second brain

Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it’s enough.

– Robert Heller

Every single time you feel that I should not get into this bus or I feel something not right, it is our second brain communicating to us.  what !! you heard it right , we have a second brain.  When someone lost their way, we have heard people saying that their gut feeling told them to turn right at a particular decision point. we call them Instincts or a hunch or gut feeling

I always had a thought that these instincts are people’s reason to support their decisions but I recently learnt that people decisions are influenced by these so called “Instincts”. These instincts are not just psychological there is a science behind this and it is our second brain at work.

Like computers working in parallel, we have neurons spread like spider web in our brain, and these neural nets are present around heart and intestine as well. It is this intestine which is otherwise called “second brain” by psychologist and neural experts.

These neural nets in our intestine does not have analytical ability but they are “store and learn” information processors. They transmit signals upwards in the body itself to spinal cord , endocrine system ( affects your hormonal environment ) and to cortex area where we become self aware of these feeling. These feelings are sometimes important , consider them as our internal decision maker utilities. They lack analytical judgement about particular situation and since these are store and learn, they present judgements with our past experiences.

Its quite surprising and intriguing that our intestines not only work as food processors and absorbing nutrients, it functions as a secondary information processor which makes us feel about environment. They are not always right as they dont doubt the information like our brain does, but are certainly information providers in form of feelings which we can then analyze and make our decisions.

“I believe in intuitions and inspirations…I sometimes FEEL that I am right. I do not KNOW that I am.”
― Albert Einstein

So next time if you feel something inside which you can’t explain, don’t simply ignore but rather give it a second thought …..

do old civilizations live with us ?

“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
― Mark Twain

When you look into the history of anything, everything has progressed to what it is today, so what we have today with us is more of reminiscence of the past. It includes our daily believes and culture. Mankind has evolved and so do these. I am awestruck just to think that techniques and principles have been developed some thousand years back are still widely used in this modern digital world. Here I try to share very few of them which I read in recent time.

Indus Valley Civilization , Metallurgy , Mohenjo-daro, Lost-wax technique

Indus valley civilization had made advancement in metallurgy to create a simple yet exquisite techniques.  More you find here Metallurgical Techniques of Indus Valley Civilization. I find this article interesting that some 1000 years before they were able to simplify a process to create gold necklace less than 0.25mm in diameter.  Another example is 4500 yrs old bronze statue. This statue is still known for its fluidity in curves and lines. Made of Lost Wax technique which is still being used. Archeologists and metallurgist are at awe as this transcends time and space.

dancing girl – 4500 years old statue

Architecture,  Mesopotamia  Mud-brick technique

There existed an advanced village in prehistoric age dated (~6000 bc–? BC). Mesopotamia Civilization did house world’s ancient highly developed and complex states.  Hassuna was the oldest culture in northern Mesopotamia civilization. Architecture around this place is made of packed mud. They developed mud-brick technique, influencing the architectures until 6th millennium B.C. Mud brick houses are still being built in Niger, Romania Danube Delta, Yemen.  These structures provide insulation against heat and cold.  Another technique that has transcend time which are  simple yet sophisticated, crude yet functional.

Mud brick houses – Taos Pueblo, New Mexico

 Architecture , Chinese civilization – Architecture of symmetry 

Chinese architecture was unique as it intertwined taoism philosophies into its design around 1500 BC. They too had mud houses similar to mesopotamia civilization where poor people stayed. But it was architecture of houses where rich people stay intrigues me. They had strict rules of design, they had low roofs and balanced symmetrical (both sides of the building should be same ) these are according to taosim philosophy. Later around 200 BCs they had Indian influences ( due to buddhism arrival ) with high raised stupas, but idea of symmetrical building were carried till now in architecture and design. Idea of symmetry and balance is a simplistic and clutter free view which explains taoism philosophy of simplicity and balance , can be boring but they are stable and appeals to human eyes aesthetic sense. This architecture principles are still being used by modern designers. Appeal to aesthetic sense is never out of fashion , it is more of a natural extension. Below is something to compare between past and present.

“Study the past if you would define the future.”
― Confucius

This humble presentation is just to make us to look back into the past and understand that there are so much to learn and progress constructively. History is boring if we try to see them in numbers when something happened and who was there, but rather they are interesting if we try to see them why something was done and how.