Human Brain
PAGE IN PROGRESS
What you see here is a page of my hypertext book Me, Looking for Meaning. Initially empty, it will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience! :)
What you see here is a page of my hypertext book Me, Looking for Meaning. Initially empty, it will slowly be filled with thoughts, notes, and quotes. One day, I will use them to write a coherent entry, similar to these completed pages. See this post to better understand my creative process. Thank you for your interest and patience! :)
From "Undomesticate your mind" https://www.tenpercent.com/meditationweeklyblog/undomesticate-your-mind?utm_source=TPW&utm_medium=share
"Let’s be honest: our minds are wild animals that, if left to their own devices, would run amok like excessively caffeinated squirrels.This is actually an important aspect of how our brains work. It’s helped us survive as a species."
First of all, I am not going to pretend that I am a specialist on the human brain. My knowledge about the brain is a) limited, b) constantly changing (because I learn more and because science of the brain is evolving). So all the things below need to be taken with the grain of salt. These are bits and pieces of information that help me understand what I want to understand about the world (see My quest for meaning).
Human brain is different from brains of other animals, but it's not absolutely unique. For example, we can talk a lot about how people understand the world through symbols, that is - they attach to the object around the meanings (ideas, associations, feelings) that are not a natural part of these objects. However, it must be noted that animals also use something that can be described as a precursor of human symbolic thinking. (Some) animals also see some aspects of their world through meanings, albeit much less complicated ones than meaning used by humans.
unwinding anxiety, part 0, chapter 2:,we share survival learning mechanisms with the most primitive animals. On top of the survival brain - prefrontal cortex used to plan for the future
Human brain is not ideal, but it serves its purpose: protecting the species. Now the question is how to make sure that we use capacities of the human brain to help individuals, not "just" the whole society.
Many features of the human brain and abilities based on them exist for other animals.
For example, it is not uniquely human to perceive the world through meanings, although what makes human communication different is it's symbolic aspects, based on abstract thinking of the highest order.
Emotions and rationality - two sides of one coin (social intuitionism)
Brain is ingenious in helping us survive but it also constantly creates problems (cravings for things that hurt us, unable to tell if we re failing or on the right track, perceiving same things different under different circumstances)
Science of studying the brain with the brain - bound to have problems
A lot of our problems are connected with Thought patterns that one can become aware of and change
Changing our brain's automatic reaction. When we don't like somebody's actions, we can assume bad intent and fall back on the "mean and stupid" explanation OR we can go beyond simplistic explanations and look for deeper reason. We can think of ways when we acted in a similar way or imagine circumstances when we could act in a similar way. Changing this mental habit can happen through rewiring the brain to interpret situations we encounter differently.
Human brains works to protect people in case of trauma. It divides and hides different parts of a traumatic memory, that is why it is difficult to for us to reconstruct such a memory as a coherent story with details.
When a person is questioning some things about the status quo («it is what it is ») there are most likely many other things that they are not questioning.
we can therorize existence of something and then find out that it’s real: black hole
Human brain is like a magical black box. We know what goes it, we know what goes out, but we do not necessarily know what happens inside. And we cannot fully predict or control what goes out. Biases work this way, but also inventions and discoveries. Sometimes to understand something it seems that you need to put pieces inside the brain and wait to see what they will make. An example is the story about Mendleev seeing the periodic table in his dream. It was not a miracle, of course, just the black box of the brain doing its thing.
When I was tired, wanted to calculate 4 times 16, automatically put 64 into calculator (my brain did the math without me noticing it)
Can we really understand how human brain works? Can we fully understand ourselves. Can the brain understand itself. It’s possible that it’s impossible. Perfect self-awareness may not be achievable for our own sake. Simply put, our brain are not meant to understand themselves. That’s not their purpose. Dangers of trying to achieve perfect self-awareness (see dangers of meditation)
your mind is a wonderful tool, but it can also (at the same time) but sabotaging you, as in case of an it
From « Unwinding Anxiety » chapter Anxiety Goes Viral:
« When “conditions” happen, I think of the mind/brain as more akin to a violin string that has gone slightly out of tune. In this situation, we don’t label the instrument as defective and throw it away, but instead listen to what is wrong and tighten (or loosen) the strings a bit so we can continue making music.«
” a research study by Yael Millgram and her colleagues at the Hebrew University suggested that the familiarity of a mood state contributes to our staying in it. When we are sad or anxious all the time, that sadness or anxiety becomes familiar, a place that we gravitate toward, something like a morning routine or a regular route to work. Any deviation feels unfamiliar, perhaps scary or even anxiety-provoking.” [create a separate page about patterns of thoughts and emotions - like a maze ball run]
habit loops
“
I see perseverative thinking as possibly the top issue tripping up my patients. And more often than not, this type of thinking has grooved a deep pattern in their brains to the point that they have identified with their habits: “I am a smoker.” “I am anxious.””
Our three brains - The emotional brain : https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/our-three-brains-the-emotional-brain
Mind is a pretty amazing thing but an individual is not in control of their mind
Imagine that you were born with a wonderful device. You were born, and it was already there, meant to make life easier for you. You would need to learn how yo use it if couse. But imagine that this machine, which you rightly own, is also outside of your full control or even understanding. It does things that actually make this worse for you, although you can logically explain why these things were meant to make things better.
Thus machine is your own brain.
Are we smarter than dogs? Our brain is not better than dog brain, it just works differently. In some ways, human brain helps us in the way that dogs brain does not help a dog (we agree to go a dentist because we can envision that this will help us even though it’s very unpleasant). In some ways our brain hurts us (meaning wars; dogs did not create a situation that changed the ecosystem of the whole planet). Our brain is more creative in a way that we can use things in many different ways (creativity of Minecraft) which can also be a blessing and a curse.
Eagleman, D. (2020). Livewired: The inside story of the ever-changing brain. Pantheon Books. [a good book on how the brain simulates and associates]
Recent changes in technology have not existed long enough to affect human biology. Hence, they only can impact human behavior or the brain on a more “superficial”, learned level. They tap into and amplify some affordances of human biology but they do not change these affordances.
Book « Why everyone (else) is a hypocrite : Evolution and the modular mind »
About this project: Start page
"Let’s be honest: our minds are wild animals that, if left to their own devices, would run amok like excessively caffeinated squirrels.This is actually an important aspect of how our brains work. It’s helped us survive as a species."
First of all, I am not going to pretend that I am a specialist on the human brain. My knowledge about the brain is a) limited, b) constantly changing (because I learn more and because science of the brain is evolving). So all the things below need to be taken with the grain of salt. These are bits and pieces of information that help me understand what I want to understand about the world (see My quest for meaning).
Human brain is different from brains of other animals, but it's not absolutely unique. For example, we can talk a lot about how people understand the world through symbols, that is - they attach to the object around the meanings (ideas, associations, feelings) that are not a natural part of these objects. However, it must be noted that animals also use something that can be described as a precursor of human symbolic thinking. (Some) animals also see some aspects of their world through meanings, albeit much less complicated ones than meaning used by humans.
unwinding anxiety, part 0, chapter 2:,we share survival learning mechanisms with the most primitive animals. On top of the survival brain - prefrontal cortex used to plan for the future
Human brain is not ideal, but it serves its purpose: protecting the species. Now the question is how to make sure that we use capacities of the human brain to help individuals, not "just" the whole society.
Many features of the human brain and abilities based on them exist for other animals.
For example, it is not uniquely human to perceive the world through meanings, although what makes human communication different is it's symbolic aspects, based on abstract thinking of the highest order.
Emotions and rationality - two sides of one coin (social intuitionism)
Brain is ingenious in helping us survive but it also constantly creates problems (cravings for things that hurt us, unable to tell if we re failing or on the right track, perceiving same things different under different circumstances)
Science of studying the brain with the brain - bound to have problems
A lot of our problems are connected with Thought patterns that one can become aware of and change
Changing our brain's automatic reaction. When we don't like somebody's actions, we can assume bad intent and fall back on the "mean and stupid" explanation OR we can go beyond simplistic explanations and look for deeper reason. We can think of ways when we acted in a similar way or imagine circumstances when we could act in a similar way. Changing this mental habit can happen through rewiring the brain to interpret situations we encounter differently.
Human brains works to protect people in case of trauma. It divides and hides different parts of a traumatic memory, that is why it is difficult to for us to reconstruct such a memory as a coherent story with details.
When a person is questioning some things about the status quo («it is what it is ») there are most likely many other things that they are not questioning.
we can therorize existence of something and then find out that it’s real: black hole
Human brain is like a magical black box. We know what goes it, we know what goes out, but we do not necessarily know what happens inside. And we cannot fully predict or control what goes out. Biases work this way, but also inventions and discoveries. Sometimes to understand something it seems that you need to put pieces inside the brain and wait to see what they will make. An example is the story about Mendleev seeing the periodic table in his dream. It was not a miracle, of course, just the black box of the brain doing its thing.
When I was tired, wanted to calculate 4 times 16, automatically put 64 into calculator (my brain did the math without me noticing it)
Can we really understand how human brain works? Can we fully understand ourselves. Can the brain understand itself. It’s possible that it’s impossible. Perfect self-awareness may not be achievable for our own sake. Simply put, our brain are not meant to understand themselves. That’s not their purpose. Dangers of trying to achieve perfect self-awareness (see dangers of meditation)
your mind is a wonderful tool, but it can also (at the same time) but sabotaging you, as in case of an it
From « Unwinding Anxiety » chapter Anxiety Goes Viral:
« When “conditions” happen, I think of the mind/brain as more akin to a violin string that has gone slightly out of tune. In this situation, we don’t label the instrument as defective and throw it away, but instead listen to what is wrong and tighten (or loosen) the strings a bit so we can continue making music.«
” a research study by Yael Millgram and her colleagues at the Hebrew University suggested that the familiarity of a mood state contributes to our staying in it. When we are sad or anxious all the time, that sadness or anxiety becomes familiar, a place that we gravitate toward, something like a morning routine or a regular route to work. Any deviation feels unfamiliar, perhaps scary or even anxiety-provoking.” [create a separate page about patterns of thoughts and emotions - like a maze ball run]
habit loops
“
I see perseverative thinking as possibly the top issue tripping up my patients. And more often than not, this type of thinking has grooved a deep pattern in their brains to the point that they have identified with their habits: “I am a smoker.” “I am anxious.””
Our three brains - The emotional brain : https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/our-three-brains-the-emotional-brain
Mind is a pretty amazing thing but an individual is not in control of their mind
Imagine that you were born with a wonderful device. You were born, and it was already there, meant to make life easier for you. You would need to learn how yo use it if couse. But imagine that this machine, which you rightly own, is also outside of your full control or even understanding. It does things that actually make this worse for you, although you can logically explain why these things were meant to make things better.
Thus machine is your own brain.
Are we smarter than dogs? Our brain is not better than dog brain, it just works differently. In some ways, human brain helps us in the way that dogs brain does not help a dog (we agree to go a dentist because we can envision that this will help us even though it’s very unpleasant). In some ways our brain hurts us (meaning wars; dogs did not create a situation that changed the ecosystem of the whole planet). Our brain is more creative in a way that we can use things in many different ways (creativity of Minecraft) which can also be a blessing and a curse.
Eagleman, D. (2020). Livewired: The inside story of the ever-changing brain. Pantheon Books. [a good book on how the brain simulates and associates]
Recent changes in technology have not existed long enough to affect human biology. Hence, they only can impact human behavior or the brain on a more “superficial”, learned level. They tap into and amplify some affordances of human biology but they do not change these affordances.
Book « Why everyone (else) is a hypocrite : Evolution and the modular mind »
About this project: Start page
