Are we losing to cockroaches?

Our perception of the world around us is different from what is “out there” actually. We filter out most of the incoming information in order to conserve the resources needed for the task at hand.

One of such tasks – and the most important one! – is survival. For that, we need efficiency. We need to be able to react quickly.

If we are not sure about the incoming signal, we prefer to assume there is a danger, just to be on safe side.

That is why we “believe” in various conspiracy theories and “prefer” bad news on TV.

Media professionals exploit this human proclivity to their advantage and we are flooded with stories about shooting and other tragedies.

Would you be as glued to your TV if it showed only happy people all the time?

I too, while writing my books, try to juice them up with a mystery and intrigue to keep the reader’s attention.

Naturally, the achieved efficiency comes with a price (in addition to the monthly payment for the TV). While filtering out the information and taking the shortcuts for the purpose of making decisions quickly, we err once in awhile.

Professor Donald Hoffman specializes in one type of such errors – the visual illusions. Some of them we experience every day. Hoffman’s studies convinced him that the logic of evolution demands survival not of those who understand the world better, but of those who does it in the most narrow context of survival.

His recent interview with www.quantamagizine.com generated quite a splash. The editor came to the following conclusion:

The world presented to us by our perceptions is nothing like reality.

Hoffman himself in his article “What Have You Changed Your Mind About? Why?” wrote:

The cockroach, we suspect, sees little of the truth, but is quite fit, though easily fooled, with its niche-specific perceptual hacks. Moreover, computational simulations based on evolutionary game theory, in which virtual animals that perceive the truth compete with others that sacrifice truth for speed and energy-efficiency, find that true perception generally goes extinct.

But I do not think that this conclusion, especially if taken out of the context, was warranted.

To stay on the top of the game, we obviously need the survival advantage. And it is true that not all knowledge about the world brings this advantage. But more often than not we are not sure in advance which of the directions of the research will pay up.

We estimate the chances and make decisions, which are not always correct in retrospect. But overall, we are doing pretty well, so far. And I think that this way – because of our better understanding of the world at large – we are more prepared to the changes that will be new for us and for the cockroach as well.