The Fiver is the New Nickel

What do you do when you exit the grocery store to find an old guy in a wheelchair with his hand out muttering 'spare change' over and over? What I did was hand him a five dollar bill. Nobody carries spare change these days.

Then what did he do? Guess. 

You're wrong. He didn't thank me. He said, "a twenty would be good."

What did I do next? Pick one.
(a) I lectured him about gratitude. 
(b) I walked on. 
(c) I gave him a twenty.
(d) I handed over all my cash.
(e) I kicked over the wheelchair.

Got your answer? Before I tell you, let's consider what would be the right thing. I imagine you are now busy deciding what you would have done. Or maybe you have already settled on an all-purpose default answer and don't obsess about such things. 

By the way, don't expect me to tell you the right thing. I'm having enough trouble with this myself. But we could take a look at how such decisions are made.

Decisions get made by a small universe of mental complexity between the ears connected to the larger universe by sensory organs and muscles. Instead of writing a book about the entire universe, I'm going to examine just what's between the ears. That will keep us occupied so we can ignore the beggars for a few minutes.

What is between the ears has been evolving since before there were ears. When the ancestral mother was a worm, there were two issues her brain needed to manage: obtaining food and avoiding pain. She didn't have to worry about getting dinner for her husband because she was a hermaphrodite, I mean he was there in the same skin sharing the same brain so they wanted the same things and didn't talk much. 

When the ancestral mother was a rodent, self-interest was still there as the default instinct. In addition, she was equipped with maternal instinct to insure the survival of helpless baby rodents. That instinct came with its own mind-altering hormone, oxytocin. The daddy rodent probably got involved as well, maybe gathering food and fending off predators. He had his own job and his own brain and hormones to manage it, but it was a family affair. Since they had different brains, they learned to communicate. So, for example, she could tell him that the acorns were moldy and he could collect some fresh ones. Or he could tell her the wolf was at the door and she would stop communicating for awhile until the wolf was gone. Within the family, individuals subordinated self-interest to collective survival and they thrived together. We know that because their descendants are here in our floor making scary noises.

That brings us forward 80 million years. When the ancestral Mum was human, the family group had expanded in stages to include extended family, tribe, curling club, political party, nation, and people everywhere. It is still expanding to include the biosphere. Dorothy talks to the animals, so we get along with them pretty good. We haven't got to aliens from other galaxies except in the movies. It's coming and we're going to download an app to learn Klingon so we continue to get along with the neighbours.

Sorry. I'm getting ahead of myself. This was about beggars, wasn't it.

Spare change? Spare change? Spare change?

You there, keep it down. I'm busy writing this blog. Besides I'm out of twenties.

A fifty would be good.

I give up. I'll finish this another day.