[This may be repetitive, but what the heck! I want to get this cleared in my head! ok! ]
Reading "The Man who mistook his wife for a hat!" Yeah yeah still reading since months now..
There are many cases. Its not really that interesting but the working of the brain leaves a lot to think about. For example - these twins. They are Autistic Twins , They have IQ of 40-60 which is quite low. But they are math geniuses. In a weird way . They cannot add or subtract.. they dono what addition/subtraction means, but they can say what day, any date will be. for eg 2054 april 4th – they’ll say if it is Sunday/Monday etc,, even 80000 years ahead/back.
They can also compute prime numbers.. to the order of say 20 digits.. which was almost impossible even for computers in 1960s.. the doctor couldn’t even verify that those numbers were prime after they crossed eleven digits. The twins played a game.. throwing prime numbers at each other and enjoying it… that’s it. One comes up with a prime. he tells it out, other one savours it.. it seems like they got a lot of joy out of contemplating on primes…
When a pack of matches fell to the ground, they instantaneously called out hundred and eleven. It turns out the number of matches that fell down were 111. When the doc asked what 111? they said 37, 3 times… 37 is prime..
I am thinking, its not like they have some special ability. all of us have this ability, but because of damage to other parts of the brain, This has come out into conscious level. Its like after an accident, u can see the insides of a car running? Or during operations, we see the heart beating? like that, but in software sense.
Obviously our brains do lot of computing, when Richard Dawkins talks of how bats detect prey using sonar.. the theory of how it is done is pretty complex, and the bat brain does this pretty well. So the software to do this is in bat brain, but obviously bat does not “know” how to compute this. If u gave it an exam paper saying - u are traveling at 8 kmph and there is a 10 feet high tree at a distance of 50 meters in front of u.. bla b la, It will flunk. But bat brain... it knows and it is doing all these computations, all the time, very accurately. so life mein, bat is Pass!:P all right.. It must be using lot of maths to do it? Obviously, just like we must be doing a lot of real time math calculating trajectory etc to catch a ball. I guess somehow prime numbers come into this equation. somehow. I think brain does not use the same method of doing calculations as we do today. There are more advanced methods which we are yet to discover. Which probably involves calculating using primes? Hash tables full of huge primes? ! May be may not be, anyway … so when brain has malfunctions these prime numbers may just spill out. Ego got access to one of the system processes? I also think when we do things which are aligned with how our brain works we are more satisfied and happier? ( what do I mean by aligned?- when conscious mind unconsciously mirrors the algorithm of the subconscious? :D LOL! this is just blade!) When we learn the API and pass on things to be processed in the subconscious, than do conscious tedious processing. we are happier and quicker and correct? This is what spirituality means- by getting in touch with your higher soul?
Next question, We have all these complex and sophisticated software in our head but our conscious program the ego program( let us call it that, I am not sure this is consistent with with Freud and Carl Jung and all. I haven’t read them).. it struggles to do even 12*8?!? Our brain is running billions of instructions per minute so to say. It has hardwired programs of unbelievable complexity!! and this program… it’s a puny stunted small useless program!! Isn’t it? What does it do? Make a few decisions? Takes a long time to learn anything at all.. It has very less permissions also..memory access.. There was another case where a lady could hear actual songs in her head. Beat to beat -just like a radio. she in fact mistook it for some radio being on. but songs were some 40/50 year old. This, following some seizures. That means brain has recorded with all sense details like smell ,sound picture, touch probably balance etc most of our life! and it does not delete anything . But what does conscious mind get to access? Nothing! not even the tip of the ice berg! Why??
Its not even that it can make independent decisions, all decisions are heavily manipulated and influenced by subconscious! It has control of all information. Logic? U say? U need to look at a few usecases to know how easily logic can be subverted by a clever subconscious.
I m thinking why at all have this puny ego program? Self important puny program. Its like UI. It thinks It is doing all the work! but it is doing nothing! J
Why does such a sophisticated brain which does everthing need an ego program? What evolutionary advantage did this bring about? Do Insects also have this ?
Re-reading this post, I got this answer. Thinking about bat brain. We need to think about evolution. Compare bat brain with human brain. The most growth in brain has probably happened in the ego part or how much the consciousness knows. Sonar complexity and complexity of our eyes may be in par , even bat brain can compute primes but consciously…not.
One reason I can think of for this strengthening of ego program is to make the system( animal) more generic. You don’t hard code much, so run time u can load what ever software u like. So instead of making coffee machine, u make a PC and load coffee making software if u like or tea making software or cola.
So the only use of ego is to decide which program to load based on the situation? Couldn’t they( Grrr not being creationist here.. just easy expression) automate this feature as well? But automation takes time, fastest adaptaion time is possible by using a user i.e the ego program which knows the basics?
Do Insects also have this ? probably not, I think insects are very fine tuned robot machines. Just look at evolution, if u move to even fish – awareness is far less. Not of environment but of self, the animal is not allowed to move away much from what it is designed to do. So the opposite side of the scale - the pinnacle of evolution is - the Buddha who is aware of everything ! :D
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