Control Systems

from Rapsode by Baba Brinkman

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about

Understanding mental health requires a clear view of how the brain was designed by natural selection, and what vulnerabilities and tradeoffs are built into the system that can lead to anxiety, depression and PTSD.

Scientific Consultation by Randy Nesse

Further Reading:
www.nationalacademies.org/news/2021/10/evolutionary-medicine-needs-engineering-expertise

lyrics

Control system design
All the same tricks of the mind

If my furnace and my thermostat is actin’ erratic
I’ma ask a mechanic to fix it, that has understanding
Of the mechanistic interactions of every part in the whole
And the specific system failure that lost me control

And if my mood is erratic and catchin’ the blues is a habit
And minor triggers seem to move me to panic, I'ma do Psychiatric
Assessment, and if they label it a “major depression”
I’ma conversate with clinicians, and maybe take a prescription

To correct that “chemical imbalance” between my ears
But what I really wanna hear is control system engineers
Explain the tradeoffs built into designing race cars
If you want them to go faster, they’re gonna have to break lots

When they fly off the track. What kind of design flaw is that?
Not a flaw, just a compromise between safe and fast
Control system design, identify the central target
The homeostatic optimum the system is benchmarkin'

Every cell in my body’s got a sense of its margins
A hundred thousand mini control systems in every organ
Quick responses, pushin’ the gains out of the pockets
Positive feedback loops, so easy to overshoot

From blood pressure to temperature, glucose to mood
The optimum depends on what’s been poppin’ with you
What did you eat? What did you see? How far did you run? What did you do?
I’ma get back in the groove when the situation improves

Control system design
Keep it all inside the borderlines
You know them by their polar sides
All the same tricks of the mind

Control system design
Keep it all inside the borderlines
You know them by their polar sides
All the same tricks of the mind

I want to talk to the original design engineer
That put my brain and body together, this arrangement is weird
I’m not talkin’ about a non-existent god with a beard
I’m talkin’ Darwinian selection over millions of years

Each organism adapting to environmental stress
Optimizing behavior to its situational best
And not for the purpose of living life healthy and blessed
The ultimate target was always raw genetic success

Threat assessment, anxiety rises, and that’s adaptive
Even if a threat is imagined, false negatives are disasters
The trigger is tracking an average fitness maximum
With redundancies overlapping, robust is better than accurate

Anxiety and depression, are they diseases or symptoms?
Like physical pain, it depends on the day, depends on the triggers
Relationships catching damage, frustrated ambitions
And trauma, and mismatches from ancient to modern living

Some people have a genetic predisposition to mood swings
It’s not surprising that evolution can’t do some things
Like eliminate all the mutations that cause harm
And protect a modern day brain from false alarms

Natural selection made control systems to keep track
That are naturally fragile to swings of positive feedback
From surges of confidence to falling deep in a morass
Find the high spots in the swamp to creep back

Control system design
Keep it all inside the borderlines
You know them by their polar sides
All the same old tricks of the mind

Control system design
Keep it all inside the borderlines
You know them by their polar sides
All the same old tricks of the mind

credits

from Rapsode, released May 15, 2023
Lyrics by Baba Brinkman
Produced by Tom Caruana
Chorus Vocals by Isiah Dunkley
Guitar by Isiah Dunkley
Horn by Eli Asher
Keys by Sharla Funk