There’s much of interest here, I’ll just respond to one point. Some of the research on ADHD suggests that we come to expect a certain level of emotional and cognitive arousal based on what we encounter in the environment, and that the increased rates of this disorder are rooted in the fast-paced, electronically saturated environment of contemporary society. That is, the more arousal you have come to expect, the more you need to fend off discomfort and dysfunction.

If this is true, then it may be useful to think of boredom as a form of withdrawal from expected or desired levels of arousal. The analogy here is, of course, to withdrawal from a psychoactive chemical, except that perhaps it’s not an analogy.

I think risk, as you say, isn’t intrinsic to play, it’s just that risk is an enormously powerful source of arousal. But even the most innocent, non-risky, social interaction can be arousing. (I’ve got a text!). So, in sum, I suspect that one driver of all this (and only one) is simply the homeostatic processes of nervous arousal in our society.

Anyway, blogging as part of a graduate seminar sounds like a great idea!

And you’re right about bringing in a speaker who can rectify religiosity & evolution. That will be interesting. And I actually have one like that already lined up. I contacted a faculty member in Aerospace Engineering who does biomimetics, which is studying design features in animals (she looks at shark skin & butterfly wings) & reverse-engineering them to solve human engineering problems. She welcomed my invitation to come speak to the class but felt obliged to warn me that she is a Christian Scientist & to give me a run down on what that means. And last year we had an ALLELE speaker, Mary Schweitzer, who grew up as a fundamentalist Christian but loved dinosaurs. In specializing in dinosaur evolution, she was forced to abandon the literalist position of fundamentalism or her passion for dinosaurs…she chose the dinosaurs. So, yeah, I agree with you, interesting stuff & important too. This fall I’m trying to lure Joseph Bulbulia, who studies the evolution of religion, to speak as part of the series.

And you’ve given me more homework. I still haven’t caught up with the last assignment, but I haven’t forgotten. Keep it coming. I’m happy to have the opportunity to share ideas & thoughts like this.