One should usually admit such things publicly, but I want to make a point relative to my theory, so here it is:
When you're reaching out for a goal too large for an ordinary human to accomplish, having thoughts of grandeur actually helps you keep on target! I often catch myself thinking about the "after". What will happen after I complete my theory; how I'll try to get it published, the methods of explaining it to the mass, how I can also make a profit out of such extraordinary knowledge, etc. Another human might quickly try to dismiss such thoughts or even try to discipline himself into avoiding them, as they lack humility and modesty and character. But when you're reaching for the stars... you actually need such thoughts, they are invaluable into keeping your Driving Pockets active for a long time.
Remember what we've already said: thinking is living (on a smaller scale/level, i.e. it is not as intense as actually experiencing them in flesh and blood, but the mechanism is the same, just turned down some notches). So when you think about some probable future stimuli that have the potential to give you pleasure, the DPs will be activated (but not as much). Nevertheless, this activation is a promise for pleasure.
Let's take a step back and explain the "repressed" feelings (I really DON'T like this translation. The greek "Απωθημένο" is much better) and how they get created.
What have we said about feedback? You get feedback (=strengthening of all currently active neural connections) in two cases: when the DPs get activated (feedback in the pattern-matching mesh), or when they get deactivated (feedback in the action mesh). So when you get a good scare about something, you will strengthen the path between this pattern and the DF of pain (fear is the promise of pain). The next time you see this pattern, the paths are stronger so the signal loss traversing it will be less and the DP will be even bigger!
On the other hand, when you eat something you really like, the active neural paths in the inner loop will be linked to this pattern (feedback in the action/inner-loop mesh) and the next time you try to eat it, you will "expect" it, so it will be more in-context and the DIFF mechanism (we haven't discussed about that yet, have we?) will subtract the predicted signal from the real signal and less of the original signal will enter the inner paths of your brain, and thus you will get less pleasure!
So you repress your feelings by having a promise for pleasure (activation of DP; pattern-mesh feedback) that does not have the chance to get fulfilled (i.e. to act on this DP and deactivate it, so you get action-mesh-feedback). In this way, sooner or later you see a person that exhibits excessive and rampant behavior (BIG DPs) when he sees something not that extreme. It is because he was getting a promise for pleasure (or pain!) that did not have the chance to get acted upon and become in-context. Time after time, the DP was getting larger and larger until it blows up :)
Let's get back to megalomania... Megalomania acts very much like repression in the aforementioned example. You get a boost in your DP that does not get fulfilled. The effect of this is that, although in many other people this DP would diminish too much too quickly ("this is a long-shot, I'll never have the opportunity to accomplish it") and they would move into acting on other DPs, in a megalomaniac this boost in the DP is enough to keep the promise alive! The fact that you "live" the potential (the what-can-be) in your thoughts is enough to keep you going, where others would have stopped ("Keep walking" :D).
Monday, 9 May 2011
Friday, 25 March 2011
The invention of time by man
The existence of time as a concept can be attributed to the gradual "deactivation" of the neural paths after a signal traversal and the gradual increase in resistance between two neurons.
In other words, the fact that as time goes by a connection between two neurons is more difficult to traverse for the next signal that might go that way means that a pattern that we experienced in the past will seem more "distant"/vague to us because the signal that will reach it will be less (greater resistance along the path). This also means that this pattern will agitate less the driving forces and create smaller driving pockets, marking it as a lesser priority for the brain.
So a pattern that gave me pleasure some time ago has "lost" a lot of its connection to the driving force, so if I see it again the activation of the DF will be small, so it will not promise me immediate pleasure. By this mechanism the brain prioritizes pleasure alternatives according to their... temporal proximity!!
And this is done automatically, without us reasoning about what is time. We don't have to think about it. We know what time is, as every pattern gets automatically translated to a distant or near pleasure. This way we "feel" what time is, and that's the way we are then able to reason about it and invent it as a concept.
As you may have guessed, I do not believe it "time". I believe it is an extremely useful human invention that helps us understand and model the universe.
In other words, the fact that as time goes by a connection between two neurons is more difficult to traverse for the next signal that might go that way means that a pattern that we experienced in the past will seem more "distant"/vague to us because the signal that will reach it will be less (greater resistance along the path). This also means that this pattern will agitate less the driving forces and create smaller driving pockets, marking it as a lesser priority for the brain.
So a pattern that gave me pleasure some time ago has "lost" a lot of its connection to the driving force, so if I see it again the activation of the DF will be small, so it will not promise me immediate pleasure. By this mechanism the brain prioritizes pleasure alternatives according to their... temporal proximity!!
And this is done automatically, without us reasoning about what is time. We don't have to think about it. We know what time is, as every pattern gets automatically translated to a distant or near pleasure. This way we "feel" what time is, and that's the way we are then able to reason about it and invent it as a concept.
As you may have guessed, I do not believe it "time". I believe it is an extremely useful human invention that helps us understand and model the universe.
Saturday, 15 January 2011
Some tidbits about emotions....
I know that many will say that emotions have nothing to do with my theory and I should leave them out... They reside in a different hemisphere in the brain (or at least that's what I've heard House say :) and have nothing to do with reasoning and abstract thoughts.
I don't know, they may be right. I'm also not really interested in explaining emotions (although the fact that they are still there means that evolution has left then intact for a reason, so they might hold value) but I have made a remark that I would like to share. Emotion can be (partially) explained by this mechanism:
When the Selector notices something that is out-of-context, i.e. very different from what we expected/know then it reinforces these signals to be able to cross deeper into our neural paths and agitate the Driving Forces to create Driving Pockets (standard theory up until now). If the current from this or these DPs has nowhere to go towards the action endpoints to solve this thing, then the Capacity of the Battery is somehow enlarged, somewhat like a defense mechanism of our organism. Since with the current capacity of the battery (a specific amount of Amps it can give to the DPs) our brain is unable to resolve this out-of-context situation, our brain pushes harder! It tries to give out more signal, just in case this extra signal is enough to forge though the unknown pathways into something known and resolve this ambiguity/out-of-contextness :)
I can explain anger very well with the aforementioned mechanism...
You want to unscrew a cap from your soda bottle. You've done this many times, you know the amount of strength needed, so when you get the DP for a soda, you let your Snail mechanism guide you through this action... you don't even notice it / register it / remember it, if it goes as planned. But if the cap won't unscrew with the usual force applied to it, then... you have something out of context! The selector with enforce this signal, so it will create a greater DP. The DP will now "steal" more signal from the Battery and thus it will be able to send more signal towards the action endpoints and flex your muscles more. But if this damn cap still won't go off, you have a situation as described above: an out-of-context situation where your brain is not able to resolve it and deactivate the DP. So, if the cap still won't come off, you become angry!! The capacity of the Battery is magically increased for a short amount of time and you are able to push even more signal towards the action endpoints and to the muscles. This might be enough to finally unscrew the damn thing ;)
The sideeffect of this capacity increase of the Battery is that it won't wear off instantaneously. It will need a few moments/minutes/hours (depends on the situation, on person and on biology, so not interested) to go back to normal, so if you get other DPs activated in the meantime, they will get more signal than they usual got, so your reactions will seem over-the-top, too-much, or... driven-by-anger ;)
So if one asks you something when in the middle of unscrewing that cap, you might yell at him where in other cases you might not have.
When we are angry, we have reactions/actions with more signal that needed, which may be useful for the one DP that we are trying to resolve/deactivate, but is not useful for all others. Thus, our reactions are unmannered, our body movements are large and forceful, and all this because they are "fuelled" by a pumped-up Battery. This type of reactions is extremely common for angry people, and the fact that it can be explained via my mechanism is strong proof in my opinion that, out of all the emotions, anger can actually be modelled by this mechanism accurately.
-Other examples is like when you are driving on the road, on a one-way lane and there is someone in front of you who is driving on, let's say, 60% of your usual driving speed. This is out-of-context and will be strengthened by your Selector. If you also have a need to go somewhere quickly (i.e. if this strengthened signal that will now travel deeper into your brain will hit a DF hard), then a big DP will be activated. But since this is a one-way lane, you do not have the means to resolve this DP by a simple overtake.
The anger pattern is complete: you have something out-of-context that creates a sizable DP and you have no constructed pathways towards the action endpoints to do something and deactivate this DP... So, what do you do? You get angry!!
-Another example: someone you care for tells you something offensive about yourself. His offensive words are the out-of-context part, i.e. the signal that will be pushed deeper by your Selector. The fact that you care about this person means that you have communion (I really don't like this word, it's nowhere near the greek "ταύτιση" which is what I actually mean) with him, so you view him as an extension of yourself, so there are strong pathways that link him and you, so this deep traversal of your neurons will reach from the "him" part to the "you" part very easily, i.e. it will be like something that you have said to yourself, and you know that what you say is your representation of reality, i.e. to your knowledge it is true, so it will appear as very true to you! Now this is seriously out-of-context (you telling something bad about yourself) and it will activate a big DP, and the worst part is that you won't have the means to deactivate it! If you're not skilled at words to argue about it, or if you've never been told about it again, you won't have strong pathways from the DP to the action endpoints to resolve it, and you'll get angry... And since you act in an over-the-top manner with strong muscle movements and loud words (actually it's the same, strong muscle movements :), you may swear at him or even hit him...
That is also why little kids, who have many out-of-context situations and very few constructed paths from the DPs to the action endpoints tend to be very emotional... Because the pattern that I have described is very likely to happen.
On the other hand, grief and worry as emotions can be explained by the Battery reducing its capacity!
You cannot resolve this out-of-context situation and instead of strengthening your battery capacity, your brain reduces it! This means that there is less signal for everything, the DPs that get formed get less signal from the battery and push less signal towards the action endpoints, so the signal might not even make it to the end, or your actions might be weak. You need MORE motivation to get up and do something, you are not in the mood of acting as you normally would, all your thinking energy (this less battery capacity) is absorbed by this active (worrysome) DP that has no constructed pathways to resolve it, make it in-context, and all other DPs get almost no signal. Nothing can be acted upon when you're into so much grief. It needs time (the out-of-context will become in-context by itself over time), or counselling (forge pathways in the inner loop to connect this unfamiliar stimuli with other familiar contexts and thus make it expected and in-context) or getting force-fed by other pleasures (to create large DPs and steal a lot of battery signal from the other, woryying DP and get you out of this vicious circle), to make this effect go away.
(I know I haven't analyzed it as fully as the anger, but I've written too much for one blog post... I'm tired :)
Btw, tiredness can also be explained by reduced Battery capacity!! :D (ouf, I'm done talking :)
I don't know, they may be right. I'm also not really interested in explaining emotions (although the fact that they are still there means that evolution has left then intact for a reason, so they might hold value) but I have made a remark that I would like to share. Emotion can be (partially) explained by this mechanism:
When the Selector notices something that is out-of-context, i.e. very different from what we expected/know then it reinforces these signals to be able to cross deeper into our neural paths and agitate the Driving Forces to create Driving Pockets (standard theory up until now). If the current from this or these DPs has nowhere to go towards the action endpoints to solve this thing, then the Capacity of the Battery is somehow enlarged, somewhat like a defense mechanism of our organism. Since with the current capacity of the battery (a specific amount of Amps it can give to the DPs) our brain is unable to resolve this out-of-context situation, our brain pushes harder! It tries to give out more signal, just in case this extra signal is enough to forge though the unknown pathways into something known and resolve this ambiguity/out-of-contextness :)
I can explain anger very well with the aforementioned mechanism...
You want to unscrew a cap from your soda bottle. You've done this many times, you know the amount of strength needed, so when you get the DP for a soda, you let your Snail mechanism guide you through this action... you don't even notice it / register it / remember it, if it goes as planned. But if the cap won't unscrew with the usual force applied to it, then... you have something out of context! The selector with enforce this signal, so it will create a greater DP. The DP will now "steal" more signal from the Battery and thus it will be able to send more signal towards the action endpoints and flex your muscles more. But if this damn cap still won't go off, you have a situation as described above: an out-of-context situation where your brain is not able to resolve it and deactivate the DP. So, if the cap still won't come off, you become angry!! The capacity of the Battery is magically increased for a short amount of time and you are able to push even more signal towards the action endpoints and to the muscles. This might be enough to finally unscrew the damn thing ;)
The sideeffect of this capacity increase of the Battery is that it won't wear off instantaneously. It will need a few moments/minutes/hours (depends on the situation, on person and on biology, so not interested) to go back to normal, so if you get other DPs activated in the meantime, they will get more signal than they usual got, so your reactions will seem over-the-top, too-much, or... driven-by-anger ;)
So if one asks you something when in the middle of unscrewing that cap, you might yell at him where in other cases you might not have.
When we are angry, we have reactions/actions with more signal that needed, which may be useful for the one DP that we are trying to resolve/deactivate, but is not useful for all others. Thus, our reactions are unmannered, our body movements are large and forceful, and all this because they are "fuelled" by a pumped-up Battery. This type of reactions is extremely common for angry people, and the fact that it can be explained via my mechanism is strong proof in my opinion that, out of all the emotions, anger can actually be modelled by this mechanism accurately.
-Other examples is like when you are driving on the road, on a one-way lane and there is someone in front of you who is driving on, let's say, 60% of your usual driving speed. This is out-of-context and will be strengthened by your Selector. If you also have a need to go somewhere quickly (i.e. if this strengthened signal that will now travel deeper into your brain will hit a DF hard), then a big DP will be activated. But since this is a one-way lane, you do not have the means to resolve this DP by a simple overtake.
The anger pattern is complete: you have something out-of-context that creates a sizable DP and you have no constructed pathways towards the action endpoints to do something and deactivate this DP... So, what do you do? You get angry!!
-Another example: someone you care for tells you something offensive about yourself. His offensive words are the out-of-context part, i.e. the signal that will be pushed deeper by your Selector. The fact that you care about this person means that you have communion (I really don't like this word, it's nowhere near the greek "ταύτιση" which is what I actually mean) with him, so you view him as an extension of yourself, so there are strong pathways that link him and you, so this deep traversal of your neurons will reach from the "him" part to the "you" part very easily, i.e. it will be like something that you have said to yourself, and you know that what you say is your representation of reality, i.e. to your knowledge it is true, so it will appear as very true to you! Now this is seriously out-of-context (you telling something bad about yourself) and it will activate a big DP, and the worst part is that you won't have the means to deactivate it! If you're not skilled at words to argue about it, or if you've never been told about it again, you won't have strong pathways from the DP to the action endpoints to resolve it, and you'll get angry... And since you act in an over-the-top manner with strong muscle movements and loud words (actually it's the same, strong muscle movements :), you may swear at him or even hit him...
That is also why little kids, who have many out-of-context situations and very few constructed paths from the DPs to the action endpoints tend to be very emotional... Because the pattern that I have described is very likely to happen.
On the other hand, grief and worry as emotions can be explained by the Battery reducing its capacity!
You cannot resolve this out-of-context situation and instead of strengthening your battery capacity, your brain reduces it! This means that there is less signal for everything, the DPs that get formed get less signal from the battery and push less signal towards the action endpoints, so the signal might not even make it to the end, or your actions might be weak. You need MORE motivation to get up and do something, you are not in the mood of acting as you normally would, all your thinking energy (this less battery capacity) is absorbed by this active (worrysome) DP that has no constructed pathways to resolve it, make it in-context, and all other DPs get almost no signal. Nothing can be acted upon when you're into so much grief. It needs time (the out-of-context will become in-context by itself over time), or counselling (forge pathways in the inner loop to connect this unfamiliar stimuli with other familiar contexts and thus make it expected and in-context) or getting force-fed by other pleasures (to create large DPs and steal a lot of battery signal from the other, woryying DP and get you out of this vicious circle), to make this effect go away.
(I know I haven't analyzed it as fully as the anger, but I've written too much for one blog post... I'm tired :)
Btw, tiredness can also be explained by reduced Battery capacity!! :D (ouf, I'm done talking :)
Friday, 7 January 2011
Explaining curiosity
As we have already said (have we? At least I've known it for over a year), the driving pockets "steal" energy (current, amperes?) from the Battery with an amount proportional to their relative amount of activation vs all the other currently active driving pockets. So two equally active DPs get 50-50 of the Battery's capacity.
The thing is that the battery does not really turn off (except in order to sleep, but then it probably fires off again when dreaming?), so even in circumstances where all our basic (& secondary & tertiary etc) needs are fulfilled and there are no active driving pockets,
(on a side note: it is very funny, but this is what we call happiness!! The non-existence of needs and the non-existence of stimuli that will trigger/remind-us-of needs! A situation where we have no will to do anything... Just lie peacefully still. And that is why nature has protected us and deprived us from the ability to achieve true, long-lasting happiness; because it is a condition that causes inaction and it counter-evolutionary and does not promote survival. And that is why we can also reach happiness for a few seconds at a time and soon enough something comes along and raises driving pockets again.
Sorry Buddha, evolution won't give in without a fight! :D)
the battery is still able to push signals towards the stimuli endpoints (and don't forget the inner loop!). This means that even a small DP, if left alone without competition, will capture the battery's signal and cause us to act in order to diminish it.
And this is curiosity! Even things that are not important, even when they are remotely relevant to something pleasurable from our past will cause us to act upon them, "if we have nothing better to do", i.e. if there are no bigger needs in our body to steal the current from the battery.
Simple, isn't it? Our mechanism that pushes us into action (and thinking), the battery, does not turn off, so when we have nothing better to do we put as much effort in the little things as we would put for the bigger things.
That is also one of the reasons why humans have developed so advanced thinking constructs, speech, writing, math, etc... (ok, one other reason is that they have to brain capacity to do it). It is because they have managed to easily solve their feeding and breeding issues and still have spare time.
So once they got past that point, the growth of our thinking process was exponential!
That is why philosophers were rich (or had other means of getting fed). That is why in the times of human history where survival was not given the progress of thought and science was minimal or non-existent.
And that is also why I need a relatively simple (repetitive, uninteresting) life in order to continue developing my theory... Because the driving pocket that drives me into thinking about it is fueled by a veeery distant promise of reward, and every pleasure potential of the "here and now" kind distracts me. If I had a life full of trips, ups-and-downs, pleasures etc, I would be able to devote thinking time to my small in activation DP of the cognition theory. And if I don't devote time, the theory is not going to be thought of by itself...
Anywayz, we started with curiosity and explained the golden age of Perikles, the advantages of slavery and my "prison".
The thing is that the battery does not really turn off (except in order to sleep, but then it probably fires off again when dreaming?), so even in circumstances where all our basic (& secondary & tertiary etc) needs are fulfilled and there are no active driving pockets,
(on a side note: it is very funny, but this is what we call happiness!! The non-existence of needs and the non-existence of stimuli that will trigger/remind-us-of needs! A situation where we have no will to do anything... Just lie peacefully still. And that is why nature has protected us and deprived us from the ability to achieve true, long-lasting happiness; because it is a condition that causes inaction and it counter-evolutionary and does not promote survival. And that is why we can also reach happiness for a few seconds at a time and soon enough something comes along and raises driving pockets again.
Sorry Buddha, evolution won't give in without a fight! :D)
the battery is still able to push signals towards the stimuli endpoints (and don't forget the inner loop!). This means that even a small DP, if left alone without competition, will capture the battery's signal and cause us to act in order to diminish it.
And this is curiosity! Even things that are not important, even when they are remotely relevant to something pleasurable from our past will cause us to act upon them, "if we have nothing better to do", i.e. if there are no bigger needs in our body to steal the current from the battery.
Simple, isn't it? Our mechanism that pushes us into action (and thinking), the battery, does not turn off, so when we have nothing better to do we put as much effort in the little things as we would put for the bigger things.
That is also one of the reasons why humans have developed so advanced thinking constructs, speech, writing, math, etc... (ok, one other reason is that they have to brain capacity to do it). It is because they have managed to easily solve their feeding and breeding issues and still have spare time.
So once they got past that point, the growth of our thinking process was exponential!
That is why philosophers were rich (or had other means of getting fed). That is why in the times of human history where survival was not given the progress of thought and science was minimal or non-existent.
And that is also why I need a relatively simple (repetitive, uninteresting) life in order to continue developing my theory... Because the driving pocket that drives me into thinking about it is fueled by a veeery distant promise of reward, and every pleasure potential of the "here and now" kind distracts me. If I had a life full of trips, ups-and-downs, pleasures etc, I would be able to devote thinking time to my small in activation DP of the cognition theory. And if I don't devote time, the theory is not going to be thought of by itself...
Anywayz, we started with curiosity and explained the golden age of Perikles, the advantages of slavery and my "prison".
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
The delusion of freedom
At each moment in time, every day, our brain makes decisions. It weighs the incoming signals against the current activation of the driving forces, taking into account the neural paths strength and activation (vibration) and decides to act in a certain way.
The fact that we have the inner loop, allows us to glimpse upon this process and gradually become aware of it. We gradually become aware of our existence, by managing to observe our thought process.
And here is the catch... by doing that, we automatically THINK that we have free will as well! It's very logical: since you can monitor something and you have seen the way it works (actually, its effects only!), you believe that the power to change it is within your grasp, to alter the way it works, to modify it to suit... your... needs?!?!?!! (Do you see the contradiction?!)
Since your brain ALWAYS does what it judges will BEST suit your NEEDS, how can YOU alter your thoughts and actions to better suit your needs? You cannot change the way your neurons coordinate and orchestrate your thoughts; this is a mechanism that has evolved in the millions of years of species evolution. So how can you control your actions (and your future) then? Is your future preordained? Is there nothing you can do to shape your own course of future actions?
Well, the answer is that you both can and can’t!
You can’t stop your brain from always acting on what it thinks is best at any point in time. What you can do is this: by utilizing the knowledge of your disability of being unable to NOT act on your best interest, if you give your brain stimuli that prove that it’s in its best interest to act in a certain way, you can steer it towards making your body act in this way. So, possessing the knowledge of the way your brain works seems to be sufficient in tilting the scale in your favor… Right?
Wrong. The problem is that YOU can’t do that! Because to try and alter your environment to gather the evidence (/stimuli), you have to make an effort for it. And the “commander” that will order the execution of this attempt is your brain! But it will not give that order if it does not believe it’s for “your” best interest. So, your brain cannot escape from its own workings. Your companions however (fellow humans) can, because they are not trapped in YOUR brain’s vicious circle, but in THEIRS! So, they have the means to get YOU out of this situation and because of communion (ταύτιση), they have an incentive as well!
So, let’s be honest… we actually don’t have free will! For a predefined input and a predefined mental state (context) (=strength and vibration of neural connections), we will produce a predictable and always identical output (you can partially experiment on that on Memento-style patients). So since the way we judge all stimuli and define our actions is preset… in that sense, our actions/outputs are predictable and predefined as well. This makes us bystanders in our own lives, we can try as much as we like, but we cannot truly change the way we think and act.
We have the delusion of freedom, but if we somehow magically replayed our whole life from the start with exactly the same conditions, we would think and act in exactly the same way (since we wouldn’t carry back the feedback and knowledge that we now possess). This means that our life is not actually a random path that we happened to follow as we lived through time and space. It is a specific preset path (that is produced by specific inputs and calculations that produce specific outputs) and we have no means of escaping it, but we are also unaware of what lies ahead.
The difference now lies in that: the future is not unknown; it is just computationally impossible to calculate.
For now......
Tuesday, 9 November 2010
Why making movies/spectacles/narrations to please everybody is simply impossible
The challenging thing about people making movies (according to my cognition theory) is to balance the decisions they make, on the movie theme and the way it is presented, between two not-clearly-defined borders:
- on the one hand you want the movie to present patterns that the people can relate, to raise empathy (ταύτιση in greek) and find a way to channel your messages to their emotions and Driving Forces... So you need something close to the patterns that they are already used to!
- on the other hand you want the movie to present something new, non-detrimental, non-usual, non in-context, in order to capture the attention of their Selector (and only through this you can make your signals travel deep inside their minds)... So you need something not really close to the patterns that they are already used to!
Thus, you need something that they know and at the same time something that they don't know! You are presented with an upper and lower boundary of familiarity that is different for every individual, so there is no universal solution to this problem and that is why there are no movies that are equally liked by all people in the world!
The only thing you can do is aggregate your (speculative) data, make an estimation of the lower and upper boundary of your target group and work with that goal in mind. Still, you won't please all people equally, but you'll do the best you can (from a statistical point of view).
- on the one hand you want the movie to present patterns that the people can relate, to raise empathy (ταύτιση in greek) and find a way to channel your messages to their emotions and Driving Forces... So you need something close to the patterns that they are already used to!
- on the other hand you want the movie to present something new, non-detrimental, non-usual, non in-context, in order to capture the attention of their Selector (and only through this you can make your signals travel deep inside their minds)... So you need something not really close to the patterns that they are already used to!
Thus, you need something that they know and at the same time something that they don't know! You are presented with an upper and lower boundary of familiarity that is different for every individual, so there is no universal solution to this problem and that is why there are no movies that are equally liked by all people in the world!
The only thing you can do is aggregate your (speculative) data, make an estimation of the lower and upper boundary of your target group and work with that goal in mind. Still, you won't please all people equally, but you'll do the best you can (from a statistical point of view).
Saturday, 6 November 2010
A long overdue status update
I think it's time to say a few things about what's been going on in my head (not much actually :)) the past 5 months.
First of all, I've hit a brick wall! I realized that the brain does not compare the expected input with the actual input for action ONLY, but for EVERYTHING! I.e. in whatever state we're currently in, there are some things that are normal to expect and we consider "in-context" and anything is more or less unexpected and considered "out-of-context". It doesn't have to do only with action! This comparison of expected-actual inputs is constant.
A typical example that is very easy to prove at home, on the road, anywhere, but only for men (ladies excuse me) is if you move your... "equipment" on the other side of the crotch than your "usual" side. Whatever you do for the next minutes you will notice it! It will constantly send you signals that are unexpected/out-of-context and your Selector will can't help but notice it and create a driving pocket out of it (and drag your thought process towards it, if you don't have anything better to do, i.e. a bigger driving pocket).
And the sideeffect of this observation of mine is that: not only the in/out-of context comparison happens all the time and not only during action (as my theory predicted up until now), it is appears to move from out-of-context to in-context without action and feedback (although I'm not sure about that, because I have not been able to explain its mechanics up until now and it feels wrong). Going back to my previous example, after a while you will stop noticing it and after a lot you will consider it normal. It will have become in-context to you without actually acting upon it to make it in-context!
Troubling isn't it?
As you can imagine, this disruptive observation was enough to disorient my reasoning for months... since I had to erase and rewind; restructure my theory to incorporate and explain these processes.
In order to overcome these difficulties, I have amended a few things:
With this mechanism, the Selector does not need to deal with the mundane task of comparing DPs and sending signal. This is done automatically by a "dumb" Battery. The Selector's operation directly affect the reinforcing process of the Battery by energizing DPs (which will make the Battery divert more of its capacity towards this DP) and this is why I originally thought that the Selector was part of this operation as well.
This mechanism also has the added advantage that it explains INACTION!! (a very troubling question that I had for years). Inaction is simply conflicting strong DPs that each steal a large part of the Battery's capacity not leaving enough signal for any DP to get to the other side (the action endpoints) and convert this DP into action.
So if I tell you to steal that candy, you will briefly "taste" the candy in your head and this will create a DP out of it. But on the same time it will also bring to your head the memories of getting scolded by your mother for steal stuff and this will create another DP (probably stronger) that will steal a lot of the Battery capacity and not leave enough signal for the original DP to manage to activate the action endpoints and act upon your will to take the candy and eat it.
Of course, the situation also depends on how paved the road from the DP to the action endpoints is. So, let's take depression as an example. You have a large DP in your head about something that bothers you a lot, e.g. the death of a loved one. It pains you to think about it. It is out-of-context (you're not used to it) so you focus on it. The brain tries to make everything from out-of-context to in-context. The problem is that as much signal as the Battery sends (which will probably loop and create thoughts), you can't find a way to make your mind at ease, to attach it to something in-context and stop dealing with it. If it was something like "Oh, why is the mop on the floor? Ah, I just remembered that my wife told me she left in a big hurry", you can easily attach it to something in-context. You saw the mop on the floor, it was out-of-context. The DP made you deal with it, mostly by thinking upon it. Through this added signals sent by the Battery, you managed to recollect your wife telling you about leaving in a hurry, and you put two and two together. This is now in-context because it might have happened again or you might have done the same in the past etc...
But in the death of a loved one, as much as your brains tries to attach all those unknown/out-of-context patterns to something familiar, it can't. Thus, this DP dominates your brain and steals most or all of your Battery capacity, rendering you incapable of doing anything! You can of course perform your bodily functions, because you have done them all your life, the paths are very well paved and even the slightest signal from the Battery can push you to perform them. But you can't do anything else, until this DP decreases in strength.
So there you have it: an explanation for depression, inaction and the method for making a decision (if you've followed my reasoning up until now, you'll have understood that there is actually no true decision; if the signal manages to reach the action endpoints, we act upon it, until this DP ceases or some other DP steals us the battery capacity necessary to perform the action. There is no decision anywhere on the action process!).
I'll continue this post in a few hours, because I have to go.
First of all, I've hit a brick wall! I realized that the brain does not compare the expected input with the actual input for action ONLY, but for EVERYTHING! I.e. in whatever state we're currently in, there are some things that are normal to expect and we consider "in-context" and anything is more or less unexpected and considered "out-of-context". It doesn't have to do only with action! This comparison of expected-actual inputs is constant.
A typical example that is very easy to prove at home, on the road, anywhere, but only for men (ladies excuse me) is if you move your... "equipment" on the other side of the crotch than your "usual" side. Whatever you do for the next minutes you will notice it! It will constantly send you signals that are unexpected/out-of-context and your Selector will can't help but notice it and create a driving pocket out of it (and drag your thought process towards it, if you don't have anything better to do, i.e. a bigger driving pocket).
And the sideeffect of this observation of mine is that: not only the in/out-of context comparison happens all the time and not only during action (as my theory predicted up until now), it is appears to move from out-of-context to in-context without action and feedback (although I'm not sure about that, because I have not been able to explain its mechanics up until now and it feels wrong). Going back to my previous example, after a while you will stop noticing it and after a lot you will consider it normal. It will have become in-context to you without actually acting upon it to make it in-context!
Troubling isn't it?
As you can imagine, this disruptive observation was enough to disorient my reasoning for months... since I had to erase and rewind; restructure my theory to incorporate and explain these processes.
In order to overcome these difficulties, I have amended a few things:
- The Selector has lost a lot of its former "glory". The operation of reinforcing signals from the DPs to get the signal to "the other side" is now done automatically by the "Battery".
With this mechanism, the Selector does not need to deal with the mundane task of comparing DPs and sending signal. This is done automatically by a "dumb" Battery. The Selector's operation directly affect the reinforcing process of the Battery by energizing DPs (which will make the Battery divert more of its capacity towards this DP) and this is why I originally thought that the Selector was part of this operation as well.
This mechanism also has the added advantage that it explains INACTION!! (a very troubling question that I had for years). Inaction is simply conflicting strong DPs that each steal a large part of the Battery's capacity not leaving enough signal for any DP to get to the other side (the action endpoints) and convert this DP into action.
So if I tell you to steal that candy, you will briefly "taste" the candy in your head and this will create a DP out of it. But on the same time it will also bring to your head the memories of getting scolded by your mother for steal stuff and this will create another DP (probably stronger) that will steal a lot of the Battery capacity and not leave enough signal for the original DP to manage to activate the action endpoints and act upon your will to take the candy and eat it.
Of course, the situation also depends on how paved the road from the DP to the action endpoints is. So, let's take depression as an example. You have a large DP in your head about something that bothers you a lot, e.g. the death of a loved one. It pains you to think about it. It is out-of-context (you're not used to it) so you focus on it. The brain tries to make everything from out-of-context to in-context. The problem is that as much signal as the Battery sends (which will probably loop and create thoughts), you can't find a way to make your mind at ease, to attach it to something in-context and stop dealing with it. If it was something like "Oh, why is the mop on the floor? Ah, I just remembered that my wife told me she left in a big hurry", you can easily attach it to something in-context. You saw the mop on the floor, it was out-of-context. The DP made you deal with it, mostly by thinking upon it. Through this added signals sent by the Battery, you managed to recollect your wife telling you about leaving in a hurry, and you put two and two together. This is now in-context because it might have happened again or you might have done the same in the past etc...
But in the death of a loved one, as much as your brains tries to attach all those unknown/out-of-context patterns to something familiar, it can't. Thus, this DP dominates your brain and steals most or all of your Battery capacity, rendering you incapable of doing anything! You can of course perform your bodily functions, because you have done them all your life, the paths are very well paved and even the slightest signal from the Battery can push you to perform them. But you can't do anything else, until this DP decreases in strength.
So there you have it: an explanation for depression, inaction and the method for making a decision (if you've followed my reasoning up until now, you'll have understood that there is actually no true decision; if the signal manages to reach the action endpoints, we act upon it, until this DP ceases or some other DP steals us the battery capacity necessary to perform the action. There is no decision anywhere on the action process!).
I'll continue this post in a few hours, because I have to go.
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