My brain does four things related to skills, decisions and happiness:
- Collects and Translates Input
- Generates Emotions
- Stores Memories
- Provides Control
Input
My brain collects and translates input into representations. The representations create sensations. Sensations are what I experience.
Under a microscope, soft, scratchy, sweet, sour and Thursday all look the same. All of the information in my brain, all of my ideas and sensations, are represented by chemical reactions.
My brain collects information from sensory cells and creates representations of the environment inside and outside of my body.
There is no light or sound inside my skull. What I’m “seeing” and “hearing” generates activity in the neurons in my brain. The activity in the neurons in my brain generates the sensations I experience.
I experience sensations from external information (light, sound, touch, odors, etc.) and internal information (hunger, balance, muscle contraction, etc). I also experience sensations caused entirely by thoughts (stored information).
Chemical reactions are the language of my brain. Translating sensations and thoughts into the same language makes it possible for my brain to merge and compare new information and stored information.
The take-away: My experience of the world is completely in my own head and consists of a combination of new information and old information which has been collected and translated into chemical reactions. If everything is working correctly (and If I’m paying careful attention), my experiences will match the world around me (green will be green and I can touch the table). If I’m not paying attention, or if things start to go wrong, disconnects will develop between how I experience the world and how the world actually exists.
Emotions
My brain generates emotions. Emotions are comprehensive information assessments.
My emotions are a comprehensive assessment of activated information in my brain (a combination of my current thoughts and my perceptions). There are three broad categories of signals driving my emotions:
- Stress Signals
- Interest Signals
- Social Signals
My behavior and my emotions are shaped by the sum of these three interrelated signals. Just as different combinations of red, yellow and blue can create thousands of colors, combinations of signals from these three categories can create a whole spectrum of emotions.
To make matters more complicated, I have hundreds of millions of sensory cells and hundreds of millions of memories all tapped into circuits being constantly monitored for signals from these categories.
All of the information being assessed consists of representations, which means the thought of a lion or an insult can generate the same emotional response regardless of whether or not the lion (or the insult) really exists.
The take-away: Emotions are a complex and powerful driver of my behavior. It’s not easy, but it’s worth the effort to trace out the triggers for signals in these three categories whenever I have a strong emotional response.
Memories
My brain stores memories. Memories are stored relationships between sensations.
My physical memories have two variables: the total number of connections and the strength of each individual connection.
When I learn, a combination of two physical changes take place in my brain:
- The number of connections in my brain changes.
- The strength of individual connections change.
Memories are a record of relationships between sensations. As a mundane example, my truck is not particularly special but I’ve owned my truck for seven years so my truck has a lot of memories associated with it. The color, items I store in my truck and fuel efficiency are just a fraction of the information that is tied to the idea of my truck in my brain. Blue, jumper cables and 18 mpg all entered my brain as sensations (primarily sights, sounds and feelings) and are all stored as links to my mental representation of my truck.
My memories (everything I know about every person, place, thing and event in my life) have two components: a list of associations and a context based value for each association (my winter jacket is important in the context of Pennsylvania in December. My winter jacket is not important in the context of Pennsylvania in July).
The take-away: For me to get “smarter”, I need to increase the accuracy of my associations and the accuracy of my context based value assessments.
Control
My brain provides the ability to control input and the ability to control action.
I’d like to think everything I do is a conscious choice but it’s not true and it’s not practical. If I had to consciously filter oxygen, digest food or pump blood, I would die.
Most of what I do is habit. Habits are actions linked directly to cues to produce specific results.
After receiving a cue, it takes about 50 milliseconds for my brain to initiate action.
It takes about 200 milliseconds for me to become conscious of a cue.
In a dynamic environment full of information, my subconscious is operating four times faster than my conscious. With hundreds of millions of sensory cells and hundreds of millions of stored associations (memories), I may be completely oblivious to what initiated my current thoughts, emotions or actions.
I can only consciously do one thing at a time. Reactions and the ability to link actions directly to cues increases the amount I’m able to do (walk, talk, chew gum, filter oxygen, digest food and pump blood) and the speed I’m able to do it.
Once a movement is a habit, I don’t have to think about it any more. I don’t have to consciously control my legs to walk.
To deal with variation, consciousness provides the control necessary to interrupt automatic responses and shape future behavior.
Conscious control is slow, sloppy and energy intensive but essential for survival and adaptation. My brain allows me to consciously control my body to veto impulses, gather more information or deliberately control actions to handle variety in my life.
The take-away: My brain provides a conscious control capability, but anticipation is more effective than reaction. Using control to build habits and prepare ahead of time is more effective than continuously micro-managing daily activities.
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