wisdom

Stéphane Hessel
www.hna.de

Wisdom

"Stupid is as stupid does", that's how Forrest Gump's mum put it. In analogy, we will be recognized as wise if we act wisely. How wise our actions have been is mostly appreciated with some delay. You can only act wisely with some foresight, investing some logic and relying on a comprehensive stock of experiences. For both it will be advantageous to command a reliably working computer inside your skull.

Our brain renders to us a double service. On the one side it stores (with limited fidelity) our experiences; on the other, it provides us with routines to handle and evaluate these storage contents. Both these remarkable feats are tightly connected and build on each other. In fact, none of them could exist without the help of the other. It would be impossible to store contents without any meaning; and of course we could not think, if there was nothing to think about.

The storage handled by our storage machine is quite variable. Still we obtain continuously updated information about our physical and chemical environment, as amoebas and bacteria do, our most far away progenitors. The evolution of a complex network of specialized cells dedicated to nothing but information processing allows to operate with secondary constructs, above the ground level of primary inputs. Our brain is able to compare patterns to each other and to detect similarities and differences.

Our thinking occurs on several levels. Primary impressions are composed to patterns, patterns are compared to each other, recognized as new or as experienced before, and reliably occurring combinations are given a name. Not ending here, our brain is even combining names, creating still higher levels of association. These activities of increasing complexity have their neuroanatomical correlates in the micro- and macroarchitecture of our brain. Neurons develop major and minor extensions, belong to morphological and neurochemical classes, and are grouped into layers and units.

During the few months of human embryogenesis, basic principles of nearly a billion years of multicellular evolution are reiterated, adding as new acquisition of the last 2 million years premature birth and extended postnatal development. Thus, the computer inside our skull experiences decisive refinements during several years of intense interaction with our environment. But also after puberty, our brain remains malleable to an astonishing extent. Within hours to days we can learn new routines even at advanced age.

This persistent plasticity is at the core of wisdom. Humans are the only mammals surviving long enough to know and to love their grand children. During a long and attentive life, we accumulate much more knowledge than would be needed for our own personal success. We communicate this extra knowledge into a steadily growing reservoir called culture. By receiving corrective feedback from this reservoir we continuously advance our skills and our insight. Also these later refinements leave their marks in our brain, especially in late myelinating cortical association areas.

At advanced age, humans tend to suffer from various ailments, not the least of them affecting the central nervous system. Often, this increased frailness gives rise to severe impairment or even death, e.g. after an extended ischemic stroke. Post-mortem examination of the brains of very old subjects often reveals remnants of minor infarcts, often gone unnoticed by the affected. Keeping an attentive and creative lifestyle up to old age might facilitate the coping with such minor disasters.

As we know from major strokes, transiently eliminating important neuronal and cognitive faculties, lost capacities can be reestablished to some extent. This does not mean that the lost tissue is miraculously reformed, but that neighboring healthy neurons can "take over" and step in for their lost colleagues. It appears likely that during the last decades of our life our brain is forced several times to reshuffle its resources. Since this occurs towards the end of a life-long learning process, we might accomplish such restructuring more efficiently than a bloody beginner.

This leaves the brain at advanced age with somewhat reduced recources, but structured with ever increasing efficiency. Not all humans achieve wisdom at advanced age. But those who do impress us with their security and their confidence into the power of arguments and logical thinking.

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