I woke up thinking about two stores that Gregory Bateson often told together. I think they were meant to teach at a pretty meta level so I just think about them & let them do their work. Sometimes things pop up about how we get stuck, learning, health, adaptability, change 1/

If you don’t know Bateson’s work it’s diverse, interesting. He helped form cybernetics, he developed the concept of the “double bind”, He wrote “ mind and nature unnecessary unity” a book that definitely works on me constantly, as well as lectures, essays etc. 2/

I’ll be rereading some of his stuff so I might go into it on here 3/

Both stories are about settings of humans training animals. Both are about mammal relationships. Both about learning. One is an example of a dog learning to differentiate, the other about a dolphin learning how to learn and then how to be creative. 4/

So in the first one a dog was being trained positively. The trainer had a circle and an oval and when one was displayed there was a proper behavior (like fetching something or lying down idk) when they get it right they get treats!

This is great right? In Bateson’s terms this is “learning II” let me explain.

Let change scenarios to a child and a hot stove burner. If they touch it accidentky they will pull their hand back. No learning just a built in response. This is called “learning 0”
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That child might learn not to touch that burner again but only that burner. A change has happened but only about that immediate situation. This is “leaning I”
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Maybe the child learns about “burners” and learns “burners are hot” the child now has learned at a meta level about the context/class “burners” a behavior that is usedul@in other contexts. This is “learning II” leaning about a context or class of events. 8/

So back to doggo having learn that circles mean fetch and ovals mean lay down and treats follow.

Now the trainer starts showing slightly oval circles and increasingly round ovals. Tricky but the dog knows there are two kinds of things in a binary so it chooses & is “good” 9/

At some point there is shape that doesn’t fit. Not a circle but close. Not an oval but close. This causes problems. Remember there is no punishment other then withdrawl of treats. This is about learning within a mammal-mammal relationship. 10/

The dog is NOT ok. There is anxiety, stress, panic, frustration, whining and acting out, chewing things. And here we come to the problem of learning II: overlearning. 11/

you’ve learned burners are hot but you are asked to take the burner out of the stove: You would have to TOUCH IT
Catagories are just that. Must learn that there is a Context for Contexts. Contexts for when to apply contexts. This is Learning III and it is hard. 12/

SOME burners are hot, binaries are only models, race is not a good shorthand for anything about people, Biochar doesn’t work for every situation, plants both can and can’t grow in any region “it depends” 13/

Most learning we do is learning II. It’s easier to just shift views rather then learn about the systems of when to turn &adjust the dials on our learning. Education is mostly like the dog example. Memorize facts. Learn to be “good” and then get upset when something doesn’t fit 14

The real problem for the doggo was the education system. Let’s talk about Bateson’s other story. About the dolphin .

He was asked to study a dolphin that had undergone learning III. /15

This dolphin was part of a program where the trainer was training trainers. Day1, the trainer shows how using a whistle and food a little accidental backflip can be trained into a full on routine. The dolphin & trainer have a good relationship & the dolphin quickly learned. 16/

Day two the trainer is instructing a new group of trainers so when the dolphin proudly does the proper trick it gets NO FISH 17/

But it learns &gets the new trick. This progresses day after day and it is stressing the dolphin out. The rules are changing constantly the trust in the train is going way down. At some point they have to take a day off and just play together &the dolphin gets a lot of fish 18/

something changes at like day 11. The dolphin couldn’t sleep the night before. It’s excited. It’s singing to itself.

And first thing next day in class it starts out into the pool starts OFFERING NEW TRICKS.

Learning III is happening; control over the context of contexts 19/

What was different about the education system: it focused on examples the process of learning rather then a specific lesson. It provided examples of it being ok to rest and play when things get stressful. It showed that trust was still there along with challenge. 20/

Bateson said learning III was sufficient even to explain some of the most profound states, even Buddhahood. He proposed that learning IV was possible in the universe gave the example of learning IV was biological evolution: the system that generates minds that can do Learning III

One last piece to this thread. When Bateson was investigation the early questions of animal language he was looking for an example of a metamessage information about information. He was at the zoo and saw two monkeys playing /22

He realized that the message “this is play” transforms aggressive behavior (teeth out pushing making noises) into something different. It is a modifier if the context; a meta message. So mammals at least and others too have meta communication. /23 http://courses.bloodedbythought.org/play/images/7/7e/Bateson%2C_Gregory_A_Theory_of_Play_and_Fantasy.pdf

So here’s the deal most of the time all of us are in learning 0, sometimes learning 1 and 2 and the vast majority of the time trapped in learning 2’s overlearning. How do we unlearn, or even turn 2d binaries into spectrums into complex fields.

When we have a bad experience how do we improve our safety while not mapping our experiences onto unrelated by similar experiences and people? How do we break stories of inevitabile climate change or war or conflict. What opens us up?

As always thanks for your time.

Also if you want to see what happens when someone is raised by Gregory Bateson and then takes that childhood and grows in amazing ways to become one of the most interesting people out there, please consider following his daughter @NoraBateson