Automation Addiction – and How Agriculture Helped Us Get There 

After we have spent some time looking at the roots of risk aversion in the swampy forests of early prebiblical days, let us now leapfrog to very recent times, just 10.000 years (or 400 generations) ago and stay very close to the ground. It is around this time that the dawn of agriculture took place, which allows us to examine another component of resistance to change: the law of least resistance. Due to similar geographical conditions, it was easier for agriculture to spread on the East-West stretched European & Asian continents as opposed to the Americas or Africa, which gave the development in Europe and Asia a significant boost.

Thus, as Jared Diamond points out, the law of least resistance played the pivotal role for the further socio-economic development of whole continents. It largely shaped the difference between societies that is still very prominent today. And this is the law of least resistance in a grain-shell: when faced with a choice, we are opting for an easy way out. We eagerly take the opportunity to save energy, and this is exactly what ultimately gives us an edge. So, this is not a bug, but a feature: being parsimonious with your energy pays out and contributes to your long-term progress. And whether you like it or not, we are still carrying this feature in us. Taken ad absurdum, this idea leaves us with the following outcome: the complete absence of activity is the best way to save energy. For exactly in this moment the resistance is equal to zero. Thus, to put it bluntly, remaining motionless is good and undertaking any activity – bad, what Blaise Pascal summarized under “all of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone“. This holy grail might be an unattainable ideal for most of us, so we tend to settle for the second best: automation.

To become the most energy-efficient, we naturally automate anything that can be automated: starting with breathing and blinking, via reading and all the way up to performing some intricate sequence of acrobatic stunts for your next championship. Following the routine and doing the drill wherever possible, our ultimate goal is autopilot. Leaving this mode is not only more energy consuming, but also increases the probability of errors. And errors require rework, which is even more energy consuming. Hence, in our work and everyday life we consciously and unconsciously are permanently trying to optimise the steps of our routines and regularly performed tasks – learning the first foreign language is challenging, but by the time you decide to pick up the 3rd or the 5th, you have already developed your vocabulary or grammar learning strategies, various short-cuts and, most importantly, your neural pathways are wired properly and your brain “knows” what to do. And this is also why everybody who has ever tried changing a habit knows how difficult and painful that is and on so many levels at that! Whatever you have been doing unconsciously for months or years now requires a conscious effort NOT to be performed. There is no coincidence that it is called “force of habit”, for when you break it, you are trying to swim against the current of your autopilot. After moving a house, people keep giving their old address in official documents or even automatically driving there after a stressful day at work. Occasional usage of the maiden name years after the wedding also happens (though Freudians among us would scream “There is nothing occasional about it!”). And not being able to fall asleep without reading exactly three pages once you get used to it can become a real nightmare (pun intended).

Additionally, there is one more important point, on top of the fact how energy consuming it is to retrain yourself and change your habit. Once you break your routine or decide to change your habit, there is also a strange feeling of not being at ease, like there is something that has gone “missing”. And the feeling is correct. What is missing is the chemical reward, a little dopamine shot the little junky brain of yours is not getting any more as a routinized task is not being performed. So, you are not only distraught by all the adjustments and retraining but are going through a real withdrawal.