The Science of Coding
Our brain has developed in stages and at different stages different imprinting (coding) took place. These imprints, or shortcuts, are very useful. They help us deal with most situations without having to spend too much time analyzing them. The oldest part of the brain evolved about 500 million years ago. It has our individual survival instincts embedded in it.
The next part, the limbic brain, came later. It has psychological coding - emotional short-cuts. These help us get along in group situations to ensure team survival. The last part is the frontal cortex. It is the part that makes us sentient beings. But it still has things imprinted. As we grow up we constantly adjust to our surroundings. The sum total of environmental impacts is called ‘culture’. So this is where cultural coding take place and where cultural archetypes develop.
Our brain is like a car with three drivers. These drivers at times want to go different ways. Usually the ‘driver’ who has been around longer wins. But not without creating internal conflicts. To truly understand human reactions we need to know at which level our brain operates at any given point.
Cultural coding governs our approach until emotional coding takes over for some reason. And those emotional imprints are overridden when we perceive a direct threat to our ‘survival’. At that point our physiological survival instincts take over. Even if the perceived threat is, in fact, not a threat in today’s world.
We can use our understanding of what coding level we are dealing with to predict and influence reactions by others. We can also better understand our own reactions and avoid many everyday conflicts and traps.