Valerie Lawrence

Period: 1943-present

Summary

In Chapter 6 of The Atomic Human, the author’s mother appears as part of a teaching example about how humans make assumptions and generalizations from limited information. Lawrence writes:

“I like to tell people this in talks to illustrate the extent to which we are willing to generalize. The trick is to pause after saying it and then ask what people imagine my mother does for a living. Mostly people think she’s either an A-list movie star or she manages an organization that’s deeply involved in some form of lucrative criminal activity.”

The example demonstrates how five simple words - “My mother drives a Hummer” - containing just 60 bits of information can lead people to construct rich but completely unfounded narratives based on their cultural preconceptions. Lawrence reveals that in reality, his mother drives a VW Golf.

This illustration serves to explain the concept of “proxy-truths” - assumptions we make based on our observations and cultural context rather than direct knowledge. The contrast between assumptions (movie star/crime boss) and reality (VW Golf driver) effectively demonstrates how we fill in gaps in our knowledge with culturally-informed generalizations.