly helpful bus drivers, we managed to find the right bus, and get to the school. That night we had a short orientation, and then a nice dinner at the University.

Each day consisted of two presentations by experts in the field (sport sociology) with group discussions of those afterward, lunch, two student presentations (mostly PhD theses, but some masters-level work, like mine), a brief coffee break, a workshop by one of the experts, and then a short break before dinner during which you could do whatever you want, or meet with one of the experts for one-on-one supervision and discussion.

We had talks, and the opportunity to meet with (and to talk informally with) Gertrud Pfister, Laila Ottesen, Annette Hofmann, Reinhard Stelter, Anne-Marie Elbe, Jim Denison, Fabien Ohl, Pirkko Markula, Holly Thorpe, and Lone Thing. All incredibly knowledgeable experts in the field!

The discussions by the experts, and the work of the students, was all amazing. It was such an incredible experience to meet 29 other students from all over the world who are passionate and excited about their work in sport sociology. Our conversations were enlightening, to say the least!

I’m really grateful to have had the opportunity to attend such a great event, and to have met so many wonderful people. If you’re interested in attending next year, I highly encourage you to try! If you want any information about it, let me know, and I’ll be happy to help as much as I can!

Another new TED talk from Kevin Stone talks about the future of joint repair. Totally awesome. An instance where science achieves something meaningful:

In a recent TED talk, Dimitar Sasselov describes their effort to find other planets in the Universe that can support “life.”

One of the qualities needed is the development of compartmentalization – keeping molecules needed for life separate from the external environment (in a membrane).

Many of the elements found on our planet (and in the Universe) naturally form bubbles, which can become a membrane if those bubbles trap the right ingredients…

My question, though, is – how would you describe “life,” in the universe? Dimitar describes it as biochemistry. If “life” is the organization of chemicals into self-perpetuating or self-regenerating forms, how many types of “life” could there be out there?

Watch Dimitar’s talk, it’s definitely worth it.

There are a few camps around the concept of free-will out there, and whether or not, and to what extent, we have or can exercise choice in our lives.

While I do believe that we can have free will, or free choice, I think that it is extremely difficult to achieve – even once, but especially on a regular basis – and is mostly defined by what “level” of behavior or action you choose to look at.

From the perspective of regular, day-to-day choices, we can choose whatever we want.

However, those choices will be constrained by our environment. If I live in a jungle, I cannot choose to have Golden Grahams for breakfast (let’s say that I actually know of the existence of Golden Grahams). My choice is constrained.

Within social contexts, my choice may be constrained by conditioning I received as to what is appropriate or not. I may really want to choose to go to art school, but my parents have always called art a silly thing, so I go to medical school, the way they want.

I can choose to walk or run (given that I have legs, and a nervous system that complies with that request).

Even below that, are the subtle pre-cognitive signals I receive from my environment that may color my choice in certain areas. If I see a person with a certain countenance, they trigger my mirror neurons, which creates a certain impression of that person and their intentions in my body before I am even able to make a conscious choice about who or what they are or mean to me.

On another level, my friend Mick Dodge would bring up prison. If you want to know what free will is or is not, go to prison. You’ll quickly learn the meaning. That is a very real, physical, palpable level of constraint, and quickly challenges a different, very real, level of the notion of “free will.”

In the end, these discussions are mostly mental masturbation. The concept of free will is only as meaningful as one makes it. Life continues with or without “concepts.”

This post was inspired by this article about the Japanese artist Hayao Miyazaki’s response to the iPad (and to Manga and text-messaging).

Modern technology is not “necessary” for survival or happiness. It is a tool we’ve created. Free-will, to me, is the ability to choose to be a creator or a consumer, as Miyazaki points out. The extent of your ability to choose your actions is the extent of your “free-will.” That can be constrained either by external sources (such as a prison), or by yourself (the prison of your iPad).

My issue with modern technologies is that people are used by them, instead of using them. Choose to selectively use technologies in ways that expand your sensitivity, your awareness, your abilities…or imprison yourself within them.

Another great find by my friend Colin Pistell over at The Fifth Ape Blog got my wheels turning again…here’s my response to the TED talk Colin posted, which I’ve pasted below in this entry. Thanks for the inspiration Colin!

I like the first part…reminds me of a book I just put on my wishlist:

But his finale leaves me befuddled. The “cloud” or network-brain method of technology-making is also extremely fragile. Yes, it creates “innovation” (this question later). But it creates innovation that no one person can recreate if a part of that innovation gets lost.

We used to joke, when I worked at Apple, about what might happen if John Ive (the guy who designed the iMac, iPod, and about everything “i” since) dropped dead. Or worse still, if Steve Jobs did!

We got an inkling of what would happen if Steve Jobs left Apple back in the 90’s, when he was fired from the company. It tanked. And another inkling when he revealed that he had been diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. The stock tanked!

So, though the head may be good at running the company – the company that coordinates the “hive-brain” that makes the products – if the head dies, the body dies as well.

Question two is about “innovation.” People always tout “innovation,” and “creative solutions” to our “problems.”

However, most “innovation” only creates more problems. It is innovation built upon a problematic foundation.

That is, our “problems” are based on a dysfunctional relationship with ourselves and with ourselves-in-the-world. We feel the need to meddle in things all the time, when sensitive awareness would be much more effective at increasing efficiency, or effectiveness, or whatever it is we think we need to increase (which is also questionable).

Once we’ve created these “solutions,” we have to justify our efforts. When the “solutions” cause more problems (see our “petroleum solution”), we have to create “alternative fuels,” and chemicals that can clean up the messes we’ve made.

Do we really? Is that really helpful? Or should we instead question the path we’re on entirely? Should we question the depths of our consumption? Should we question the notion of “progress” and “innovation,” that has driven us (further and further from interconnection with the natural world that is our home) since the industrial revolution?

I don’t know. I know the Acheulean toolkit was supposedly our mainstay for 1.5 million years.

For how long will the iPhone be useful?

Just saw a commercial for Progressive Auto Insurance on TV and had a stark realization:

You can’t save money if you watch TV.

It’s physically impossible.

Here’s why:

If you watch TV, you’re watching commercials created to sell things (such as auto insurance).

It costs money to create the commercials.

The companies get the money for the commercials from TV-viewers’ purchases of their products.

If TV viewers did not watch TV, and did not know about the product (auto insurance), they could not buy auto insurance.

Given that TV viewers do watch TV and do learn about saving money with auto insurance through TV, they then go and spend money on auto insurance.

Spending money is the opposite of saving money.

Therefore, you cannot save money if you watch TV.

Good night.

In Taoist cosmology/philosophy, there are four states leading to “being”:
Zero – “The Tao” or Huntun (and/or see this entry by Scott Phillips)/Wuji – formlessness, undifferentiation (“none”)
One – Condensation (“one”)
Two – Taiji – differentiation (“two”)
Three – The “two” give birth to three…not sure what this one is “specifically”
Four – Reality/”naming” – 10,000 things

Here’s a quote from Chapter 42 of the Tao Te Ching:
The Tao gives birth to One.
One gives birth to Two.
Two gives birth to Three.
Three gives birth to all things.

In my recent experience, I’ve encountered the distinction between these.

Undifferentiation
There seems to be a realm we can inhabit, mentally, of undifferentiation. Though it may seem like apathy, it isn’t the same. It is a state of ease with the fact that all things are just as-they-are. Some people call this “alchemy.” This would be level zero in the above model.

Ideal/Utopian
Then there is an “ideal-state” mode of thought, where we reside in how we wish things were. There is only one idealized future. I would say this is level one above.

Polarity/Contrastive
The next level is polarity. The place where we make abrupt/acute distinctions between things – either/or. This is level two, Taiji.

Naming
Level three is the place where “naming” begins. Once you’ve identified a polarity, you begin to make discriminations. Yes, something can be black or white. But there are also shades of grey in between. This is the place where you recognize grey. Not all of the shades, that’s next. Level three is similar to level zero, in that it is a transitional state between Two and Four. It is the realm of the trichotomy – the either/or/and situation.

State-Chaser
Level four is somewhat easier to identify. I’d say it’s when we’re in the “state-chaser” frame of mind/being. We’re smelling the flowers, getting drunk, doing feats of physical endurance, swimming in really cold water, going to rock concerts, moving to an ashram in India – in order to experience all of the diversity that life has to offer (as opposed to doing those things with specific ends in mind).

What I realized in my personal life was that I’d been spending too much time in the Undifferentiated and Ideal zones, and had begun taking those as reality.

Or, I would vacillate between Relativism, Idealism, and Polarity.

It made it hard to figure out what to do next.

The solution has been to understand nature as, ultimately, undifferentiated, and accept that. Leave that where it is. Then, to understand my own desired “utopian state.” What is my “ideal” in xyz situations? Then, to leave that where it is. Finally, to come to “reality” and take actions that seem best for me right now, based on my past experience, and the ideal(s) I have in mind for a particular situation.

Action cures all ills.

David McRaney has a great post on the You Are Not So Smart Blog.

He’s talking about conditioning, and our ability to act with “free will,” specifically in his post, with regards to diet.

McRaney mentions the work of BF Skinner, the “father” of Operant Conditioning.

“Skinner became convinced conditioning was the root of all behavior and didn’t believe rational thinking had anything to do with your personal life. He considered introspection to be a “collateral product” of conditioning.”

I’m not sure if that’s 100% true or not, but it’s an interesting viewpoint.

There is leverage, I believe, in what you choose or disagree to become conditioned to/by.

The author makes a distinction between three types of conditioning states:

Classical Conditioning – An “unconditioned stimulus” (a neutral stimulus such as a bell ringing) is used in coordination with a “conditioned stimulus” (one that generates a certain response, such as meat) to create a “conditioned response.” The classic example is Pavlov’s dog salivating with the ringing of the bell. Food was placed before the dog (conditioned stimulus), and a bell was rung (unconditioned stimulus) when the dog began salivating. Over time, the dog would salivate merely when the bell was rung (conditioned response).

Operant Conditioning – The alteration of behavior punishment or reward (“reinforcement”) of normal behavior. For instance, give the pigeon a food pellet every time it presses a lever, or a shock if it presses the “wrong” lever. Obviously, animals usually seek behaviors that lead to reinforcement responses, and avoid behaviors that lead to punishment responses from their environment.

Extinction – Is an element of Operant Conditioning in which a behavior is neither punished nor rewarded. The behavior declines in frequency.

An “extinction burst,” according to the author, is when you have a strong negative reaction to the lack of expected response from your environment.

The author finishes by saying:
“To give up overeating, or smoking, or gambling, or “World of Warcraft,” or any bad habit which was formed through conditioning, you must be prepared to weather the secret weapon of your unconscious – the extinction burst.

Become your own Supernanny, your own Dog Whisperer. Look for alternative rewards and positive reinforcement. Set goals, and when you achieve them, shower yourself with garlands of your choosing.

Don’t freak out when it turns out to be difficult. Habits form because you are not so smart, and they cease under the same conditions.”

Yes, I couldn’t agree more with this. But how do you do that? How do you “weather the storm?”

Goal-setting has always seemed extremely arbitrary, and less than motivating to me. The process has always been my concern – right here, right now.

I prefer to focus on something that grounds me to the present in order to weather my “extinction bursts.”

For me, that comes from a practice of increasing sensitivity, and awareness, or sensitive-awareness, through deeper connection to my physical being (which, for me, is also – spiritual, mental/emotional, environmental, communal/social).

I think this practice also leads to the shedding of “unnatural” habits.

I have the tendency to think of things I ought to do, or ought to have done. But that way of looking at events is very passive.

Instead, I can choose to look at those things as choices.

For instance, if I think “I should have done xyz…,” which leaves me in a position of regret. I can re-tell that story as “I chose not to do xyz…”

At that point, I’ve changed the locus of control from the past (external) to myself (internal).

Relating to my past and future in this way not only “empowers” me, but also leads to more active decision-making.

I’m playing with this right now…definitely interested to hear other perspectives on this type of practice.

My good friend Colin Pistell over at the Fifth Ape blog put up a fantastic post about the notion of “crossed syndromes” in the body, and as a general metaphor for action.

To my knowledge, Vladimir Janda was the first researcher to recognize and categorize the crossed syndromes. If you Google Janda’s name, you’ll find at least a couple of good articles about the crossed syndromes. Click this link to download a great article about him and his method.

In addition, many practitioners have been releasing books recently detailing Janda’s methods. Check out Assessment and Treatment of Muscle Imbalance, The Janda Approach, and Back Pain, a Movement Problem, for a couple of approaches.

Colin mentions that we often get “crossed” through dysfunctional habitual patterns in our lives. Read Colin’s post for his take on this.

Below is my response to his insightful message:

Great post Colin!

Your thoughts?