The U-Curve of Plasticity and Openness

Opening Question:

Can interventions (exercise, psychedelics, therapy, education) be periodized — like strength training — to cycle between plasticity phases (exploration, rewiring) and stability phases (consolidation, identity)? 

Can we change our personalities?

1. Normal Distributions and Selection Pressures

Traits that fall into bell curves across populations often reflect balancing selection.

• Too little → maladaptive rigidity.
• Too much → maladaptive instability.
• Middle range → best fit for most environments.

This is not coincidence but evolutionary pressure: the “golden medium” sustains group and individual viability.

2. Trait Openness: Double-Edged Novelty

• Benefits of higher openness:
• Curiosity, creativity, tolerance for ambiguity.
• Exploration of new environments, ideas, and technologies.
• Costs of excessive openness:
• Susceptibility to distraction.
• Instability in commitments.
• Association with schizotypy and risk of psychosis.

Openness follows a U-shaped fitness curve: valuable in moderation, destabilizing in excess.

3. Neuroplasticity: Flexible but Fragile

• Benefits of higher plasticity:
• Faster skill acquisition.
• Recovery from injury or trauma.
• Adaptability under rapid change.
• Costs of excessive plasticity:
• Prior learning weakened or overwritten.
• Circuits destabilized by too-frequent rewiring.
• Links to dissociation, mood disorders, and excessive synaptic pruning.

PTSD exemplifies maladaptive plasticity: traumatic memories become over-consolidated. Psychosis may involve excessive synaptic turnover.

4. The Dialectic Balance

Openness and plasticity operate like volume knobs:

• Too low = rigidity, stagnation, dogmatism.
• Too high = chaos, fragility, instability.
• The optimal setting shifts with environment:
• Stable, tradition-bound contexts may favor lower openness.
• Rapidly shifting, innovation-rich contexts may favor higher openness.

5. Provisional Conclusion

Plasticity and openness are not “more is better” traits.
They are context-sensitive balances maintained by selection pressures.

• Evolutionary wisdom: keep them distributed across a range in populations.
• Therapeutic wisdom: seek temporary, targeted boosts (plasticity windows for learning or healing), followed by consolidation into stability.

Exercise Enhanced Therapy: Stacking Stressors with Exercise-Induced BDNF and Therapy

1. Exercise as a BDNF Primer

• Acute exercise, especially at moderate–vigorous intensity, produces a surge of BDNF in blood and brain ~1.5-3x baseline.
• BDNF enhances synaptic tagging, protein synthesis, and chromatin remodeling, creating a plasticity window lasting 1–2 hours.
• This resembles the way protein availability primes muscles for growth.

2. Therapy as the Structural Stimulus

• Therapy provides the experience-dependent load: exposure, cognitive reframing, mindfulness, relational work.
• By itself, it reshapes circuits incrementally.
• But when paired with exercise, the circuits are chemically primed to rewire more efficiently.

3. The Stacking Effect

• Exercise primes, therapy exploits.
• Like eating protein and simple carbs before lifting, the combination (exercise + therapy) yields greater adaptation than either alone.
• Example domains:
• Anxiety: exposure therapy paired with exercise improves fear extinction.
• Depression: cognitive restructuring consolidates better under elevated BDNF.
• PTSD: traumatic memories reprocessed more effectively.

4. Practical Parameters

• Timing: 20–30 minutes of exercise immediately before therapy session.
• Frequency: 2–3 sessions per week is sufficient to maintain baseline elevation and repeated plasticity windows.
• Load: Exercise should be challenging (70–85% of effort capacity), mirroring “desirable difficulty” in therapy.

5. Analogy with Strength Training

• Hypertrophy: Protein (primer) + mechanical tension (load) + recovery → muscle growth.
• Neuroplasticity: BDNF (primer) + therapy (load) + sleep (recovery) → synaptic growth.

Both follow a law of stress + priming + consolidation.

6. Provisional Conclusion

Exercise-induced BDNF enhances therapy by stacking stressors: one chemical, one cognitive.
This transforms therapy from talk to training, where the brain is first made plastic, then reshaped, then allowed to recover.

Neuroplasticity and Hypertrophy: Reps, Sets, and Synapses

Muscle memory and learning memory are mirror processes: both respond to prior effort with persistent structural change, and both accelerate when retrained. 

1. Hypertrophy as a Model of Adaptation

Strength science converges on a law of diminishing returns:

• 1 set to failure provides ~70% of the maximum stimulus.
• 2 sets reach ~85%.
• 3 sets yield ~95%. Beyond this, volume adds little.
• Load: Optimal at ~70–85% of one-rep max.
• Frequency: Several times per week, with recovery between sessions.

The principle is clear: apply stress, allow recovery, repeat.
Muscle adapts not linearly but in a curve of saturation.

2. The Parallel in Neuroplasticity

Learning follows a nearly identical curve:

• One effortful retrieval or practice provides most of the signal.
• Two to three spaced efforts consolidate the trace to near-maximal levels.
• Difficulty load: Optimal at ~70–85% success — the “desirable difficulty” zone.
  Too easy yields no growth; too hard yields failure without encoding.
• Recovery: Sleep plays the role of protein synthesis, consolidating synaptic changes.
• Frequency: Distributed practice strengthens connections more than massed repetition.

The logic is identical: strain, consolidate, repeat.
Synapses, like fibers, require disruption plus recovery.

3. The Architecture of Limits

• Muscle: Growth is limited by architecture (fiber type, tendon insertion, hormonal environment).
• Brain: Plasticity is limited by architecture (genetic endowment, connectivity, baseline intelligence).

Both can be optimized within their constraints.

4. Task-Specific vs General Adaptation

• In the gym, biceps training does not enlarge calves.
• In learning, practicing chess does not improve math scores.
• Gains are task-specific, tied to local circuits.

Yet both systems allow general capacity modulation:

• In muscles, recovery, sleep, and hormones set the background for all training.
• In brains, BDNF levels, aerobic exercise, novelty, and emotional state set the baseline for all learning.

This is the closest analogue to “general intelligence” (IQ): not new muscles everywhere, but a more favorable environment for growth.

5. Provisional Conclusion

Hypertrophy and neuroplasticity are governed by the same law:

• A small number of effortful doses give most of the gain.
• Optimal stress lies at ~70–85% of capacity.
• Recovery is not optional but essential.
• Adaptation is local, but global factors set the stage.

Do Dogs Count Toward Dunbar’s Number? Notes on Social Bandwidth

 1. Dunbar’s Number as a Cognitive Budget

Robin Dunbar proposed ~150 as the upper bound of stable human relationships. The “budget” is not strict but reflects the cognitive and emotional effort needed to track reciprocal ties.

2. Should Dogs (or Pets) Count?

• No, from a strict anthropological perspective: Dunbar derived the number from primate grooming networks.
• Yes, from a psychological bandwidth perspective: if a dog occupies emotional and cognitive attention, it displaces human slots.
• Practically, pets (including "man's best friend") show up in the innermost rings (the “support clique” of ~5), reducing available room for people rather than expanding the outer layers.

3. Variation and Standard Deviation

The mean (average) is ~150, but the distribution matters.

• Range: 100–250, with a standard deviation ~30.
• Gender:
• Women: do women have fewer but deeper ties, especially in the inner circles?
• Men: do men have broader but looser ties, especially in outer rings?
• Personality:
• Extraverts: more total ties (+20–30), especially in outer rings.
• Introverts: fewer total ties, but stronger investment in the core.
• Generational:
• Boomers / Gen X: denser, smaller webs (family, community).
• Millennials / Gen Z / Gen Alpha: wider apparent networks (social media), but the stable core remains unchanged.

4. Implications

• Dunbar’s number is elastic but not infinite.
• Emotional “bandwidth” is shared between humans, pets, and possibly: named objects ("Betsy", the temperamental truck), AI companions (?).
• What shifts across individuals and generations is not the capacity itself but how it is allocated between inner and outer rings.

5. Open Questions

• Could digital mediation (AI or persistent chat threads) effectively expand the σ beyond 30, or does it merely stretch the illusion of connectedness?
• Will Gen Alpha’s “always-on” networks create a new equilibrium of smaller, shallower ties rather than larger, deeper ones?
• Do animals and machines occupy a unique category of non-reciprocal yet emotionally costly relationships that need their own accounting outside Dunbar’s scheme?

6. Provisional Conclusion

Dogs do not raise the ceiling of the Dunbar 150, but they do consume slots in the most emotionally salient layers.
Bandwidth is finite.
Variation exists, with σ ~30, influenced by gender, extraversion, and generational norms.

Man and Dog Discover Dead Rat in Ottawa’s Experimental Farm

OTTAWA, Aug. 19, 2024 — A man and his dog encountered a dead rat in the middle of the road in the Experimental Farm near the Ottawa Civic Hospital campus. The cause of death was unconfirmed but appeared to be acute trauma from a moving vehicle. Closer investigation was inhibited by excessive interest from the man’s dog. The corpse was left undisturbed while the man and his dog continued their walk. Upon returning to the scene several days later, the corpse had disappeared without a trace. For more information, please contact: GWRat Public Relations Officer Ottawa Rat Welfare Society

Vestiges of Baptism

This is a record of an old discussion I had in defending myself for being the only unbaptized atheist member of a church council. 

Baptism made sense when it visibly initiated one into a cohesive, embodied community of faith. In a fragmented modern context, it survives only through rationalizations (promise, symbolism, exclusionary magic), which strain against fairness, consciousness, and the primacy of understanding.

1. Faith vs. Promise

Faith-based view:
Baptism is a sign of an inward transformation, so it presumes awareness and belief. If it transforms a person, it requires understanding.

Promise-based view:
Baptism is God’s unilateral promise or covenant, not dependent on merit or awareness. This explains infant baptism — the community (parents, sponsors, congregation) trusts in God’s promise on the child’s behalf.

Tension: If transformation requires understanding, infant baptism feels hollow. If it doesn’t require understanding, then it risks trivializing consciousness and moral agency.

2. Community vs. Individual

Communal meaning: Baptism historically bound people to a church, tribe, or nation of faith. A shared ritual builds identity, belonging, and memory.

Modern erosion: Mobility and individualism weaken the communal role. Baptism into a local parish doesn’t “stick” the way it once did.

Individual meaning: That leaves baptism either as a personal spiritual act (requiring self-awareness) or an abstract rite (feeling exclusionary or “magical”).

3. Symbolism vs. Power

Symbolic washing: A sign of purification or rebirth, which needs interpretation to be meaningful.

Instrumental power (“ex opere operato” in Catholic theology): Baptism works as a key, conferring grace regardless of understanding. This makes it exclusionary (“in” vs. “out”).

Concern: If symbolic, it needs understanding (hard for infants). If magical, it undermines fairness and risks arbitrariness.

4. Origins and Vestiges

The Reformation stripped rituals down to what reformers considered essential: Word, Sacrament (baptism + communion), and forgiveness.

Baptism remained as a visible, bodily act to mark the boundary of the community.

Observation: If its purpose is primarily communal, then with weak communities it feels vestigial — a leftover marker in search of meaning.

5. Transformation and Memory

Ritual bonding: Baptism is more powerful when experienced communally (group baptisms, witnessing your children’s baptism).

Problem: Infant baptism doesn’t create memory for the baptized, only for the parents or community. This weakens its binding force.

6. Sin and Salvation

Classical view: Baptism washes away original sin, making salvation possible.

Critique: If animals and infants without awareness cannot sin, then the whole premise of “washing away sin” is incoherent. If salvation depends on baptism, God seems unjust and cruel.

Underlying clash: The doctrine of “faith alone” (grace, not merit) contradicts a fairness-based, awareness-based view of responsibility.

7. Catalyst Perspective

A more pragmatic angle: Baptism could be like training or study — an act that feels rote at first but later becomes meaningful as life unfolds.

Hesitation: If it works this way, then baptism still implies some kind of merit (growth through practice), undermining the idea that it is pure gift.

Synthesis

Baptism’s historical core: a communal initiation rite — marking belonging to a visible faith body.

Baptism’s modern problem: the weakening of that community leaves the rite hollow or forces rationalizations (magical, symbolic, or personal).

Baptism’s abstract survival: To “belong” now often means belonging to an abstract, global, or intellectualized church, which requires reflection and interpretation rather than just ritual.

Prison Breaks

I write these lines from within prison walls. While I am guilty of killing many people, that is not the reason I am here. I am honored for my killings, yet condemned by society for escapism.

In my younger days, I, like many others, valorized the ethos of the warrior. There was nothing more stirring to my young soul than the fantasies of active combat. I engaged in mock warfare with my brothers and prowled through the woods in camouflage.

I allowed the Army to pay for my university education. The military training exercises contrasted with the campus life like salt in a bowl of jello. I enjoyed the hostility of the nihilists and anti-authoritarians as they slumped past me between classes. The 'trick' of discipline, like magic, made the classes remarkably easy as my tests and project marks reflected. Rather than partying or staying up late, I kept my schedule and prepared my gear.  The early morning physical training was remarkably effective for my adhd. After rising at half past five and jogging in the predawn light, my focus and morale were kept sharp while those around me brinked on disaster.

An essential aspect of military culture is a clearly defined standard of conduct. A core value is to be the best you can be, therefore I participated in every extended training activity I could. I completed Airborne, Air Assault, Mountain Warfare, and Leadership Developmental and Assessment Courses in the summers before graduation.

After my commissioning, I spent less than seven months in active duty. During this short period, however, I engaged in active combat several times. My memories of the period are more like a dream than reality.  I ordered men forward and watched some die. I aimed my rifle, pulled the trigger, and watched men drop. While moving forward and accomplishing orders, I witnessed the death, dismemberment, and disabling of many people.

After an explosion in Mogadishu, I found myself on a pile of bricks looking down at shards of glass mixed in with my intestines hanging out like purple sausages from my belly.  Just before I blacked out, I remember trying to be careful not to cut my fingers on the sharp edges of the glass as I picked them out, one by one.

I remember coming-to as a military doctor was checking my vital signs. He seemed pleased that I was awake, but then explained that my left foot had been crushed and they had to amputate it. While they had successfully removed all the glass from my abdominal cavity, the risk of infection was high due to all the punctures. I listened to all of this without much emotion except the desire to be strong and show that I was willing to do whatever was required of me.

Three weeks later, I was able to move to a wheel chair and tour around the hospital grounds for short periods. I had lost a great deal of muscle mass, so even moderate exertions exhausted me. I slept and tried to rest, but my schedule fell apart with frequent medical checkups and changing of bandages every three or four hours.  I was exhausted all the time. I did not begin therapy with my prosthetic foot until four months later.

Thirteen months after my commissioning, I received an honorable discharge with disability and was released back into the civilian world. During my time of convalescence, I started to read A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, but the text irritated me profoundly. I was unable to read more than a few chapters. I needed a better historical perspective that was not so simplistic and cartoonish. The Acquisitive Society, by R. H. Tawney, provided some insight, but also irritated me.

But these are not the reasons I write these lines. I write to record conversations and to escape boredom. As a prisoner, escape is always on my mind. But, like you, escape is not possible except in the form of escapism. As Schopenhauer said, we can do nothing better than to consider ourselves as fellow prisoners in this penal colony called life. I released many lives from these bonds while playing soldier in imperial outposts. I now hope to release you by changing your perspective.

Life in prison is not all bad. While the time I spent in solitary was essentially hell, that was many years ago. Now, as an old man in general confinement, I enjoy many privileges, including access to the library. Here I have read a great deal, and my view of the world has changed. At various times over the years, I had a few good conversations with other inmates. Gradually we sought each other out and began meeting with a prison chaplain for weekly discussions.  The lines that follow are my attempt to record some of these conversations. I call them Prison Breaks.