Overspecialisation in the area of development is accompanied by failure of natural awareness and

In 1996 Antonio Damasio published Descartes Error, in part a detailed study of neural pathways required by good decision-making and follow-up action. It is particularly valuable because it describes areas of the right brain whose malfunction causes the kind of indecision and inactivity typical of progress traps. It is not difficult to see how overuse of Geschwind's left-side parietal area, coupled with failure of Damasio's `decision circuit' on the other side, could lead to the kind of high-tech, industrial stalemate we are studying.

Damasio focused on damage to the frontal cortex, and the awareness and decision-making deficiencies of affected patients, reporting that a right-brain area—the somatosensory circuit— was, in addition to the frontal areas, essential in decisions and their execution. His descriptions of this right brain activity are valuable in defining what is lacking in individuals and societies where activity of the left brain (logical, verbal, sequential) predominates: