I met a guy today from a rural part of Central England–“nothing but farms and pubs,” as he put it.  His father was an epidemiologist working for the United Nations, and so, as a boy, he lived all over the world and grew up largely in developing countries that suffered from horrific diseases.

He and his wife had the conversation one would expect from such people:

• Why are we so content to ignore climate change that is ruining our planet?
• Why are people so indifferent to the suffering of others?
• How is it possible that billionaires expect to live well here on Earth while 99.9% of us suffering with wildfires, devastating storms, blistering heat, losses of landmasses, and desertification?
• At the end of the day, is money really that precious?

Obviously, not everyone thinks this way, but to be in something of a “lovefest” for just a few minutes was a great relief.

relief.

A Relief to be around Like-Minded People

I may have mentioned that I’m lucky enough to be a part of a group of boyhood friends from our prep school in Philadelphia that meets monthly on Zoom.

Yesterday the question came up as to how our political beliefs are formed, and the group found my input somewhat shocking.

First, from what I can understand from neurologists, our brains are “wired” to function in certain ways.  Via some combination of genetics, epigenetics, and early experiences, we are incapable of looking at the world in a fundamentally different way than we do now. I am no more capable of being a Trump supporter than I am of starting as quarterback in the NFL or memorizing the first 22K digits of pi, the way certain savants can.

This is validated by studies showing that our political philosophies are shaped by the way our brains fire under certain circumstances.  When experimental subjects were hooked up to electronics that monitored their brain activities were shown pictures that depict certain threats, the results from self-described “liberals” and “conservatives” differed considerably.  When shown photographs of kittens and mountain ranges, both groups processed those images in the same regions of the brain.  But when shown photographs of snakes and tarantulas, conservatives were far more likely to process these images through the amygdala, the “fight-or-flight,” or “reptile” brain that kicks in when we interpret something as a danger to our survival.

I’m not losing my mind about immigration into the U.S.; I’m unconvinced that hordes of immigrants from our south or the Muslims from the Mideast are destroying our nation.

Why is that?  My brain is wired to doubt it. For whatever reason, I’m more inclined to think that I’m one of 8 billion people on this planet that have almost identical goals and ideals.  We all want to survive, to love our children, to be productive and responsible human beings, and to appreciate beauty.

On top of that, I’m a follower of Sam Harris, neuroscientist, author, and philosopher, whose work has shown that free will is an illusion. He points to a study whose findings are that, when we make up our minds in an instant to do a certain thing, say lift our finger from a table at a certain point of our choice, that our brains have made that decision a full half-second before.

Needless to say, there is a ton more to understand here about Sam Harris and his work on this subject.  I urge readers to take that step forward.

What Shapes Our Politics?

Weather Guard Lightning Tech

Nordex Invests in Türkiye, Vestas Wins First V182 Order

Allen covers Nordex’s Türkiye expansion, Chinese turbine makers seeking European partners, Vestas’ first V182 order, and two Pennsylvania repowers.

The Uptime Wind Energy Podcast is brought to you by Weather Guard Lightning Tech, creators of the StrikeTape Ultra LPS retrofit. Subscribe to Uptime’s Substack newsletter. And check out Rosemary’s “Engineering with Rosie” Youtube channel. Have a question we can answer on the show? Email us!

Nordex Invests in Türkiye, Vestas Wins First V182 Order