Reply To: Out of touch view of young gamers

[Rod Robertson]

Thaddeus Blanchette:

You wrote:

“People tend to say “chemicals cause behavior”. But in many instances, environment and behavior cause chemicals. Testosterone, for example, notoriously fluctuates in accordance with environmental cues.”

Chemicals do cause behaviour because behaviour is chemicals! Biochemistry does control behaviour because all behaviour is the result of chemistry within and around an organism. The environment and behaviour do not cause chemicals. Chemicals in the environment can interact with chemicals in the organism but that is just more chemistry. Behaviour does not cause chemicals. Chemicals don’t spontaneously arise when we are relaxed or alarmed. The organism makes and releases the chemicals in response to other chemicals produced by its sensory apparatus which noticed and interpenetrated external stimuli either correctly or incorrectly. The nervous system, the endocrine system and the metabolic pathways of the cells which these two systems control are all chemical systems governed by chemical interactions and reactions. Every thought, memory, fear, hope and dream we have is chemistry. Neurons generate their action-potentials (nerve impulses) using ion pumps of sodium, potassium and calcium. Neurotransmitters are chemicals made by neurons which travel across synaptic clefts to to react with the dendrites of the next neuron in the chain and thus connect neurons together. Hormones are chemicals made by the endocrine system and transmitted through the blood to control metabolism, sexual development, sexuality and fight or flight reactions. Pheromones are chemicals made and released by our body to influence other organisms around us. Our Somatic and our Autonomic nervous systems are chemical driven systems as is the entire metabolism of every single known organism on the Earth. The environmental cues which you mention are either chemicals themselves or stimuli which trigger organisms to release chemicals. It’s all chemicals dude so its all biochemistry and every action or behaviour of every organism on this planet is governed by chemistry. Other external stimuli (for example powerful magnetic fields) can influence an organism but only by interfering with the chemical (or electro-chemical) reactions or pathways.

You wrote:

“And I can point to literally thousands of times when biodeterminist essentialism with regards to sex/gender has been proven wrong.”

Start pointing to them please. No anecdotal stuff please, but labratory based experimental results would be nice. No half-baked literature reviews or meta-analysis. I want hard science. Biochemical determinism has been proven wrong by whom? The universities have Science Faculties which are full of them and they are publishing quite prolifically. I have already cited Crispe, Badcock, Baron-Cohen and Ngun et. al. Offer some countervailing science please.

You wrote:

“Chemistry, social learning, and behaviors create very complex feedback loops among human beings and showing that biochemistry is different is not the same thing as saying, for example, that women hare biologically predetermined to do this or that.”

All of those feed-back loops are biochemical feed-back loops. I have never said that either sex is predetermined to do anything behavioural. I have said that there are substantial difference in the the processing of information and thus the perceptions of males and females about the world around them. These perceptions may and probably do influence each sexes behaviour. However, since you have mentioned it, when was the last time a man went through gestation and brought a baby to term?

Whether you want to admit it or not, from a scientific perspective men, women and all life on Earth are, in varying degrees, just self-aware aggregates of chemicals interacting and reacting in very complex ways to produce metabolism, reproduction and behaviour. Our chemistry and its interaction with the chemistry around us determines who we are and how we behave because our behaviour is chemistry.

Cheers and good gaming.

Rod Robertson.