Mismatch Essays

"Mismatch" was the focus of an article in a recent "Scientific American" by Randy Nesse and George Williams. One interpretation of their presentation is that we evolved various physiological defenses and attractions that were adaptive under conditions of scarcity. Thus, there was little survival value in a "Full" gauge ... when offered fats, we keep on eating, whether from a rabbit (that has practically NO fat -- you can starve eating only rabbit) or from Hagen Daz.

It's tempting to throw mismatch into the foundation of varied complaints about human miseries. The typical whine is that of blaming technology or culture for our hangnail gripes and even major despondencies.

Blaming technology, however, obscures our own evolved history and its role in our gripes. "I didn't do it!" -- the same complaint offered by a 1st grader caught in the cookies.

Technology follows our adaptations. Times Square is a tribute to our attractions to supernormal stimuli as well as to Paul MacLean, personified in the latest salvo from Disney Productions (but that's another story!). Traffic jams are a reminder of our migratory history.

We do things that feel good and we design toys to stroke those buttons more intensely and more frequently. Like Mickey Mouse in the "Sorcerer's Apprentice," we have trouble shutting the darn thing off.

Technology is not the problem and may indeed preserve our sorry tails from our personal excesses. However, we need some "full" and "tank empty" gauges that light up before we have to find another gas station by walking, crawling, fighting, and even bleeding. Sooner or later, even American Express says, "You've had enough."

Please enjoy the following!

Replies:

Mismatch and Tit for Tat: My Last Shave 062897, by James Brody, 12/20/98 Conduct Disorder and the Automobile 052597, by James Brody, 12/20/98 Dispersed Culture & T4T 052598, by James Brody, 12/20/98 HMOs, Mismatch, & Marketing, by James Brody, 12/20/98 Target Pharmacy Understands Mismatch, by James Brody, 12/20/98 Randolph Nesse, and Robert Wright and Mismatch, by James Brody, 3/9/00 Active Darwinism Offsets Mismatch (HBES presentation), by James Brody, 07/31/00 Hominids Build Manhattan, by James Brody & Nando Pelusi, 01/07/01 Mismatch: A Kid & His Grandfather, by James Brody, 01/17/01

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