Flourishing brain and mind science

Assessments of contributions to flourishing lives based on brain and mind science provide a unique opportunity to assess how different innovations contribute to, or undermine, flourishing lives. It also provides an opportunity for countries, investors, cities, and other stakeholders interested in system change to assess the overall contribution to flourishing lives in different settings, such as individual cities, social media platforms, investment portfolios.  

A focus on the brain and mind provides an opportunity to pursue science-based work in two important areas, often missing in current climate work.

1. A shift from a focus on how to reduce negative impacts from current systems, to a focus on how to deliver smart sustainable solutions that deliver on human needs, including a flourishing life with healthy and creative brains.
2. A discussion about what a flourishing life is. Too often today current consumption and lifestyle preferences are assumed to be static, but they are shaped by marketing and products that brain health science can help us understand. In addition, brain health science provides us with tools to also understand “mental pollution”¹ due to excess dopamine and how to support a society that does not undermine long-term thinking.  

The expanded climate and innovation agenda, developed by Mission innovation NCI in collaboration  with stakeholders such as IPCC scientists, UNFCCC Global Innovation Hub, ICLEI, OECD, WBCSD, IEA, and many others, focuses on solution providers that can deliver flourishing lives by focusing on human needs. An expanded climate and innovation agenda therefore requires an understanding of how people and organisations can be innovative and rethink how the climate challenge can be approached in new ways that deliver global sustainability. In addition, brain science is crucial if we are to understand what a flourishing life is. E.g. what is the difference between pleasure and eudemonic well-being (composed of learning experience, social support, respect, efficacy beliefs, sense of freedom, and pro-sociality), how can short-term urges and long-term visions help us toward a future where 11 billion can live flourishing lives on a regenerative planet, are examples of questions that put brain and mind science at the centre of an expanded climate and innovation agenda.

The brain capital framework

The first generation of tools built on brain science are inspired by the brain capital framework developed by the Brain Capital Alliance and their global collaborators. The “flourishing brain health model” is an adapted version of the Green Brain Capital model presented in the paper “Brain Capital is Key to a Sustainable Future” which was published via the Rice University Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Brain capital is a novel framework that recognises brain skills and brain health as indispensable drivers of the modern knowledge economy. In economics, brain capital is noted as a productive and complex capital stock that accumulates over the lifecycle. Brain capital is the combination of knowledge, skills, competencies, and tools to achieve, maximise, and sustain brain health, and pertains to both individuals and communities. The world increasingly relies on brain capital, where a premium is put on brain skills (for example, an individual’s cognitive, emotional, and social brain resources) and brain health. Investing in ways to build brain capital is thus fundamental to meet modern societal challenges and to drive innovation globally. Brain capital has been profiled at the United Nations General Assembly and in major public and private sector reports. Brain capital-driven policy innovations have been explored in the following policy areas: food and nutrition, built environment, foreign affairs, industrial innovation, social infrastructure, artificial intelligence, national security, economic security.

Sustainability issues are a major contemporary global concern, predicated on a complex set of inseparable and interconnected environmental, societal, historical, institutional, and economic factors (United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs n.d.). Strategies to date have been slow to effect change toward environmentally constructive, science-based, sustainable or green approaches and, for the most part, have proven insufficient. This, in part, stems from their failure to account for individual and collective human psychology and behaviour, particularly through understanding the drivers and motivations underpinning human behaviour.

Planetary brain health links two of the biggest challenges for humanity — promoting human brain health and halting environmental degradation. Planetary brain health is a subdiscipline of planetary health. This emerging field recognises these inter-linkages and promotes creative action-research and interdisciplinary solutions that protect brain health and the health of the ecosystems on which we depend.

The moonshot research and development program

The flourishing lives brain health science tools is also based on the approach of the Moonshot research and development program, especially goal 9 “Realisation of a mentally healthy and dynamic society by increasing peace of mind and vitality by 2050”.

The moonshot program describes their work in the following way: “In recent years, social issues related to our mental states have become increasingly severe. The key to creating a mentally healthy and dynamic society is to develop a comprehensive understanding of mental states, and kind interpersonal and intergroup communication that will lead us in a more mutually beneficial direction.  Our R&D program aims to realise increased peace of mind and vitality by creating technology to realise “understanding of individual mental states and transitions” and "mental health support in terms of interpersonal and intergroup communication” so as to increase peace of mind and vitality.”