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Chris Hadfield
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Intuition and Survival: Why Jon Snow Actually Does Know Something
Should Jon Snow go to Dragonstone? Should Samwell "operate" on Ser Jorah? The line between intuition and foolishness can only be drawn in hindsight.
24 July, 2017
Jon Snow rides away from Winterfell to an unknown fate, in 'Game of Thrones' Season 7 Episode 2 'Stormborn'. Image: HBO
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">When cholera first landed in Europe in 1817 many people were convinced the disease was spread through particles in the air. Others, harking back to millennia-old ideas about disease and dualism, affixed destiny to its victims: sickness as a spiritual state. You fell ill because, well, you were going to no matter what. It took decades to discover cholera’s water-borne nature.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The man who finally demonstrated cholera being spread through the septic system was, I kid you not, John Snow, an epidemiologist from London who had witnessed a number of outbreaks during his short lifetime. Born in 1813, he speculated that cholera was spread through feces-contaminated water after an 1848 epidemic, finally putting the matter to rest while studying the Broad Street Pump, now a famous medical study, during an 1854 outbreak.</span> </p> <div class="video-callout-placeholder" data-slug="jim-gaffigan-on-political-correctness-in-comedy" style="border: 1px solid #ccc;">
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</div> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Snow’s intuition was born out through research, a recurring theme in episode two of season seven of <em>Game of Thrones</em>. Of course Samwell is going to cure Jorah. In <a href="https://bigthink.rebelmouse.com/21st-century-spirituality/game-of-thrones-episode-one" target="_blank"><span class="s2">episode one</span></a> we watched him usurp perceived knowledge when stumbling upon the location of a store of dragon glass, so when the Archmaester proclaims this silly cure for greyscale is dangerously useless we know he's going to experiment.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">While the rise of the eunuchs is a not-so-subtle theme in this episode, intuition plays an equally important role. Tyrion suggests inviting the other Jon Snow to Dragonstone because he likes him, a feeling he got when in his presence. Likewise, when Snow receives Daenerys’s invitation he chooses to travel to Dragonstone despite all gathered leaders begging him not to.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Intuition has long been perceived a mystical feature of human consciousness, a warning sign from “out there” that great doom or great pleasure approaches. We slam our hand on top of a table when we get it right—“I just knew it!”—or shake our heads when we don’t, saying we should have trusted our gut. (Given all <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Gut-Connection-Conversation-Impacts-Choices/dp/0062376551" target="_blank"><span class="s2">we’re learning</span></a> about gut microbiota and the enteric nervous system, our stomach might prove to be our most important ally.) Far from a mystery, however, intuition relies on something far more non-metaphysical: experience. <br></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1"> </span></p> <div class="video-callout-placeholder" data-slug="liv-boeree-to-win-at-poker-treat-it-like-a-science" style="border: 1px solid #ccc;">
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</div> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">As I <a href="https://bigthink.rebelmouse.com/21st-century-spirituality/how-does-intuition-work" target="_blank"><span class="s2">wrote about</span></a> last year, psychiatrist Peter C Whybrow links intuition with a preconscious neural network built over time by previously learned patterns. Consider tying your shoelaces. When you were very young this task was daunting, consuming all of your attention. After a few attempts you got the hang of it. Soon you’re focused on any number of things that have nothing to do with tying your shoelace while doing so, so automatic has the task become.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">If you had to think about tying your laces every time you’d never get anything done. This applies to everything. Athletes talk about the feel of a three-pointer or a long putt, which is really just repetition over the course of a career. But when an NBA player steps onto a green for the first time there will be nothing natural about it. Time to learn a new skill set.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Intuition is effective only from afar; in the moment it’s generally useless. Hikers will spot the telltale signs of a bear while roaming through the woods. Experience will guide their intuition about turning around or taking another path. But if a bear suddenly pops up in front of them, no amount of intuition will help. The combination of experience and space is necessary. As Whybrow <span class="s2"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Well-Tuned-Brain-Remedy-Manic-Society/dp/0393353044" target="_blank">writes</a>:</span><span> </span></span></p> <blockquote><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Intuitive insight can be trusted … only when operating under experiential circumstances that are regular, predictable, and stable at the time that the reflexive insight occurs. In the absence of such stable contingencies … intuition is unreliable.</span></p></blockquote> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Samwell has the experience of having already discovered something important despite what his master says, combined with having read about a potential cure. He also knew that Jorah’s father helped him at a time when no one else would. Those three factors combined gave him the confidence to grab a knife and start cutting, an intuition we know is going to work out.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Tyrion’s vast history dealing with crooks and kings makes him an excellent judge of character. He needn’t have spent six seasons with Jon Snow to recognize a trustworthy leader. And Snow, well, once you’ve seen the white walkers up close, dead and returned, a girl and her dragons are not going to be of much concern, especially when the fate of humankind is at stake.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">And when a pair of Sand Snakes died we, the viewer, also knew it, because death has been the hallmark of <em>Game of Thrones</em> since its inception. Of course there are many things we don’t know, even if some of us <em>feel</em> we know it. Some of our intuition will be right, others not so much. It’s the price we pay for our internal navigating system, this unique quality where biology, environment, and practice meet.</span></p> <p>--</p> <p><span>Derek's latest book, </span><em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Whole-Motion-Training-Optimal-Health/dp/1631440721/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476996488&sr=8-1&keywords=whole+motion" target="_blank">Whole Motion: Training Your Brain and Body For Optimal Health</a></em><span>, is out now. He is based in Los Angeles. Stay in touch on </span><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank">Facebook</a><span> and </span><a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank">Twitter</a><span>.</span></p>
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Game of Thrones: Why Samwell Tarly Was the MVP of 'Dragonstone'
Poop, soup, books — repeat. Who could forget that montage? Here are the key takeaways from the first episode of Game of Thrones season 7, which crashed the HBO website like wildfire taking down the Sept.
17 July, 2017
Samwell Tarly does some light reading in the first episode of Game of Thrones, season 7. [HBO]
<p class="p1"><span class="s1">Joseph Campbell never witnessed the widespread influence of his life’s work. His most famous work, <em>The Power of Myth</em>, a conversation with the journalist Bill Moyers, was published posthumously. Campbell’s wife, Jean Erdman, later commented that Campbell wouldn’t have enjoyed fame all that much. He was in it for the stories.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">That’s what led him to a life of mythology, reading about Native Americans as a young boy. When Moyers opens <em>The Power of Myth</em> with a question about the relevance of mythology in everyday life, Campbell replies that it just catches you. We’ve lost “the literature of the spirit,” he continues, we’re only concerned with the news and problems of the hour. This was thirty years ago.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">But a long view of history and culture is essential, according to Campbell.<span> </span></span></p> <blockquote><p class="p1"><span class="s1">When the story is in your mind, then you see its relevance to something happening in your own life. It gives you perspective on what’s happening to you. With the loss of that, we’ve really lost something because we don’t have a comparable literature to take its place.<span> </span></span></p></blockquote> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Fortunately we do have a literature of the spirit today, only for most people it takes place on a screen. How the story is transmitted is not as important as that it’s transmitted, however. The very problem that Campbell addresses made its way into last night’s premiere of <em>Game of Thrones</em>.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The montage of Samwell Tarly’s drudgery working as an intern at the Citadel—cleaning bedpans, serving bean soup, stacking books, books thrown at him; editing you won’t quickly forget—comes to a head when weighing organs for the Archmaester. Sam says he wants access to the <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/crystalro/everyone-made-the-same-harry-potter-joke-during-game-of" target="_blank">restricted area</a>. He was sent to the Citadel to learn how to defeat the White Walkers, which the stuffy academics in their pearly tower don’t believe in. Sam, though, has seen them.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">What strikes most in this episode is the evolving maturity and confidence of certain characters: Jon Snow making adult decisions as king; Sansa Stark shutting down Littlefinger; Sam stealing keys to access the restricted area. Sam’s usurpation celebrates Campbell’s mythology: he’s seeking the long view of history, which, of course, he discovers by way of an archaic map of the volcanic island of Dragonstone. Suddenly in front of his eyes is the store of obsidian, aka dragonglass, he’s been looking for.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">The emphasis on the library and its books—stored knowledge—gave this episode an exceptionally mythological feel. The series is the world’s current most popular mythology, a story so grand that the HBO website crashed last night when the premiere released. And a story only makes sense when it touches upon the climate of the times it is being presented in. Without a link to the modern world the story could not possibly have such impact.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Which is the function mythology has always served. Gilgamesh’s epic journey for the plant of immortality, still told in the dreams of Silicon Valley coders uploading consciousness into the cloud; Homer’s wars retold in theatrical narratives reflecting American invasions; the Vedas and Sutras reinterpreted in home furnishings and tattoos in a planetary remix of yoga. Humans communicate through stories. The ones touching the largest number of people influence the outcome of history.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">And they serve as warnings. The Archmaester tells Sam, “we are this world’s memories,” an important reminder at a time when the <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/why-do-republicans-suddenly-hate-colleges-so-much/533130/" target="_blank"><span class="s2">very nature of higher learning</span></a> in America is under assault. The “uneducated” make good war fodder, whether that battle is fought by soldiers or for the <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2017/07/10/sharp-partisan-divisions-in-views-of-national-institutions/" target="_blank"><span class="s2">minds</span></a> and <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Money-History-Billionaires-Radical/dp/0385535597" target="_blank"><span class="s2">wallets</span></a> of a nation’s citizens. The antidote to such ignorance is reading.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">While the Archmaester is certain of his institution’s role, he is not without blind spots. The wall has stood through it all, he tells Sam, and has emerged after every winter thus far unscathed. His final analysis: it can never happen here. Foreshadowing at its most blatant.<span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Before yesterday’s premiere I stumbled across a <a href="https://www.vox.com/videos/2017/7/14/15969034/game-of-thrones-theory-climate-change" target="_blank"><span class="s2">Vox video</span></a> relating themes in <em>Game of Thrones</em> to climate change. As expected, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ezraklein/" target="_blank"><span class="s2">Facebook debates</span></a> were heated, as every idea about this series inevitably is. But one recurring sentiment was stark:<em> Leave my television alone. I don’t want to think about the broader implications. It’s just a show. Let me keep something sacred.</em><span> </span></span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Ironic. The only thing that can actually be considered sacred—the planet, at least for us animals—proves to be not as important as what’s on the screen. A vehicle for escape, not a portal into reality. The screen has long served this role; arguably so has literature, to summer readers. But the contrast is especially loud when books are less valued and distractions are everywhere. Mythology becomes a myth, which is tragic.</span></p> <p class="p1"><span class="s1">Sam knows that not only can it happen here, but it is happening at this very moment. The voluntary ignorance of his superiors astounds though doesn’t surprise him. And so he turns to books in what will help determine the future of the planet. We should all be so lucky.</span></p> <p class="p1">--</p> <p>Derek's latest book, <em><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Whole-Motion-Training-Optimal-Health/dp/1631440721/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476996488&sr=8-1&keywords=whole+motion" target="_blank">Whole Motion: Training Your Brain and Body For Optimal Health</a></em>, is out now. He is based in Los Angeles. Stay in touch on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank">Twitter</a>.</p>
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