:Analogies for Sustainable Development/Brain as dual mode camera

Overview

This analogy has been introduced by psychologist Joshua Greene in his book Moral Tribes. Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them. The analogy aims to communicate dual process theory in psychology, according to which moral judgments by humans are influenced by an unconscious, fast, emotional mode and a conscious, slow, rational mode. Similarly, a digital camera has an easy-to-use automatic mode and a more difficult to use manual mode.

Analogy Map

Dual-mode camera	Brain
Automatic settings	Emotions, intuitions
Manual mode	Rational, conscious thinking and reasoning
Camera designer programming automatic mode	Evolutionary and/or developmental past
Automatic mode cannot be changed	Intuitions can be changed through learning
Skilled photographer knowing when to switch between modes, knowing how to use manual mode to take good pictures	Human knowing when to rely on her intuition and when to slow down and switch to conscious reasoning in order to make decisions that best advance her values
only one of the two modes can be chosen	"Automatic mode" (emotions and intuitions) is always "on"
the two modes don't depend on each other to function	Rational, conscious reasoning without emotions and intuitions does not exist in nature

Quote Bank

Greene (2013):

“The human brain is like a dual-mode camera with both automatic settings and a manual mode.”

“Like a dual-mode camera, our brains have automatic settings, emotional responses that allow us to make decisions efficiently, drawing on the precompiled lessons of past genetic, cultural, and individual experience. And our brains have a manual mode, a general capacity for conscious, explicit, practical reasoning that makes human decision making flexible .”

“A camera with both automatic settings and a manual mode exemplifies an elegant solution to a ubiquitous design problem, namely the trade-off between efficiency and flexibility. The automatic settings are highly efficient, but not very flexible, and the reverse is true of the manual mode. Put them together, however, and you get the best of both worlds, provided that you know when to manually adjust your settings and when to point and shoot.”

“Spiders, unlike humans, have only automatic settings, and this serves them well, so long as they remain in their element...humans, in contrast, lead much more complicated lives, which is why we need a manual mode.”

“In nearly every domain of life, our success depends on both the efficiency of our automatic settings and the flexibility of our manual mode.”

Greene (2014):

"The human brain has the samegeneral design. First,we humans have a variety of automatic settings—reflexes and intuitions that guide our behavior, many of which are emotional. We may be conscious of such emotional responses, but we are generally not conscious of the processes that trigger them.We rely on our automatic settingsmost of the time, and they generally serve us well.

Our brains also have a manual mode. It is a general-purpose reasoning system, specialized for enabling behaviors that serve long(er)-term goals, that is, goals that are not automatically activated by current environmental stimuli or endogenous somatic states. The operations of this system are typically conscious, experienced as voluntary, and often experienced as effortful. Our manual mode allows us to formulate behavioral plans based on detailed and explicit knowledge of the situations we face, along with explicit general knowledge about the world and how it works. Manual mode allows us to guide our behavior using explicit rules and to think explicitly about how the world works. In short, manual mode thinking is the kind of thinking that we think of as “thinking.” "

"...it’s worth highlighting three ways in which the camera analogy may mislead. First, while a camera must be in one mode or another, the waking human brain’s automatic settings are always on. Second, a camera’s dual modes can function independently of each other, but in animals there is an asymmetrical dependence. One can have automatic settings without a manual mode, as in most animals, but not the reverse. Finally, automatic settings need not be “innate” or “hardwired.” They can be acquired or modified through cultural learning (as in prejudicial responses to racial out-groups) and through individual experiences (as in classical conditioning)."

See also

• Elephant and the Rider
• System 1- System 2

Further Resources

• Greene, J. (2011): Beyond point-and-shoot morality. Talk at Harvard Thinks Big
• Wikipedia: Joshua Greene - Dual process theory
• Wikipedia: Dual process theory
• Joshua Greene external website

Analogies for Sustainable Development