This is my first attempt to write something based on a subject prompt provided to me by the book '642 THINGS TO WRITE ABOUT’.
What can happen in a second?
A second, a point in time. So many of them pass us by without a care, each filled with so much potential.
In all the seconds which happen, none seem more pertinent to our lives than the moment of conception, of our own creation. The moment a little microscopic wiggly swimming sperm breaks through the outer shell of an egg to conjoin and grow into a new being with a new consciousness.
A second of magic and wonder. The process has been filmed and written about countless times, and yet, like so many things explained by the empiric method, it is a moment which fires and inspires wonderment and, for some, spirituality.
Death too happens in an instant. The journey to death can be long, drawn out and painful. It can be painless too. It can be fought against with all manner of attempts to avoid it, but its inevitableness humbles all. This is arguably the second most pertinent second in any persons life. King or pauper, tinker or spy, beggar or thief; death is a moment, an experience, an event we will all take a part in, whether we like it or not.
A second. So trivial, has within it, the potential to ambivalently host the creation and killing of everything we know to be true.
Then there are the other things which come and go in a flash, love and loss, joy and ecstasy can seem eternal but are most oftentimes fleeting in a second or a longer collection of seconds.
Decisions and commitment are very often things which occur within a second. To ‘do’ or not to ‘do’. To say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. Choices are taken either consciously, or not, in a second; some of which can create consequences which last for a lifetimes or affect countless lives.
Scientific experiments related to cognitive bias have highlighted the difference between the slow logical part of the brain which weighs up pros and cons in a balanced way and the much faster part of the brain which allows us to make snap decisions without being aware of the thought process, the auto-pilot part of the brain.
It’s this fast part of the brain, the bit we are not conscious of which tends to make judgements. Do we like something? Will be do something?
Two great brains started looking at this snappy part of the brain. Kahneman and Tversky started to look at the brains biases, They postulated that are all sorts of things where we are 'hard wired' to decide or feel something before being aware of our thought process and moreover if questioned 'why we like or feel something' and 'for what reason', the slow part of our brain will ‘make up' or 'concoct’ the reason. It will create a logic path which supports our 'first reaction' our gut reaction to tastes and choices.
What's interesting to me is the ‘present bias’. It’s the part of a psyche which causes us to pay attention to the present without much care for the future.
In Thailand where I am living now, this approach to life is positively encouraged. Is that due to the Bhuddist faith? I am not sure - I guess so. Here a swift decision is made and behaviour follows - very often neither hanging or damning the consequences; simply it is not thought about. How often I have heard the words, when I ask a question such as "what if..." - "you think too much”.
According to Prof Dan Ariely, from Duke University in North Carolina the present bias is the most important. He says ‘It’s the one which accounts for overeating, smoking, drink driving, writing an SMS when we drive and or having unsafe sex.'
Two other biases both swift and unconscious relate to loss aversion and a negativity bias and in regards to what can happen in a second, these two will have potential for a decision being made or not, commitment to be made or not and again all in less than a second.
"I’ve been offered a job, shall I take it?" The present bias means that the decision was made as soon as the job offer was known about. By the time the letter was opened you knew if you were going to quit your current job.
All the hand wringing or asking council of friends and family is merely building a justification for what your brain has already decided. Its unlikely your logic brain will generate a ‘truth’ different from that 'the gut’ first shot into your consciousness. Sometimes it does but not without the gut kicking and screaming.
About 900 years ago Omar Khayyam wrote:
"The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit,
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it."
How right he was!! Clever bloke.
Second place, second chance, second choice, waves crashing, bombs blasting, guns shooting, cars hitting, questions asked, answers given, people meeting, nice face smiling, children laughing, light shining and rain hitting the ground. All in a second.
If you have any ideas or reactions to the phrase 'What can happen in a second?’, your very welcome to leave them here.