Monkeys, slot machines, and mindfulness

A story I heard from Radiolab: William Schultz et al. (1993) gives juice to monkeys, and learns that the dopamine in monkey brains are initially coincidental with the juice giving. Over time, the dopamine spike shifts earlier and earlier in response to cues that come before the juice giving - when the room light turns on, or when the researchers' footsteps are audible in the hallway.

My reading of this story: as animals, humans too, are wired to anticipate rewards. Dopamine is not simply a reward chemical, but primes us (our monkey brains) for nice rewards (juice). We daydream about success - a mate, the admiration of our peers, lunch, or having croissants - way before any of those happen. We are wired to think about the future, and it is real work to live in the present (mindfulness).

The second idea: reward variability feels amazing. When we pull a slot machine, we anticipate a reward that is variable, since slot machines are programmed to have negative expectation value, while appearing to give random outcomes. When the numbers land on a special combination, the lights and sounds go off, and coins start to trickle out from the machine (I think? I've not played slots before). 

It turns out that our brain really loves variable rewards - we want to figure out the pattern behind them so that we can get more of the reward (a mate, admiration of our peers, lunch, or having croissants). This is also the basis of addiction - we have an irresistible itch (anticipation) for an action (say, pulling a slot machine, checking your phone, playing a video game) that gives rewards (money, social standing, croissants).

All this to say that we really are so many monkeys chasing so many rewards in our careers, schools, online forums, and video games. Some are more useful than others - some of these even help you pay the bills. What I would like to reflect on is our wonderful capability to be so caught up in this world - this is a nice angle to start thinking about mindfulness and being in the present. 

As creatures of anticipation, we receive our object (juice), and start to anticipate the next reward. The point is to sit down and drink the juice - this is not a call to enter a stupor of self-reflexivity and not achieve anything in your life. Rather, it is an invitation (to myself, mostly) to sit back and think critically about what drives us, what gives us meaning, and what orientates and moves us as we exist in this world. 

Dan Harris, in his book 10% Happier, relates the story of a meditation teacher who tells his students to be simple. The narrator then observes the teacher screaming red-faced at a biscuit seller who the teacher believes to be overcharging him. When asked, the teacher says: be simple, not a simpleton.  

The point is to be simple. Achievement, focus, and success are alright. They are desirable. I should apply ourselves to what I do. At the same time, there must be a way to be less caught up with the whims of the world - to experience the present moment more clearly, and to act wisely. To be simple, but not a simpleton.