crummer%AEROSPACE@sri-unix.UUCP (01/27/84)
From: Charlie Crummer <crummer@AEROSPACE> I find that most of what my brain does is pattern interpretation. I receive various sensory input in the form of various kinds of vibrations (i.e. eletromagnetic and acoustic) and my brain perceives patterns in this muck. Then it attaches meanings to the patterns. Within limits, I can attach these meanings at will. The process of logical deduction a la Socrates takes up a negligible time-slice in the CPU. --Charlie
crummer%AEROSPACE@sri-unix.UUCP (01/28/84)
From: Charlie Crummer <crummer@AEROSPACE> I see what you mean about the question as to whether the brain is a parallel processor in consious reasoning or not. I also feel like a little daemon that sits and pays attention to different lines of thought at different times. An interesting counterexample is the aha! phenomenon. The mathematician Henri Poincare, among others, has written an essay about his experience of being interrupted from his conscious attention somehow and becoming instantly aware of the solution to a problem he had "given up" on some days before. It was as though some part of his brain had been working on the problem all along even though he had not been aware of it. When it had gotten the solution an interrupt occurred and his conscious mind was triggered into the awareness of the solution. --Charlie