Brain and Behavior Insitute, 2005
Session 12
From Bricks to Architecture: The Input side of the Box

Review:

motor symphony, central pattern generation, distributed (no conductor), genetics/experience, multiple interconnected boxes, corollary discharge, effects on input, expectation, choice, purpose/conflicting purposes, neocortex as inhibitor and creator of novel patterns ...
I-function less good than unconscious at many tasks involving uncertainty, multiple variables; better at new tasks, and at "alerting" when things don't go "right"

Go on to input side

• Multiple inputs, unconscious/"I-function" distinction
• Brain "making things up" (see BBI05 and BBI05 with I-function help)
• Built in presumptions of "reality"
• Ambiguity as fundamental
• Testing and retesting
• Again an unconscious/"I-function" distinction in abilities/uses
• Perception an exploratory process, testing and retesting
  • Using both unconscious and I-function
  • I-function as "story teller"

Key points:

• Input is always incomplete (and affected by output)
• Input is always interpreted based on prior information (including genetic information)
• Input is always ambiguous
• Interpretation is improved (but not completed) by combining multiple perspectives, resolving conflicts
• Both input and interpretation are different for different people
• What we see is a "story" reflecting unconscious processes
• "Reality" is a collective story, reflecting (desirably) the different perspecties of different people