As each socially-based vision develops and broadens in scope, the abstract model that it offers for society comes to be applied to other areas as well.<\/p>\n
Case in point: Three days ago, I put up an entry<\/a> suggesting that the “inverted pyramid” model underlying the democracy vision — in which authority comes from the base but power is still exerted from the top down — is giving way to a multiculturalism-derived model of society as a flexible network of relationships with no center of control.<\/p>\n Today, I find an article<\/a> at Science Daily saying exactly the same thing — but with respect to a new study of brain organization in rats:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The study shows the power of a new method for tracing brain circuits. …<\/p>\n The circuits showed up as patterns of circular loops, suggesting that at least in this part of the rat brain, the wiring diagram looks like a distributed network.<\/p>\n Neuroscientists are split between a traditional view that the brain is organized as a hierarchy, with most regions feeding into the “higher” centers of conscious thought, and a more recent model of the brain as a flat network similar to the Internet.<\/p>\n “We started in one place and looked at the connections. It led into a very complicated series of loops and circuits. It’s not an organizational chart. There’s no top and bottom to it,” said [Larry W.] Swanson, a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Milo Don and Lucille Appleman Professor of Biological Sciences at USC College. …<\/p>\n “There is an alternate model. It’s not proven, but let’s rethink the traditional way of regarding how the brain works,” he said.<\/p>\n “The part of the brain you think with, the cortex, is very important, but it’s certainly not the only part of the nervous system that determines our behavior.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n According to the article, Swanson has been arguing for this model of the brain as a distributed network since 2003 — an interesting date, since it would correspond to the upsurge in holistic approaches at the start of the 60’s.<\/p>\n The idea that consciousness is not actually running the show is also striking and ties in with certain aspects of the emerging creative imagination vision.<\/p>\n For those reasons, I have no doubt that we’re seeing an important paradigm shift in progress, and that further examples will continue to show up. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n Related:<\/strong><\/p>\n A listing of all my posts on the cycle of visions can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n A general overview of the areas of interest covered at this blog can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n A chronological listing of all entries at this blog, with brief descriptions, can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n