Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think

by Peter H. Diamandis

A desire to better the world is predicated partially on empathy and compassion. The good news is that we now know that these prosocial behaviors are hardwired into the brain. The bad news is that these behaviors are wired into the slower-moving, recently evolved prefrontal cortex. But the amygdala evolved long ago, in an era of immediacy, when reaction time was critical for survival. When there’s a tiger in the bush, there isn’t much time to think, so the brain takes a shortcut: it doesn’t. In dangerous situations, the amygdala directs information around the prefrontal cortex. This is why you jump backward when you see a squiggly shape on the ground before you have time to deduce stick, not snake. But because of the difference in neuronal processing speeds, once our primitive survival instincts take over, our newer, prosocial instincts stay sidelined. Compassion, empathy, altruism—even indignation—become nonfactors. Once the media has us on high alert, for example, the chasm between rich and poor looks too big to bridge because the very emotions that would make us want to close that gap are currently locked out of the system.