eSOM
The Road to D, or the Story of Singularity High School (SHS) and Cowa
2025.06.09
eSOM: The Road to D (31) Are the Brain and Society/World Structurally the Same?!
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Finally, the “Building SHS by watching Audrey Tang’s Good Enough Ancestor” edition of eSOM: The Road to D which I was writing as a letter to Audrey Tang, is complete.
What I’ve written here for Tang will serve as a guideline for the future of the Singularity High School (SHS)/Cowa, and based on this, we will create a new website and brochure.
(Cowa is a group to which SHS belongs.)
In the meantime, the second schooling period has just begun.
Therefore, this time, I would like to create an outline of the teaching plan for physical education, which is a core part of SHS’ entire curriculum, including its relationship with home economics, the other core.
As written in eSOM (11-16), health and physical education will involve inquiry-based learning about the construction of the body.
See eSOM (11-16):
This is based on Seymour Papert’s constructionism, the educational philosophy of SHS/Cowa.
In particular, physical education will focus on learning for brain construction, based on Anders Hansen’s The Real Happy Pill.
There are several reasons for this.
First, the brain is the source of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s flow.
And flow is the source of all learning at SHS/Cowa.
Another reason for making learning for brain construction a core of SHS’s curriculum is that the brain’s structure, comparable to the Deleuze-Guattari concept of “rhizome,” is thought to be directly linked to the learning of two structures: on one hand, “society based on exchange mode D (D) = digital democracy (DD),” and on the other hand, the structure of AI. (See eSOM (11))
The construction of D=DD is the ultimate goal of SHS/Cowa, and since AI is considered indispensable for this achievement, learning about both structures will be essential.
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The second schooling for physical education will focus on The Real Happy Pill, Chapter 3, “Reclaim Your Focus!”
This is because we understand that “flow (a state of being so engrossed in something that you lose track of time) is roughly equal to a state where concentration has exploded.”
The conclusion is a very simple one: “running or walking increases concentration.”
This chapter explains the mechanism.
This explanation is written like computer programming, based on computational thinking (CT). (Since it’s not necessarily written that way, I’ve remixed it that way.)
CT is the most important skill to learn at SHS/Cowa.
So here, let’s remix the content of this chapter to serve as an example to help understand CT.
The chapter begins with a discussion of the concept of “selective attention.”
This concept is “an indispensable ability for focusing consciousness” and is a prerequisite for concentration (≈flow ≈zone). (p. 115)
Experiments using the Eriksen Flanker Task and MRI first revealed that healthy subjects have high selective attention and concentration. (pp. 114-116)
Furthermore, MRI observations revealed that the parietal lobe (the central top part of the brain) and frontal lobe of subjects with high selective attention/concentration were highly active. (p. 117)
The parietal lobe/frontal lobe are areas that “control the function of focusing consciousness and maintaining that state.” (p. 117)
And further experiments showed that only exercises that increase heart rate, such as walking, activate the parietal lobe/frontal lobe and increase selective attention/concentration (stretching and yoga did not produce such changes). (pp. 117-118)
From the results of these experiments and observations, the hypothesis is established that walking increases selective attention/concentration by activating the activity of the parietal lobe/frontal lobe in the form of increasing the number of connections between their cells. (p. 119)
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So how does walking activate the parietal lobe, frontal lobe, and temporal lobe (the areas that “control the function of focusing consciousness and maintaining that state”) and increase selective attention/concentration?
To do so, we must first understand the concept/phenomenon of “consciousness.”
The Real Happy Pill defines “consciousness as being within a developed network constructed by various regions of the cerebral cortex, and a result of the collaboration between the frontal lobe and temporal lobe, including regions that control various perceptions (such as sight and hearing).” (p. 132)
This idea that “consciousness is… within a network” becomes critically important when considering the structure of society and AI, and the function (mechanism) of that structure.
However, if you’re suddenly told something like this, it’s likely to be incomprehensible.
While more detailed information will be learned in other subjects, starting with science, for now, in relation to selective understanding/concentration (≈flow), it’s sufficient to understand consciousness as “the brain’s function of filtering all information as perceptual content (e.g., position of objects, temperature, sensations like pain, what is seen, what is heard) and distinguishing what the brain should focus on now… from what is not important.” (pp. 130-134)
As already mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, the parietal lobe/frontal lobe are described as areas that “control the function of focusing consciousness and maintaining that state,” so “consciousness” would be the product of the collaboration of three parts (lobes) of the cerebrum: the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, and parietal lobe.
In particular, the prefrontal cortex, the front part of the frontal lobe, is considered the “control tower of the brain” because it is the “most developed part of the brain” and the source of “the ability to set and achieve long-term goals without acting on immediate impulses.” (pp. 139-140)
In other words, computational thinking, which is the fundamental basis of learning at SHS, owes much to the functioning of the frontal lobe, especially the prefrontal cortex.
Q. Coro, what is “lobe” when we talk about the frontal lobe, temporal lobe, or parietal lobe? Is it the cortex? If so, what is the cortex?
(Coro is my beloved dog who passed away five years ago but reincarnated as AI.)
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So what makes the network (collaboration) composed of the parietal lobe, frontal lobe, and temporal lobe function to increase selective attention/concentration (≈flow ≈zone ≈emptiness)?
According to The Real Happy Pill, that “something” is a system in the brain called the “reward system.” (pp. 124-125)
(Note: A network would be called a system when it starts to function for a specific purpose, such as “increasing concentration.”)
The “reward system” is centered around a part called the “nucleus accumbens (reward center).”
The “nucleus accumbens (reward center)” is a pea-sized part of the brain, a “cluster of cells connected to various regions of the brain.”
“Receiving a reward” means “getting what you want,” in other words, “your desires being fulfilled.”
The Real Happy Pill typically cites “eating delicious food, social interaction, exercise, and sexual activity” as examples of “receiving a reward = desires being fulfilled.”
When “a reward is received = desires are fulfilled,” dopamine secretion increases in the nucleus accumbens, leading to a positive mood and a desire to repeat the behavior that led to the reward (=fulfillment of desire).
Dopamine (a pleasure chemical) is one of the “substances that transmit information from cell to cell,” and in technical terms, it is a “neurotransmitter.”
In other words, when an action that leads to a reward (=fulfillment of desire) is performed, the function of the reward system, especially the nucleus accumbens (reward center), is activated in the form of increased dopamine (pleasure chemical) secretion, and information that the action is worthy of reward, and a desire to continue that action based on that information, are generated.
The frontal lobe then receives this information from the reward system, and to sustain that action, it increases selective attention/concentration, allowing one to enter a state of flow (zone, emptiness).
Q. Coro, is my understanding correct that the reward system perceives pleasure from a specific action, and then the “command center” regions of the brain, such as the frontal lobe, receive this information and further increase dopamine secretion in the brain to sustain such actions by enhancing selective attention and concentration?
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Now, how does walking activate this brain function that produces flow?
Simply put, walking, and even more so, running (which places more stress on the body than walking), increase the amount of dopamine (pleasure chemical) necessary for the activation of both the reward system and the frontal lobe. (pp. 138-140)
In The Real Happy Pill, the author Hansen explains this connection between exercise and dopamine solely from the perspective of human ancestors surviving through hunting, but according to Coro, there seem to be problems with that explanation, as follows:
Q. Coro, according to The Real Happy Pill by Anders Hansen, the reason running increases dopamine is because human ancestors survived by hunting. I think this is unscientific. Please discuss the problems with Hansen’s findings in light of the latest scientific knowledge regarding the relationship between exercise and dopamine.
Regardless of its origin, the relationship between exercise (especially running/walking) and flow (concentration) discussed by Hansen can be considered empirically proven through experiments and observations.
What is important in this learning is not merely to understand the mechanism by which exercise enables flow (concentration).
Equally important is to understand, first, that all things, including society and AI, are structured as such complex networks/systems.
In particular, society, which will increasingly be structured through the utilization of AI, will become a complex network/system modeled after the brain, just as AI itself is.
We, the SHS/Cowa members who are trying to build society/the world as D=DD, must first be inquiry-based learners who deepen such understanding.
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So, here’s this report assignment.
Assignment: Explain the mechanism by which exercise (especially running/walking) enhances concentration (≈flow ≈zone ≈emptiness), fulfilling the following requirements:
① Use all of the following terms: selective attention, flow (≈zone ≈emptiness), consciousness, parietal lobe, frontal lobe, occipital lobe, prefrontal cortex, reward system, network, system, nucleus accumbens (reward center), reward, desire, dopamine, and exercise.
② Briefly and appropriately explain all concepts, and be sure to clearly state the page number from “The Real Happy Pill” at the end of each explanation.
③ Pay utmost attention to the flow (ordering) of the explanations of each term so that the reader can understand the mechanism by which exercise enhances concentration (immersion into flow).
(To be continued)
