25. More Knowledge Is The Answer

A long time ago, people's brains learned to like things because those things usually helped them survive. Those things that brains learned to like made the people feel good so they would want to do or have it again. For instance, we didn’t have much food when we were hunter-gathers so our brains learned to like high-energy foods. If we eat little food because we can’t find more but the food has a lot of energy then we can live. But now, we have a lot of stuff—like super tasty junk food or really fun apps—that make our brains feel good, maybe too good, and that can make some people want those things all the time. People have learned a lot about how our brains work, and sometimes, this knowledge is used to engineer products that are hard to resist. They are in a way hacking our brains. But the good news is, we can use that ability to help people too. We can create ideas with greater power than the biological ones being hijacked. We can have thoughts that question the cultural ideas influencing us. We can form better explanations making knowledge that supersedes those used to manipulate us. So, even though it's a big problem, we have the tools to start fixing it!