“… humans … are bogged down by their unique ability to rationalize and reason.”
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Raghu Murtugudden, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Forecasting System at the University of Maryland Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC), and a professor in the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, believes that the ability of humans to think is a disadvantage, when responding to climate change.
According to Professor Murtugudden (comparing our response to climate change to finding cheese in a maze);
“… mice can sense the coming change. Before it’s too late, they run through the maze and find new cheese. The men, however, fail to notice the subtle collapse in the cheese supply until it’s nearly too late. Haw, the more proactive of the little men, realizes that the cheese has all but disappeared and sets out in the maze to find new cheese. He learns a number of lessons along the way and does manage to both find new cheese and enjoy it as much as the old. Hem, however, remains unconvinced that the cheese will disappear. He also concludes that even if the cheese were to disappear, he wouldn’t like the new cheese anyway.
The moral of the story is that even creatures like mice — with their simple brains — are biologically tuned to notice and rapidly respond to change, whereas humans — the most evolved life form — are bogged down by their unique ability to rationalize and reason. Some members of the species even resort to wholesale denial that change is well underway, even when said change is caused by their own actions.
The parallels to humans and climate change are rather obvious. Humans are constantly seeking more and more comforts, even at the cost of irreversibly damaging the planet.
Less fortunate humans may, in fact, be more in tune with environmental changes and quicker to adapt, even when the changes result from over-consumption by the rich. Some humans are more sensitive to changes, even if they are late in responding to them. Others may resort to complete denial of the change itself or deny the need for action to avert change, especially when the thermostat is being discreetly adjusted.”
http://news.yahoo.com/human-nature-may-seal-planets-warming-fate-op-183943535.html
Its difficult to know how to respond to that – I always thought our ability to reason is the asset which has facilitated our greatest achievements, a gift which has allowed humans to adapt to and thrive in an extraordinary range of climatic conditions.
Perhaps Professor Murtugudden should be more careful in future, about checking the use-by date on his cheese.
Upon further reflection i couldn’t agree more with this article. As with all leftist ideology, thinking and reason spoils the party.
In nature, at least mice have enough sense to mate and raise their own young. Those stuck in such gov’t social engineering experiments are less than men, less than mice.
http://www.socialhistoryofart.com/photos/Art–Photos/82.jpg
Rodin, Hand of God
If the experiment were honest, the evil scientists would submit the baby mice to extreme maternal deprivation, give them schedule one drugs and sex changes, and reduce the feed to omit essential vitamins, fats and proteins.
It is called the Trans-rodent movement.
Rodin once commented on being alone in a maze, eating government cheese.
http://www.repro-tableaux.com/kunst/auguste_rodin_625/hand_devil_hi.jpg
Rodin, Hand of the Devil
Isn’t the conclusion obvious: Green Bay Packer fans should rule the Earth?
No Chicago Cubs fans.
Of Mice and Men “I’ll find a little mouse and I’ll hold him and squeeze him and love him.”
Anyone with access to the CO2 and temperature data, who was paying attention in first year calculus, and can extrapolate the math to the physical world, can falsify the statement that change to the level of atmospheric CO2 causes significant climate change.
See this explained and discover the two factors that do cause climate change (95% correlation since before 1900) at http://agwunveiled.blogspot.com . The two factors which explain the last 300+ years of climate change are also identified in a peer reviewed paper published in Energy and Environment, vol. 25, No. 8, 1455-1471.
Sounds like just another ‘Jonathan Gruber’ type trying to Gruberize us skeptic peons. Academia is full of ’em… and apparently (don’t ask me why) we support a whole passel of ’em with our taxes. I guess just so they can keep callin’ us names.
“Its difficult to know how to respond to that ”
—————-
Maybe not that difficult when considering and thinking about the “Hitchhicker guide to galaxy”
The all planet ordered and payed by the mice, made and tailored for the mice…:-)
cheers
From the University of Maryland’s very own website I find this description of their employee’s, Professor Raghu Murtugudden (whoops, Murtugudde) PhD (and no, the ‘P’ doesn’t stand for ‘Primitive’) description of what he does. Ready? Here goes:
“As an Earth System Scientist, I study the interactions between the physical world and life and train Earth System doctors for taking the pulse of the planet, diagnose what ails the planet and prescribe cures and preventive measures. Observations of nature and life are combined with computer models to understand the functioning of the Earth System and to predict trajectories of its future evolution. …The scenarios are then provided as interactive decision-support information to stakeholders ranging from resource managers, health workers, and policy makers to the general public. The ultimate goal is to continuously monitor … with designer Earth System forecasts.”
Got that? The guy’s a planetary doctor for chrissake. That’s pretty close to a god, ain’t it? I’m thoroughly impressed. No wonder he equates mere humans to mice. Certainly, that’s how we must seem to his godyness. What an ego. I like his disingenuous description of law makers, enforcers, and regulators with the tender term, ‘policy makers’. A particularly nice touch is his monitoring, not with merely “Earth System forecasts”, no, but with “‘designer’ Earth System forecasts” – a classy, fashionable godyness!
Does this guy work on Magrathea? I bet he likes to work with all the “fiddly bits”.
Sheesh Tom J,
Ya done gone and messed with my mental image of a real guru in our midst.
And I take a very dim view of My Mother Gaia; Matriarch of all Maxwell’s Demons being abused by accusation of meddling in the natural order of things.
She merely observes and notes and doesn’t meddle ever.
Like she knows the serial number of every molecule in one mole of the atmosphere; all the way from #1 to # 6.023 E+23, so she can watch them exchange energy and move to different positions on the Maxwell Boltzmann energy distribution curve; but she would never let on to us as to which one moved to where.
I’ll have to pour some Ragu on Prof Murtuguude’s Dutch cheese experiment.
g
I think us mice don’t think the world is changing as much as scientist are moving our cheese.
Scott Adam’s take:
http://dilbert.com/strip/2001-11-12
http://dilbert.com/strip/2008-10-31
Well that certainly explains why the adherents of CAGW are such a weak minded lot.
To paraphrase an old commercial:
“… so go by Greenhound and leave the thinking to us!”
“The moral of the story is that even creatures like mice — with their simple brains — are biologically tuned to notice and rapidly respond to change, whereas humans — the most evolved life form — are bogged down by their unique ability to rationalize and reason.”
Er… where does cheese come from?
We are so bogged down that we have doubled our life expectancy, increased population seven fold, increased food production, visited almost every planet in the Solar System, speak thousands of languages. etc etc. The analogy with the maze is contrived and annoying. The solution to realising there is a cheese supply problem is check the fridge and if there is no cheese then eat something else. If there is no fridge where the maze is then leave the building and go and buy more cheese or if you feel like it make some. If you don’t know how to make cheese then either read up or watch a YouTube. Alternatively check with the neighbours or order a pizza. Or go out and eat a Pizza. And if you don’t like cheese then problem solved. Biscuits are good or even a bowel of cereal.
The Cheese Shop sketch, Monty Python
Understand a couple of things, Eric.
The mentality behind climate alarmists rejects our ability to think.
It also uses words variably, so “think” to such people means “agree with them”.
(You’ll also find them using words dialogue, consult, and discuss in very one-sided ways.)
Such behaviours may be slippery game playing, but may actually be based in teachings of the ideologies they accept, often Marxism and its derivatives like “Post-Modernism” and its outgrowth “Post-Normal Science”. That comes off of the Kantian fork of Plato’s two-world’s error, Kant completely denies the efficacy of human minds. (Of course Marxists contradict themselves by claiming that a collective of those uncapable untrustworthy beings called humans is magically all-seeing and moral – that’s “dialectic logic”.
There’s also an element of thinking that words create reality. Certainly they at least claim things to be the way they want them to be, including that they speak for everyone.
The average sucker doesn’t know that, just believes what their own psychology motivates them to believe, but activists know – and choose to live the contradictions.
IMO this would make a good subject for a post.
Keith Sketchley and Lewis P Buckingham
It seems you have forgotten the cheese and got lost in the maze.
Richard
Poor feeble-minded homo sapiens, We should be so grateful that we have “a god who walks among us” like Raghu Murtugudde, PhD.
“There are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them.”
― George Orwell
So I thought we were now s’posed to be Homo sapiens sapiens. No I dunno why either.
Rene Descartes: Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)
U of Maryland Planetary Doctor: Sum ergo cogito cogito. (I am, therefore I think I think.)
Speak for yourself Raghu! The irony is lost on non-thinking people.
Our ability to think usually prevents things like going to bed with someone who won’t respect you in the morning, or demanding cash instead of a promise the cheque will be mailed.
Notice change? Nothing has (insert appropriate scatological term here) changed in the last decade or two climate wise! Or worse, it has cooled off – has anyone noticed the arctic clippers and the blizzards (which I have to think back to the 1970’s to remember when it was common).
And people noticed change before (including climate related disasters) and started burning witches. Hey, when that started the Medieval warm period ended!
Blatant stupidity like this from a climate scientists does two things, one intentional, the other an unintended consequence.
1. Confirmation for the Progressive econuts who are sheep being led to slaughterhouse.
2. Disgust in critical- thinking scientists and engineers who are crittical thinkers, and realize the mouse always goes to food. The thinking human would wonder was its little green pellets or green cubes.
So he is saying that we should ignore science and the evidence and go for gut feel. So why should we, or anyone else for that matter employ him or any other scientists at all?
priceless question,
Sal Minella on February 4,
2015 at 7:20 am
If there are no mice left,
does the mouse universe
exist?
– the mouse universe exists. left of mice. –
and almost no one left to know about.
Sole Murtugudden, ‘more to good than’ /whom ever/
left speculating about ‘Left Mice Universe Cheese Supply’
AND
‘to whom it concerns’.
Tasty.
Wow. A true believer.
http://leopoldleadership.stanford.edu/fellows/murtugudde
The entire proposition is based on the premise that he is smarter than everykne else.