Deadly Decisions-Review by John Manhold
Book Review
by
John H. Manhold
Deadly Decisions by Christopher Burns
ISBN:978-1-59102-660-0, Prometheus Books, 360 pages, including a selected bibliography and references, hardcover, $26.98, provides an interesting look at how the mind works to assimilate and use information.
The book begins with an examination of the facts associated with the sinking of the Titanic. It quickly follows with a similar recounting of those surrounding the Three Mile Island episode, the Shuttle Challenger tragedy, the Vincennes fiasco, and an examination of mistakes made by the medical profession with a discussion of one prominent case. A discussion of brain function follows, and the thoughts of many philosophers of the past are included.
Some of the resultant material the author provides: “Synapses don’t always close because the activity of one neuron can directly inhibit that of another. It is difficult for a person to remember or record a “maybe”. Uncertainty is difficult to remember and hunches often harden into fact. Thus, strongly held ideas and experiences make it more difficult to learn, or assimilate, some newly acquired facts.”
The author proceeds further: “The brain doesn’t have an organizational hierarchy. It has broad, generous and redundant network connecting processing centers adept at handling certain kinds of information. (In) the areas of the brain for memory, judgment and unique processing skill – the special areas of the cortex – there is no control…. The mind has many voices, prattling and panting, dictating, raging, whimpering and whispering, compromising, interjecting and talking everlastingly. And, from time to time, it comes to a conclusion that is dead wrong.”
Burns continues further to incorporate these failings into a group situation: “When information travels through an organization, each person involved in the process has an opportunity to judge its accuracy, to translate, to contribute, to emphasize and to suppress details. The result is a system that tends to reinforce what is expected rather than what is real.”
With such an explanation, the reason for the Deadly Decisions made in the examples earlier provided, are easily discernable.
The author then proceeds to examine the possibility of how such rendering of decisions might affect such situations as the spread of Avian Flu and how it affected the entry of the United States into the present war. In turn, there follows an exploration as to how these same brain functions again might function in the future to produce disastrous results.
All in all, Christopher Burns has provided some most interesting, and a few little known, facts that have led him to provide a most provocative concept.
