Science, Strategy and War The Strategic Theory of ... - Boekje Pienter

Orientation shapes the character of present observations-orientation-decision-action loops --while these present loops shape the character of future orientation.It becomes even more evident when more recent research on cognition is added.Evolutionary psychology, which emerged in the mid-eighties, brings together two scientificrevolutions. One is the cognitive revolution which explains the mechanics of thought andemotions in terms of information and computation discussed in the previous chapter. Theother is the revolution in evolutionary biology of the 1960s and 1970s, which explains thecomplex adaptive design of living things. The combination explains how a mind is possible,what kind of mind we have as well as why we have the kind of mind we have. This iscaptured in Pinker’s concise rendering of the structure of mind. According to Pinker, themind is a system of organs of computation, designed by natural selection to solve the kindsof problems our ancestors faced in their foraging way of life (an echo of Monod’s). Themind is what the brain does; specifically, the brain processes information, and thinking is akind of computation. The mind is organized into modules or mental organs, each with aspecialized design that makes it an expert in one arena of interaction with the world 35 .While not aware of Pinker’s synthesis of three decades of research, Boyd did followdevelopments in this field closely 36 . In fact, Boyd explicitly included three sections fromstudies of the mind in his briefing The Strategic Game of ? and ? 37 . In two of these sections,Maturana’s concept of structural coupling clearly comes to the fore 38 :[…] a neuron’s fibers can change significantly in a few days or weeks, presumably inresponse to changing demands on the nervous system. …research has shown neuronscontinually rewire their own circuitry, sprouting new fibers that reach out to make contactwith new groups of other neurons and withdrawing old fibers from previous contacts…Thisrewiring process may account for how the brain improves one’s abilities such as becomingproficient in a sport or learning the play a musical instrument. Some scientists have suggestedthat the brain may use this method to store facts.[…][…]the complexity of the human brain is dependent upon a vast number of synapses(connections) between brain cells….these synaptic connections are established or fall by thewayside according to how frequent they’re used. Those synapses which are in frequent usetend to endure (‘are stabilized’) while others are eliminated…In other words,…interactionwith the environment”…[exert]…”tremendous influence on the way the human brain worksand how it has evolved.Some pages later Boyd combined dissipative structures, autopoiesis, Gödel, Heisenberg andthe Second Law of Thermodynamics to take the audience slowly towards the essence ofstrategy. He notes that 39 :35 Pinker, p.21, 23. See also Jerry Fodor's positive but also critical review of Pinker's book in ‘TheTrouble with Psychological Darwinism’ in London Review of Books, Vol.20,. no.2, 22 January 1998.Fodor takes issue with the overly Darwinistic and Dawkinsian elements in Pinker's work.36 Dawkins and Wilson have already been mentioned as sources. Additionally, his list of personalpaper includes for instance annotated versions of John von Neumann, The Computer and the Brain(1958); Richard Restak, The Brain, The Last Frontier (1979); Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature: ANecessary Unity (1980); Howard Gardner, The Mind's New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution(1985); Marvin Minsky, The Society of Mind (1986); and Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind (1989).37 See Strategic Game, p.16-17.38 Ibid, both on p.16.39 Ibid, p.28.132