2017 Personality 15: Biology/Traits: The Limbic System

0:00[Music]

0:12I started to talk to you about trade

0:14Theory and now I'm going to make a jump

0:16to biology and that that's a strange

0:19jump in some sense because the two

0:21levels of analysis are relatively

0:23disconnected but what's happening right

0:27now at at the sort of outer echelons of

0:29personality research is

0:32that the workers at the Forefront of the

0:35field are trying to integrate what's

0:38being established at the statistical

0:40level of analysis with what's known at

0:42the psychobiological level and so this

0:45emerging science is known as personality

0:47neuroscience and

0:51um it's developed in a rather strange

0:53way

0:55because the traits that were identified

0:57that I discussed with you on Tuesday the

0:59big five

1:00traits all emerged as a consequence of

1:03the statistical analysis

1:05of of descriptors characteristic mostly

1:08of the English language although it's

1:10been duplicated in other

1:12languages so in some sense it was an a

1:15theoretical model right it just came out

1:18of the linguistic

1:20data so there was no real initial

1:24inferences about brain area or

1:25neurological activity or or anything

1:27like that to drive the formulation of

1:29the big five model in instead the big

1:31five model came first and then people

1:34started thinking okay can this

1:38be put into alignment with what we know

1:41about the brain and so people have been

1:44hitting that pretty hard I would say

1:46over about the

1:48last it's probably 30 years something

1:51like that because H Zink and and his

1:53student Jeffrey gray were pretty far

1:56along on this kind of thinking by say

1:591982 when gray published his book The

2:02neuros pychology of anxiety which the

2:04paper you're reading now a model of the

2:07limic system and basil ganglia basil

2:10ganglia applications to anxiety and

2:13schizophrenia that's a very short

2:15summary of the book that gray published

2:18in 1982 which has been incredibly

2:20influential um if you're interested in

2:23going on in Psychology especially on the

2:25scientific end but I would say pretty

2:27much regardless if you're interested in

2:29going on in Psychology that's a that's a

2:32very useful book to tackle there's a

2:33newer version it was published by gray

2:35and MCN and I think 2000 something like

2:38that it's Hardo like and you may F have

2:41found the paper that way too gray was a

2:43very very unfortunately he died a few

2:45years ago he was a very very smart

2:47person and he knew the animal literature

2:50on Behavior neuro neuroanatomy and

2:54neuropsychopharmacology inside out and

2:56backwards and so whenever he defined a

2:58term he always made sure that the term

3:01was intelligible at a behavioral level

3:03and at an anatomical level and at a

3:05pharmacological level it had to you know

3:08the the the the ideas that he were

3:10developing had to make sense at these

3:11multiple levels of analysis before he

3:13would accept them as as genuine and gray

3:15did a remarkable job of extending our

3:18knowledge of the biological and

3:21evolutionary basis of at least the first

3:24two personality traits say extroversion

3:26and neuroticism roughly corresponding to

3:28positive and negative em

3:30so um so that's partly why you're

3:33reading gray and and Gray's theory is

3:36also cybernetic Theory um cybernetic

3:39theory is a is a variation of a theory

3:42developed by an MIT cognitive scientist

3:44named Norbert Wier who who was an early

3:49AI artificial intelligence researcher

3:51and he proposed that that that

3:55intelligent entities were go directed

3:58and that they organized their behavior

4:00around reducing deviations from a goal

4:04while they were approaching it once they

4:06had decided what it would be and that

4:08that's also proved to be incredibly

4:11influential um we'll talk a fair bit

4:13about cybernetic models as we progress

4:16um so gray is sort of a combination of

4:18artificial intelligence cybernetic

4:20theorizing and then an incredible amount

4:23of data that's come in from animal

4:24behavioral research and as far as I'm

4:27concerned most of the things that we

4:28know about the brain have been derived

4:30from animal research um the animal

4:33researchers tended to be extraordinarily

4:34careful scientists they were influenced

4:37by um um BF Skinner who established the

4:41sort of the

4:43initial theoretical basis for

4:45understanding how animals learn we'll

4:47talk about that a little bit next class

4:50so anyways that's the that's the context

4:52within which gray is working Leo these

4:56are all papers you're going to read

4:57except the third one which is optional

4:59Leo is also an an emotional he's an

5:02affective neuroscientist so he's someone

5:05who studies emotions mostly again

5:07animals and Leo has done a lot to sort

5:11of add some of the pieces that were're

5:12missing in in gray gray probably

5:15concentrated a little bit too much on a

5:17brain area called the hippocampus which

5:19is the brain area that sort of lets you

5:22know if it's reasonable to be calm where

5:26you're currently situated and so what

5:28the hippocampus does in some senses

5:31compare what it is that you want to have

5:33happen with what is happening and if the

5:35two things are the same then you're calm

5:38so it's a match mismatch detector and it

5:41has access not only to memory but also

5:44to formulations of say the desired

5:47future

5:49um Swanson I had people read the Swanson

5:53paper last year I put it in your reading

5:55list as optional um it's worth hacking

5:58through if you can man manage it it's

6:00very hard paper though which is why I

6:02took it out of the you know required

6:03reading list the reason I like Swanson

6:05we're going to talk a fair bit about him

6:06today

6:07is Swanson's not a psychologist he's

6:10actually a developmental

6:13neuro I can never say this properly

6:17an he studies developmental Anatomy we

6:20we'll do that um and so he's very

6:23interested in how the brain unfolds

6:24across time during embryonic development

6:27and then up into maturity and so he

6:30understands the brain differently than a

6:32psychologist would because a

6:34psychologist tends to analyze the brain

6:35you know as a sort of mature thing

6:37usually in adulthood but but for Swanson

6:40it's a much more living and transforming

6:43system and he's trying

6:45to set forth a schema for understanding

6:49brain anatomy and also associating that

6:51with function you know and you might

6:53think that that's a well Advanced

6:55science already that we know how to

6:57segment up the brain and we know you

7:00know roughly what the pieces do but we

7:02haven't even really managed to establish

7:04the terminology prop properly yet it's

7:07very neuro real Neuroscience is a very

7:09new field and and there's no limit to

7:13the number of things that we don't know

7:14about it including even the basic

7:16classification structure now Swanson has

7:19put forth a very intelligent basic

7:21classification structure and part of the

7:23reason that I think it's so relevant to

7:24a personality class is because it maps

7:28in a beautiful way way onto some of the

7:31things that we've already talked about

7:32especially P so there's a nice direct

7:35mapping of PJ's developmental Theory

7:37onto Swanson's theory of neural

7:40development and then of neural function

7:42and and that's completely accidental

7:43because Swanson never cites P so they're

7:46non-overlapping literatures and I kind

7:48of like that because you know if if

7:50something pops up in one place with one

7:52method and pops up another place with a

7:54completely different method especially

7:56if those two places are distinct in

7:58terms of their historical development

8:00you might start thinking there's

8:01actually something there you know it's

8:03sort of like seeing something and

8:05hearing it at the same time you got two

8:07independent sources of data it's like

8:09triangulation in a sense and so it was

8:11very exciting to me to come across this

8:13paper by Swanson um I think he's one of

8:16only two scientists I ever wrote a fan

8:18letter to I mean really it's a brilliant

8:20paper and then uh there's there's other

8:24reasons why it maps on to what we're

8:26going to talk about too because Swanson

8:27also points out quite clearly

8:30the function of the he kind of roughly

8:32separates the hypothalamus into two

8:34halves and uh he points out that they

8:37have quite distinct functions and the

8:39functions also map on to some of the

8:40things that we've been talking about in

8:42a very lovely way and so there's a lot

8:44of reasons to to go through Swanson's

8:47paper carefully you know it's like 50

8:50pages long but the guy put it in some

8:52sense his whole life's work is in those

8:5450 pages so you know even if it takes

8:56you 12 hours or 20 hours to read it it's

9:00like that's not too bad if you're going

9:02to extract out like 30 years of solid

9:04research Gray's Book is the same like if

9:07you read that

9:08book you you've got if you read it and

9:11understand it you've basically got a

9:13fair chunk of neuroanatomy a lot of

9:16animal behavioral uh analysis so um

9:20behaviorism in general a lot of

9:23psychopharmacology and a lot of

9:26understanding of the

9:27functional signific of the brain's major

9:31neurotransmitter systems you can get all

9:32that from Gray's Book that's that's a

9:34killer book you know if you can extract

9:36all that out so anyways Carver and Shire

9:40also take a cybernetic perspective

9:42fundamentally they're more cognitive

9:44scientists you're going to find their

9:46paper a little bit farther down the road

9:48but they're also very interested in

9:51how creatures human beings in particular

9:54select goals and then align themselves

9:56with those goals and for our purposes

9:58we're going to talk a fair bit about

9:59motivation today and the distinction

10:02between motivation and emotion is not

10:04clear they're both words that sort of

10:06function within a linguistic context but

10:09for the sake of argument and of course

10:11all the emotions aren't the same it's

10:13not like there's one circuit that

10:14subsumes emotion there's multiple

10:16circuits that subsume emotion and

10:18they're not identical circuits you know

10:20so it isn't like every emotion is a

10:23variant of the same thing it's not and

10:25it's the same with the motivations so

10:27they're very loose groupings motiv and

10:29emotion but for the purposes of our

10:32argument we're going to make this case

10:34roughly

10:36motivations set goals and roughly

10:40emotions Orient you in relationship to

10:43those goals now like I said those

10:45categories overlap anger is usually

10:47considered an emotion and it often has a

10:49goal right the goal is to hit something

10:51or hurt something that's that's one

10:54possible goal so emotions can segue

10:57quite easily into motivational States

10:59but whatever you got to use a category

11:02system of some sort to clear clarify

11:04things and so that's what we're going to

11:06we're going to uh pursue motivation set

11:09goals it's actually more complicated

11:11than that you know I showed you that

11:13little oval diagram with uh you know

11:15desired future and unbearable present so

11:18to speak motivations actually don't just

11:20set goals they also Prime

11:23behavior and they also set up the

11:25perceptual frame within which you

11:27interpret the world so for example if

11:29you're hungry it isn't just that you're

11:32driven to eat first of all eating is a

11:35very complex Behavior especially if it's

11:37associated with food preparation say

11:39you're the the systems that you've used

11:42in the past to procure food and then to

11:45ingest it are sort of disinhibited by

11:48the motivational state so they're at the

11:49ready and then your sensory system is

11:52tuned so that it's going to focus on

11:54those things that are relevant to eating

11:56and tune out everything else so the

11:58motivational State also does perceptual

12:00tuning and then there's a felt component

12:03of it as well so it's not it's it's not

12:07reasonable to only say that motivation

12:10sets goals or that it drives Behavior it

12:12it does three things goal setting

12:14behavioral driving plus it provides a

12:17perceptual schema within which those

12:19other two things make sense and so a

12:21motivated state in some sense is like a

12:23little micro personality it's it's only

12:26got one aim it's sort of a oneeyed micro

12:29personality you know so it's only aiming

12:31at one thing but it still has all the

12:33other aspects of personality

12:36so sort of you know for me that that

12:40aligns nicely with the psychoanalytic

12:41idea that you know you're you're you're

12:43a you're a loose aggregation of multiple

12:48fragmented personalities you know

12:50they're sort of coherently tied together

12:51at the highest level of analysis but

12:53they can go off and do their own thing

12:55you see that in situations for example

12:56like eating disorders where the hunger

12:59system itself starts to become almost a

13:01spun-off part of the personality and the

13:03rest of the personality then Wars with

13:05that and that's sort of in some sense

13:07that's like cortex versus hypothalamus

13:10and you never win cortex does not win

13:12over hypothalamus the hypothalamus is

13:14what keeps you alive so it's one of the

13:17things that keeps you alive you could do

13:18without your cortex but you cannot do

13:20without your hypothalamus and the

13:23connections stretching upwards from the

13:25hypothalamus which is a very old brain

13:26area are much more powerful than the

13:29connections coming down from the cortex

13:31to modulate the hypothalamus and that's

13:33another indication of just exactly who's

13:35in charge when the chips are down you

13:37know and that's why it's so hard for you

13:38to override your basic emotions or

13:41motivational States it's like the system

13:43evolved to keep you alive and it's not

13:45particularly willing to give up control

13:48in a sense given that your survival is

13:51staked on its function

13:53so it's useful to know that because you

13:56know if you if you if you if you pursue

13:58Psy ology and you stay within the human

14:00side of psychology say instead of

14:02wandering off into the animal behavioral

14:04research you'll see that most human

14:07psychologists and neuropsychologists are

14:09very cortico Centric they really like to

14:11think that it's the newly evolved parts

14:13of the brain that are in charge and

14:15that's just not right the newly evolved

14:17parts of the brain are in charge only

14:20when nothing is bothering you like if

14:22you're not hungry you're not thirsty

14:24you're not too excited you're not too

14:26curious you're not too terrified you

14:28know you're not too cold you're not too

14:30warm any of those then the cortex is in

14:33charge but if you deviate substantially

14:36across any of those Dimensions the

14:38probability that control over your

14:40behavioral output and your perceptions

14:42is going to devolve Down The

14:44evolutionary hierarchy to more

14:46primordial brain areas is extremely

14:48likely you know and you see the same

14:50thing happens you know maybe you're

14:52having a discussion with someone right

14:54and they exhaust the limits of your

14:57rational knowledge which means basically

14:59they out argue you well what happens

15:01well usually what happens is that people

15:03cry or they get angry it's like they're

15:05out of Cortex it's bang right down to

15:08the more the lower and more primary

15:11evolutionarily determined systems so

15:14okay now we're going to we're going to

15:16take a look at how the brain functions

15:18in general and so we're going to start

15:20pretty General and then we're going to

15:21go narrow and the first thing that you

15:24might want to think about is what

15:26problem exactly is the brain wrestling

15:28with and the major problem is that

15:31reality is so

15:33complicated it has so many layers and so

15:36many interconnected causal links that

15:40it's complex beyond comprehension and

15:44that's a big problem I mean you think

15:45about all the subatomic complexity

15:47that's that's a horrible thing then

15:49there's the complexity at the atomic

15:52level and that's you know pretty

15:53overwhelming and then there's the

15:54molecular level which makes the atomic

15:56level look simple and then there's the

15:59comp exceedingly complex structures that

16:02emerge out of the molecular level

16:04especially in living organisms so that

16:06would be roughly at the organ level of

16:08existence you know and then there's you

16:10as a totality with your brain which is

16:12and the brain is so much more complex

16:15than everything else in the universe

16:16that it's not even in the same category

16:18so there are estimates for example by

16:20Gerard Adelman that there are more

16:22Connections in your brain more patterns

16:24of Connections in your brain than there

16:26are subatomic particles in the universe

16:28so you know that's one major league

16:30complex thing and there's lots of them

16:32around and you know they're all

16:34integrated

16:35into families and then uh you

16:39know roughly tribal groupings some of

16:41which get large enough to be Nations and

16:43then that's all embedded inside of some

16:45biological system and so on and so forth

16:48all the way out to the limits of the

16:50cosmos I mean this is one complicated

16:53place and you know your job in in large

16:57part is to understand it but also not to

16:59become overwhelmed by it because you

17:01have to simplify it down to the point

17:03where you can sort of think about one

17:05thing and do one thing and so you have

17:07to screen all of that

17:09out so that the complexity complexity

17:13doesn't overwhelm you when you're

17:14attempting to do anything anything

17:17simple even to look at yourself in the

17:18mirror which is also a very complicated

17:21thing to do part of the problem your

17:23brain is is always facing is

17:29what can I ignore and the answer to that

17:31is well you need to ignore almost

17:33everything and and that's that's a

17:35problem because of course it's not

17:36always obvious what it's okay what's

17:39okay for you to ignore you know and that

17:41changes on you suddenly too because you

17:44know because you have imperfect

17:45knowledge you might think something's

17:47irrelevant and it turns out to be of

17:48critical importance it's a deadly it's a

17:50deadly deadly difficult problem and so

17:55one of the ways that we solve this is

17:57we're actually pretty blind to to to to

18:00almost everything you know our

18:02sensory input is limited by our

18:05physiological limitations certainly so

18:07there's like in terms of vision there's

18:09we only see a very small uh Little slice

18:12of the whole electromagnetic spectrum

18:14and it's the same with sounds and you

18:16know we can only touch things that are

18:18basically within our reach and so that

18:20limits things substantially and then

18:22there are also things we can't detect

18:24like we're not very good at detecting um

18:26like we don't have the same ability that

18:28say is it platypuses and some fish can

18:31detect electromagnetic disturbances

18:33around them on their skin and like

18:35there's senses that we don't have so

18:38we're we're narrowed a fair bit by what

18:40it is that we're able to perceive um and

18:43we're actually

18:44narrowed in what we can perceive far

18:47more than anybody ever guessed so I'm

18:48going to show you a little video

18:50here the Monkey Business

18:54illusion count how many times the

18:56players wearing white pass the ball e

19:32the correct answer is 16

19:35passes did you spot the

19:39gorilla for people who haven't seen or

19:41heard about a video like this before

19:43about half missed the

19:47gorilla if you knew about the gorilla

19:49you probably saw it but did you notice

19:51the curtain changing color or the player

19:53on the black team leaving the

19:57game let's rewind and watch it

20:02[Music]

20:04again here comes the gorilla and there

20:07goes a player and the curtain is

20:09changing from red to

20:15Gold when you're looking for a gorilla

20:18you often miss other unexpected

20:21events and that's the Monkey Business

20:25illusion learn more about this illusion

20:28and the original gorilla experiment at

20:30the invisible gorilla.com so how many of

20:32you saw the gorilla no let's let's do

20:35the see the

20:37gorilla

20:39okay how many of you had no known about

20:42this video beforehand yeah the gorilla

20:44part of it yeah so you guys don't count

20:46now and then you know I get someone

20:47who's seen it before and they still miss

20:49the damn gorilla so that's pretty funny

20:51so but but of course Simon Dan Simon set

20:55this up because his original video got

20:56so popular you know viral popular that

20:59everybody has seen The Invisible Gorilla

21:01and so you know now he's showing you

21:03that well you think you're smart you've

21:05been clued into how blind you are and it

21:06turns out you're not any smarter than

21:08you were to begin with right so how many

21:10people saw all three things that changed

21:13I saw the oh you've seen it before so

21:15okay and how many

21:17didn't yeah okay so the vast majority of

21:19you missed one or more of the things

21:21that changed you know and they're not

21:23really trivial things like The

21:24Disappearance of a person from six

21:26people that's fairly major and you know

21:29the whole background changed color and

21:30you might think you'd clue into that and

21:33so so the weird thing is even when

21:35you're primed to notice what you're

21:37supposed to notice which is to say count

21:39the balls and you know that something

21:41weird is going to happen you're not that

21:44still doesn't Prime you enough so that

21:46you can keep track of all the weird

21:47things that are happening and like this

21:49was an absolutely staggering experiment

21:51when when it was first shown people the

21:54psychologists were just like knocked

21:55over by it because the hypothesis up to

21:58that point had been always that you know

22:00you could concentrate on what you were

22:02concentrating on but if something

22:03anomalous or unexpected happened your

22:05attention would be automatically devoted

22:07towards it and of course that's what

22:08people would think right you'd think

22:10that if you're watching people play

22:12basketball and a gorilla walks into the

22:15you know area and it's not small that of

22:18course you'd be surprised and you'd see

22:20it and it turns out that that's just

22:21wrong and you know it it tells you a lot

22:23about how your nervous system is set up

22:26so you're focusing on Counting the balls

22:28and so for some reason getting the

22:30correct answer to the question how many

22:33times are the is the ball thrown back

22:35and forth turns out to be motivationally

22:37significant

22:39why like why why did you you know you

22:42got the instructions fair enough but why

22:44did you listen to them does it narrow

22:47your attention to the Target oh sure it

22:49does but the question is why did you

22:51even comply with the

22:55instructions you wanted to the answer

22:57right yeah said that because you wanted

22:59to get the answer right why did you care

23:02if you got the answer right well think

23:05about it for a minute

23:06like guess that means you're smart means

23:09you're yeah that's right so that's one

23:12possibility it's like instantly you sort

23:13of interpret it as a little cognitive

23:15test maybe and then you want to see if

23:17you can do it and you know so that Taps

23:19into your hierarchy of values part of

23:21your value is I want to be maybe a smart

23:23and competent person or I want to be at

23:25least as smart and competent as everyone

23:27else's playing this game and so you know

23:30the instruction Taps into a pre-existent

23:32value structure and then it's motivating

23:34okay so yeah what compliance as well yes

23:37that's another thing it's like that you

23:39know the room in some ways is set up to

23:42ensure a degree of compliance right

23:44because there's an there's an implicit

23:46story in the room which is if I'm at the

23:49front of it and so that sort of makes me

23:50at the top of the dominance hierarchy

23:52and the fact that you're here means

23:53you've already bought into that

23:55presupposition and so it's a logical

23:57thing to do to to play along with the

23:59game so yes also

24:05that true that that's more like the

24:07playing a game issue right is that well

24:09maybe something interesting will happen

24:11okay right right right okay so there's a

24:14variety of reasons why you might listen

24:15to the instructions but the point is the

24:18instructions actually tap into your

24:20motivation in your intrinsic motivation

24:22enough so that you will in fact attempt

24:26to play the game and then as soon as you

24:28play the game what happens well you

24:31focus your very limited attentional

24:33resources precisely on what it is that

24:35you're supposed to do now we could talk

24:37a little bit about how the visual field

24:39is set up so you know you you notice

24:41that like if I'm looking around the room

24:44if I want to see you all of you I can't

24:47just stand here and look straight ahead

24:49because all you people over here you're

24:51like I can't see if I'm looking straight

24:54ahead I I can't see the faces of anyone

24:56past here and I can only see them sort

24:59of as blurs and unless they move and if

25:03they move up something then I can see

25:04the movement but I can't it's not clear

25:06to me what's moving and it's the same

25:08for the people over here the only person

25:10I can really see right now is the is the

25:12woman who's sitting there in the white

25:14sweater all the rest of you are like and

25:16the and the person to the right I can

25:18more or less as long as I look at her I

25:20can more or less see that he's dressed

25:22in Gray but I can't see his face at all

25:25now he nodded his head and I could pick

25:27that up so what's very strange about

25:28your visual system and your sensory

25:30systems are like this in in in uh you

25:34know all your sensory systems are like

25:35this is that you have a tiny little

25:38point of focus where the information is

25:40Rich and that's partly because so the

25:43center of your eye is the fobia and it's

25:45most densely uh it's most densely packed

25:49with cells but more importantly each of

25:51the cells in your fobia which is the

25:53very center of your vision you can tell

25:54when someone's pointing their fob fobia

25:57at you cuz then you you know you have

25:59the sense that they're looking at you

26:00and human beings are unbelievably good

26:03at figuring out when someone is pointing

26:05their phobia at you like we can we can

26:08detect

26:09eye um what would you call it deviation

26:12from direct gaze with an accuracy that's

26:15absolutely remarkable now each of those

26:17little cells in the fobia is connected

26:20each of the one cells is connected to

26:21like 20,000 cells at the first level of

26:25the hierarchy of the visual system and

26:27so the reason that

26:29your whole eye isn't phobus because your

26:31head would have to be this big to manage

26:33it so you know what's evolved is sort of

26:36a compromise is that in the center of

26:39your vision it's the center of your

26:41vision is very very detailed and and

26:44then what you do is you zip that center

26:46around like snap snap snap snap snap

26:49snap and your brain sort of makes a

26:51Amalgamated picture out of all those

26:53little snapshots and you know then it

26:55weaves it together so it seems to you

26:57like it's a

26:59continuous what a continuous movie of

27:01Consciousness even though it's really

27:03not and then the sides of your eyes the

27:06periphery of your eyes well they don't

27:09have the same potency as the fobia and

27:11so they they kind of play a triage game

27:14it's like okay I can't see if I'm

27:17looking straight ahead I can't see

27:18everything what might I use as an

27:21indication that I should move my gaze

27:23from where I'm looking to somewhere else

27:25and one answer to that is movement so

27:27the perip is pretty good at picking up

27:29movement and so often if you see

27:31movement in the periphery then you'll

27:33move your fial vision to where the

27:35movement was and then you know then you

27:38can keep track of what's changing so

27:40what your brain sort of assumes is that

27:43when you're looking at something

27:45everything

27:46else

27:48is irrelevant and it's also it also sort

27:51of Fades into the background and so

27:53that's what's happening with the Gorilla

27:54video and so the part of the reason you

27:56can't see the damn gorilla is cuz he's

27:58dressed in black like the players and so

28:01when you're focusing on the basketball

28:03all the black moving things look the

28:06same you know there's no distinction

28:08between them at all and then the

28:11background of the curtain it's like well

28:12first of all why would you be primed to

28:17see the curtain change color like things

28:19just don't do that in real life right I

28:22mean big objects don't suddenly change

28:24color very very seldomly so and but and

28:28more

28:28importantly the fact that the gorilla

28:30shows up the fact that one player leaves

28:33and the fact that the curtains change

28:35color has no bearing whatsoever on

28:38whether or not you can complete the task

28:40right so it doesn't matter if you ignore

28:43the information and that's because it's

28:45irrelevant in terms of the interpretive

28:48frame the motivated interpretive frame

28:50that you're applying to the scene and so

28:53the rule for perception is don't pay

28:54attention to anything that isn't

28:56directly relevant to the desired outcome

28:58now exactly how you

29:00calculate what you can pay attention to

29:02and what you can't that's very

29:04complicated it's I mean you build that

29:07knowledge bit by bit over time and and

29:10you can be wrong about it too but um so

29:13so the old idea was you know well first

29:16of all that you were very much conscious

29:19of the environment period which you're

29:21not and then the second idea was well

29:25while you're being conscious of the

29:26environment if any changes radically you

29:29will definitely Focus your attention on

29:32it and then and what turned out to be

29:35the case is well you're not very

29:37conscious of the environment and radical

29:39things can happen and you won't notice

29:40them unless they interfere with what

29:42you're doing so something that emerges

29:45that interferes what with what you're

29:46doing that you don't expect you will in

29:48instantly Orient towards and concentrate

29:50on so it isn't anomaly or novelty that

29:54attracts your attention it's the

29:56unexpected disruption of the

29:58relationship between your behaviors and

30:00the desired outcome of those behaviors

30:02and that's a much narrower claim only

30:05pay attention to things that make you

30:07fail it's something like that or at

30:10least additionally pay attention to

30:13things that make you fail and you know

30:15generally speaking that's also

30:17associated with an emotional response

30:19you know so if you're doing something

30:21and and you know you think you know how

30:22to do it and so you're doing it and then

30:24all of a sudden something unexpected

30:25happens you're going to have an

30:27emotional reaction and we'll talk more

30:29about the emotional reactions in the

30:31next class but the emotional reaction

30:33partly prepares you for the worst in

30:35case this unexpected thing is bigger

30:37than you think it is and sort of also

30:39primes you to be curious and to start to

30:41explore to figure out what it is so that

30:43you can reconstruct your expectations

30:46and Desires in accordance with the

30:47transforming world

30:52so this slide is an elaboration in some

30:55sense of what I was telling you a little

30:57bit earlier about the multiple levels of

30:59reality you know so the idea is that the

31:02thing that you see which in this

31:03particular schema would be the

31:06computer H is nested inside all of these

31:09systems or has other systems nested

31:11inside of it and that's part of an

31:13indication of the complexity of things

31:15now you know one of the things that you

31:18might think about for example if you're

31:19using your

31:22computer one of the things you might ask

31:25yourself is like why is your computer a

31:26black rectangle or a like a silver

31:28rectangle it's all smooth and shiny why

31:31is

31:34that you know like it's not clear first

31:37it's not transparent okay and and then

31:39it's got this smooth cover and it

31:41wouldn't necessarily have to why why do

31:44you think that's appealing to

31:46you it's familiar for like a book okay

31:50so it's familiar yeah and that that's

31:52good so it's familiar what what else is

31:56it's simple yeah you know want to you

31:58don't want to in interact with the

32:00computer at all you want to interact

32:03with little pictures on the screen and

32:05then you don't even really want to

32:06interact with those you want to interact

32:08with some subset of what that picture is

32:10doing on the screen and so you're very

32:13very rarely using the computer right

32:15you're just paying attention to well

32:17let's say the screen and the keyboard so

32:20the computer is whatever is underneath

32:22that and then what what that is is a

32:23collection of parts that are so bloody

32:25complicated that you don't want to have

32:26anything to do with them that are nested

32:28inside a whole network of things that

32:30are so complex you don't want to have

32:32anything to do with them and so so you

32:34know what happens when you're using a

32:35computer is all of a sudden it stops

32:37working well then it's a computer as

32:40soon as it stops working it's a computer

32:42before that it was whatever it was you

32:44were doing and as soon as it turns into

32:46a

32:47computer what do you do with it well you

32:50know you stupidly hit the on and off

32:52button maybe you plug it in and you know

32:54and out or something maybe you check

32:56your switches to make sure that a fuse

32:59didn't burn out or a breaker go and

33:02that's pretty much the end of you in

33:04terms of your ability to deal with the

33:06actual entity you know and then you

33:08curse with your primate brain and then

33:11you send it out to be fixed and so one

33:15of the things that's that's that's worth

33:17considering because this will also help

33:19us understand what happens in terms of

33:22brain function as we go along is that as

33:24long as things are going according to

33:26how you want them to go you can really

33:28pretend that the world is unbelievably

33:30simple all the world consists of is

33:32those few things that you're doing in

33:34your little bounded perceptual frame and

33:38everything else is zero and then

33:41unfortunately now and then the

33:42hypothesis that everything else is zero

33:45is radically wrong like when your

33:48computer crashes and then you actually

33:50actually for a while have to deal with

33:52at least some of the complexity that's

33:54actually there and that's usually

33:56extremely anxiety-provoking

33:58so you know you can imagine the same

34:00situation is while you're in your nice

34:02smooth car and you're on the highway and

34:05all of a sudden you know you hear a

34:06horrible grinding noise and smoke comes

34:08out of the back and you're you're off

34:09pulled over to the side well what was

34:13merely a means of getting from point A

34:15to B and comfort like two seconds ago is

34:18now a collection of extremely

34:20Troublesome Parts none of which you know

34:22anything about plus it's disrupted your

34:24day plus it's disrupted your pocketbook

34:27Plus plus you have to now deal with a

34:29bunch of people who are going to tell

34:30you what's wrong with your vehicle and

34:32maybe fix it for some completely unknown

34:35amount of money and with dubious utility

34:38and so poof the car turns into that and

34:41so

34:43it's it's almost impossible to

34:45overestimate the degree to which we live

34:48within a world that's bounded by our

34:52expectations and desires and how much

34:54time we spend keeping everything that's

34:58complex away from us so that we don't

35:00have to deal with it okay so now we

35:02might want to think about how we do that

35:05I'm going to show

35:06you this is a little schema that might

35:09be helpful so

35:14like I made this little diagram of dots

35:17because I wanted to make an ambiguous

35:19figure so I'm hoping that when you look

35:22at that

35:23figure what do you see when you look at

35:25it

35:32the center what what what shape is the

35:35center across okay so you can see across

35:38what else can you

35:40see it's a rectangle yeah what else can

35:43you see four S it's four squares yeah

35:45exactly so and what else can you

35:53see that's a good one I haven't seen

35:56that one I'll take your word for it

35:58though what else can you

36:02see I'll show you some of the things you

36:04can see okay you can see that

36:08right you see

36:12that see

36:15that you could see

36:18that you could see

36:21that okay so the first thing that you

36:24might note is

36:26that the thing in the beginning the

36:28thing in itself let's

36:30say you can see M multiple ways it's not

36:34exactly that you have an opinion about

36:36what it is you know it's that you can

36:38actually see those different

36:40things you can see it manifesting those

36:43different perceptual objects and that

36:46that's a strange thing because you know

36:47how people always think that arguments

36:49are about opinions there's some facts

36:52and you have one set of opinions about

36:54them and you have another and then you

36:55argue about the opinions till you get to

36:57the fact facts unfortunately it's a lot

36:59worse than that because the facts

37:02themselves are often reasonably subject

37:05to debate

37:06so so you might ask for example which of

37:09the five ways that you could see that

37:11initial thing is the right way to see

37:16it and the answer to that and this is a

37:18pragmatic answer is it depends on what

37:20you want to do with your perception you

37:22know so if you want uh if you want the

37:25highest resolution

37:27that captures as much detail as possible

37:29then you want something as close to the

37:31thing in itself as possible so that'

37:33probably be object five there you know

37:36if you want to know the rough area let's

37:38say that's a map of an orchard you might

37:39think about object one if it's an

37:41orchard from the top right and you want

37:43it to walk from north to south you might

37:45want to think about it in terms of

37:47object three you know so those are

37:49different ways you can perceive that

37:51object and then I would say that what

37:53happens at the next level of abstraction

37:55and that's where you've got the numbers

37:57and words down here is that you have the

37:59thing in itself which is complex and can

38:01be seen many ways then you have the

38:03things you see which are partial sort of

38:05low resolution representations of the

38:08thing itself and then there are words

38:10which are at least in part references to

38:14the image of the thing and so by the

38:16time you get to the word it's pretty

38:17compressed and I I really like the the

38:20metaphor of compression you know so CU a

38:23lot of the things you see are sort of

38:24like thumbnails and why are thumbnails

38:27useful you guys have done some you know

38:29image processing say like a obviously a

38:33thumbnail lacks some things that a 16

38:36megabyte is that about right now how big

38:39are

38:40cameras 16 megabytes for a single

38:43photo what's

38:45that yeah well I think the new cameras

38:48are up I think they're up to 16 the

38:49newest iteration okay so why have

38:52thumbnail if you have a 16 megabyte

38:55picture okay but why not use the picture

38:59because right that's exactly it is that

39:03there's a tradeoff between detailed

39:06representation and time utilization time

39:08and and resource utilization and you

39:11know like like a computer you guys have

39:12limited time and resources and so you

39:14don't actually want to see anym than you

39:16need to see in order to get what you're

39:18supposed to get done done because

39:20otherwise it's just a waste of energy

39:23and so what that means is that your

39:24brain is always trying to figure out in

39:25some sense what's the simplest way I can

39:27represent this so that I can undertake

39:31whatever it is that I'm planning to

39:32undertake next and that's sort of again

39:34from a philosophical perspective that's

39:35actually something pragmatic okay so

39:37then you might ask

39:39yourself you organize your perceptions

39:41in relationship to your goals and then

39:43you might ask yourself well where do

39:44those goals come from you know and we've

39:47we've heard from thinkers like say Freud

39:50who talked about the ID functions and

39:51the ID is sort of the seat of primordial

39:54impulses right and so you might might

39:57think about the ID as the producer of

40:00primary goals or drives and fory did

40:03think about them as drives so they were

40:04things that led to you know a relatively

40:07rigid behavioral algorithm once the the

40:12state had Arisen now as I mentioned

40:15before I think that that's a flawed

40:17Viewpoint because the motivational state

40:19is more than merely a drive because a

40:21drive is something that say triggers a a

40:25pre-programmed sequence of behaviors and

40:27a lot of the early behaviors thought

40:29about animal behavior in that way right

40:30they'd say the animal would encounter a

40:32stimulus and the stimulus would produce

40:34a response and then the responses would

40:36get chained together and then when the

40:39animal encountered the stimulus again

40:41then just those chained responses would

40:43automatically run and one of the famous

40:46experiments that showed that that was

40:47wrong was a rat was trained to run

40:50through a maze you can sort of train a

40:51route pretty quickly if you know you you

40:54put him in the Maze and there's like he

40:56can go this way or this way and you put

40:57some cheese over here you do that three

40:59or four times the rat learns to turn

41:01right and then you add another piece to

41:02the Maze and you know then the rat

41:04learns to turn left and so you can get

41:06it turning you know extremely in an

41:08extremely complicated way to walk

41:10through the maze but then what they did

41:12was they took a rat and they wrapped up

41:15its hind legs you know like with tape so

41:17it couldn't use them and then they put

41:19its little rare end on a cart and then

41:22they had the little rat scoot through

41:24the maze on the cart and it's obvious

41:26that a scooting and a running rat don't

41:28use the same motor output not even close

41:30and the rat could still get through the

41:32maze so the idea that all the rat had

41:34done was chain together learned

41:36automatic responses turned out to be

41:39wrong rats it's more like rats learn

41:42what's going on and can generalize from

41:44it just like you do so so anyway so so

41:47the notion that the drive just

41:50instantiates a sequence of

41:51pre-programmed behaviors in most cases

41:54in many cases especially with complex

41:56Behavior turns out to be wrong there's

41:58some limited circumstances under which

42:00it's

42:01right okay so the first hypothesis we're

42:04going to entertain is the idea that you

42:07have to frame the world in order to

42:08interact with it this is sort of a

42:09little mythological diagram that I

42:11whipped up a long time ago and the

42:13bottom thing that's auroboros by the way

42:16which is a dragon that eats its own tail

42:18it's an ancient symbol of chaos and

42:21chaos is what you see when you don't

42:22know what you're looking at and so you

42:24could say in some sense chaos is all the

42:27complexity that surrounds

42:29you that could possibly intrude on your

42:33little safe world and

42:36then to grasp that chaos or to operate

42:39within it you have to put it within a

42:41framework and so that's the great father

42:43there that's actually God you see and

42:45God's got the sun behind him because God

42:47is like the son he's you know reliable

42:50and he's associated with Consciousness

42:52and then he's sort of ruling over this

42:54city and so for me that was a good

42:56symbol of culture and in part culture is

42:59what's outside of you but in part

43:01culture is also the Frameworks that

43:03you've learned to use by being with

43:05other people the Frameworks that you've

43:07learned to use to narrow and specify the

43:09world and in my mode of thinking the

43:14framing is associated with security on

43:16the one hand because it tells you what

43:18you can do and you know makes things

43:20safe for you and tyranny on the other

43:21hand because it can get out of control

43:23and you know it can start to get too

43:25rigid whatever

43:27regardless of the pros and cons of

43:31framing if you see something one way

43:33then you can't see it another it's

43:34harder to see it another so that's the

43:36con side of framing the pro side of

43:38framing is well then you get to do

43:40something if it's unframed you're in

43:42chaos it's existential anxiety you're

43:44not going to move ahead at all so you

43:45have to frame things you have to

43:47simplify them and really in some sense

43:49you even have to oversimplify them

43:52depends on what you mean by that but

43:54what you're really trying to do is to

43:55never make your perceptual task any more

43:57complex than it has to be in order to

43:59get done what you need to get done so

44:02how do you frame things well the first

44:05thing we should point out is that a lot

44:07of framing doesn't even happen

44:10psychologically right so here you are

44:11sitting in this classroom and you're not

44:15overwhelmed by chaos well

44:17why well first of all you're in a city

44:20that's helpful there's electricity here

44:22and there's natural gas and there's

44:24people to fix all the plumbing and so

44:26the fact that you're in a City makes

44:27life much simpler right off the bat

44:29there's not nothing trying to eat you

44:31you don't have to contend with the fact

44:32that it's like minus 20 for 3 months and

44:35you know so that's a whole bunch of

44:36complexity that the world the Civilized

44:39world is just taken care of for you and

44:42then you know now you're in the

44:43university in the city and that

44:45eliminates a whole bunch of other

44:46hassles you know there's some things you

44:48have to do but there's a bunch of things

44:50you don't have to do and then you're

44:51inside this building and wow look at

44:53that there's electric light here and you

44:55know and the chairs work and there's not

44:57going to be an earthquake and probably

44:59the whole building isn't going to fall

45:00down so you know by the time you're

45:02sitting in your chair here also with

45:04your clothing on you've screened a lot

45:07of complexity out already and so you can

45:08sit there fairly calmly and so that's

45:11all external now part of the reason and

45:13this is this is worth thinking about

45:15because this isn't only psychological

45:16you guys will hear a fair bit about

45:18Terror management theories as you

45:20progress through your education and so

45:22Terror management theories are theories

45:25that attempt to account for why

45:27people are uh say patriotic in their

45:30beliefs why they adopt belief systems

45:32and the idea is that a belief system

45:35protects you from death anxiety and so

45:38Freud s sort of said that about

45:39religious systems that was his critique

45:41of religion people are afraid of death

45:43and so they they have this infantile

45:45desire to have that fear go away so they

45:47turn to religion and religion says well

45:48death isn't permanent and that's why

45:50people are religious and and the

45:52extension of that is well that's also

45:54why they have belief systems in general

45:56they're trying to protect protect

45:57themselves against this deep shaking

45:59anxiety and to some degree I suspect

46:01that's true but you should also remember

46:04that when you're protecting your culture

46:07say if you identify with it you're

46:09patriotic or whatever it is or you think

46:10that your culture is worth defending

46:12you're not just defending something

46:14psychological it's like the culture the

46:17function the functioning culture Keeps

46:20the Lights On you know so it doesn't

46:22just protect you from death anxiety it

46:25also protects you from death

46:27and that's even more important most of

46:29the time than being protected from Death

46:30anxiety now there's a psychological

46:32component to it too but you don't ever

46:33want to underestimate just the Practical

46:36utility of being nested inside you know

46:39what PJ would consider a relatively

46:41functional game it's like your world's a

46:43lot simpler you know you have to work to

46:45maintain it and everything and that's

46:46kind of a drag maybe that's the

46:48tyrannical element of it but you know

46:50the payoffs pretty big okay so if you

46:52look at Medieval cities this is a

46:54well-preserved medieval city in France

46:56there's a lot of medieval cities that

46:58still exist in Europe and you see this

47:00is a typical sort of human habitation

47:02it's like inside there's order and

47:05outside there's chaos and barbarians and

47:07then there's a couple of walls to keep

47:09the chaos and The Barbarians out and

47:11then inside you know there's a dominant

47:13Hier and everybody can live their

47:15relatively productive and relatively

47:17peaceful lives inside of that it's all

47:20framing getting rid of complexity

47:23unnecessary

47:25complexity same thing with how they do

47:27the same thing for you and then social

47:30institutions do the same thing too it's

47:32like okay this is uh is it Kennedy there

47:36and and Obama I think so this is part of

47:38the transition in power from George Bush

47:40to Obama and you know that's a pretty

47:42scary thing to have your the leader of

47:45your dominance hierarchy replaced by

47:47another leader and you know among

47:49chimpanzees for example that's often the

47:52occasion for a fair Bit Of Mayhem and

47:55it's also the case often for for people

47:57that that's you know that that occurs

47:59and you know we still have that in the

48:01form of political corruption and so on

48:02but all things considered you know the

48:05power transition from Obama or from Bush

48:07to Obama was far more peaceful than such

48:11power transitions generally are if you

48:13look across the history of mankind and

48:15so that means you're also protected by

48:17your social institutions they screen out

48:20a lot of potential complexity as well as

48:22long as they're functional and and also

48:25I think as long as they follow some of

48:27the pedian rules and so one of the

48:29pedian rules for a for a playable game

48:31is there's some reciprocity you know you

48:34regard the system roughly speaking as

48:37either

48:38fair or fairer than any other system you

48:41can think up you know it boils down to

48:43the same thing because if it's not fair

48:45but you can't come up with a better

48:46fantasy well it's as good as it can be

48:50so so the the sociological or

48:53sociopolitical structures that keep

48:55complexity away from us can only operate

48:57under a certain limited number of

48:59constraints but still they perform their

49:02function you know and and very admirably

49:04it's it's amazing I think because I see

49:06people in my clinical practice all the

49:08time you know and most people that I see

49:11and I think this is true of most people

49:12in the world have at least one serious

49:16problem you know and it might be they

49:18have an illness that's just God awful or

49:21or if they don't have an illness one of

49:23their immediate family has an illness

49:25that's god- awful or their you know

49:26they're really old and they're and and

49:28they need to be taken care of or they're

49:30suffering from some insane economic

49:32problem or they've just been unemployed

49:34or whatever you know there's there's

49:35something in the their immediate circle

49:38that's really really difficult to

49:39Grapple with and yet people still go out

49:41and maintain their place in the world

49:43and the whole thing roughly works and to

49:46me that's just a continual source of

49:49Amazement that people can pull that off

49:51you know so anyway so a lot of the

49:54screening that you do to get rid of that

49:56complexity

49:57is external and part of that is a

49:59consequence of good well functioning

50:02sociological um

50:04organization then the next thing that

50:06sort of Screams things out for you is

50:08your body right now look you kind of

50:11naturally see things at a particular

50:13level of resolution right there's no

50:16obvious reason why that should be so you

50:19know you see the front of people you

50:21can't see the back of them you see their

50:23external covering their skin and their

50:25clothes you can't see inside them when

50:27you look closely at them you can't see

50:29their cellular structure or their

50:30molecular structure or their atomic

50:32structure you can't really see the

50:35social situations that they're embedded

50:37in so if I look at you I can't see your

50:39family I I you know I presume you have

50:41one I can't really see the political

50:44situation that surrounds you either I

50:46have to know that abstractly and then

50:48the ecological level is almost

50:49completely imperceptible to me and so

50:53part of the way that complexity is

50:55screened out is that your body just

50:56doesn't doesn't allow you to pick a lot

50:58of it up you're just blind to it so you

51:01see at one level of resolution and

51:05that's the human level you see things of

51:06approximately our size you see things

51:09that are approximately the size that we

51:10can grip those are sort of the things

51:12that you're likely to can to think of as

51:14objects like clearly a mountain isn't

51:17exactly an object you know

51:19so usability is part of what defines

51:23perceptibility and so that also screens

51:25things out

51:27and

51:28so then you're left with well what it is

51:32that you have to deal with once

51:34everything's been screened out and then

51:35you might ask well there's still a lot

51:37of complexity left there like there say

51:39there's plenty of complexity within the

51:41average family and there's plenty of

51:43complexity in The Mating domain you know

51:45to find a partner and to establish a

51:48reasonable long-term relationship and to

51:50have children and to raise them there's

51:51plenty of complexity left and then the

51:54question is how did

51:57biology how did biology come to solve

52:00those problems given that they're almost

52:02infinite in complexity how can you do it

52:04and the answer to that is fundamentally

52:06a darwinian answer you start simple so

52:10that's back in the days of the

52:11one-celled organisms we have no idea how

52:13those things got their start right I

52:15mean the actual beginning of Life is a

52:18serious mystery and I'll tell you it's

52:20such a serious mystery this is

52:21completely unbelievable but one of the

52:24people who discovered DNA I think it was

52:25Francis crick in fact I'm virtually

52:27certain it was he actually believed that

52:30DNA came from an alien civilization he

52:32wrote a whole book about that it's

52:34called panspermia and so he believes

52:36that believed posited

52:39that it's possible for DNA to drift

52:43through space for millions of years and

52:45to land on planets and to start living

52:49and that God only knows how old DNA is

52:51cuz he just couldn't figure out at all

52:53how it could have possibly evolved so

52:56scientists are a lot weirder than you

52:57think when you start to read you know

52:59about what the scientists who discovered

53:01things really thought they're completely

53:03you know out of their mind

53:05but whatever we'll assume that DNA got

53:08there somehow and then Evolution took

53:10over after that so what does evolution

53:12do it basically says well here's a

53:14terribly complex problem that we've sort

53:17of partially solved and partially solved

53:20means we've lived long enough to produce

53:22another copy of ourselves that

53:23constitutes the solution that's it

53:27so we've live lived long enough so that

53:30we could conceivably duplicate ourselves

53:32how should we do that well a variety of

53:34different ways that's the answer we

53:36should produce variants so that might be

53:38multiple

53:39Offspring or it might

53:42be it might also be facilitated by

53:44random mutation hypothetically the

53:46mutations are random although there's

53:48increasing evidence by the way that

53:52organisms are much more complex at the

53:54genetic level than anyone ever ever

53:56assumed and bacteria for example swap

53:59DNA back and forth with other bacteria

54:01all the time and there are experiences

54:04that you can have that will change your

54:06genetic structure sufficiently so that

54:08you will transmit that to your children

54:10so you know the idea that everything's

54:12purely darwinian and it's only mutation

54:14that drives Randomness that's

54:18clearly likely but not not complete

54:21these other mechanisms are clearly there

54:24but the the the issue is is that what

54:25you do is you you start with something

54:28that kind of works and then you produce

54:29microvariants of it and then the world

54:33around you changes a little bit and

54:34hopefully one of those microvariants

54:36manages to do the same thing and then it

54:38produces a bunch of microvariants and

54:40then they manage to do the same thing

54:42and so what's happening is there's an

54:44arms race between the environment which

54:46is always changing and the organisms

54:48that are trying to keep up with it and

54:50that arms race just goes on forever and

54:52you know different life forms

54:53proliferate as that as that occurs it's

54:56sort of like life is always playing

54:58catchup and you never get it right you

55:01cannot get it right the best you can do

55:03is get it right long enough to live long

55:06enough to reproduce that constitutes the

55:10sum total of your knowledge so and so

55:14what that means at least in part is that

55:16you guys are all the beneficiary let's

55:18say of a evolutionary process that's

55:20basically been going on since the

55:23beginning of life and that's about 3.5

55:25billion years ago and so so your body

55:27your

55:28psychophysiology has been in an arms

55:31race with the transforming environment

55:33for 3 and A2 billion years trying to

55:34keep up and poof you're the Stellar

55:38consequence of three and a half billion

55:40years of like effort and death so you

55:44know you might thank the cosmos about

55:47that you think about this every single

55:49one of your female ancestors

55:51successfully

55:53reproduced like it's mindboggling it's

55:55mind bogling you're so unlikely that you

55:58would be here that that it's that it's

56:00almost

56:01incalculable

56:02so good for us here we are you know how

56:05successful can you get so my my point is

56:09that part of the way that complexity is

56:10dealt with is is haphazard it isn't ever

56:14really dealt with that's why you die you

56:16can only manage it to a limited degree

56:20and for us that's like three kids in 100

56:23years if you're lucky and that's what

56:26that's hard knowledge after 3 and A2

56:28billion years so the complexity problem

56:30is a rough one okay so that's your body

56:33now let's look inside your body now you

56:35might think that you know we have this

56:39sort of idea that's kind of leftover

56:40cartisian that there's a u and there's a

56:43your body and the U is in your brain and

56:45so just out of curiosity how many of you

56:48have the subjective sense that the U is

56:52in your

56:53head how many of you would locate you

56:56like for me like I can locate me

56:58somewhere seems to be about there I feel

57:00like that's where I am what and so how

57:03many of people think have like the

57:05center of their sense of subjectivity in

57:07their head how many people are like that

57:10okay how many people are different than

57:14that okay so oh good okay so where like

57:17where do you feel the center of your

57:18subjectivity where would it

57:23be that's hard to conceptualize like

57:27I have like religious views so I believe

57:30and I oh I was thinking more about how

57:32about how it feels fair fair enough fair

57:33enough you know that that's perfectly

57:35reasonable I'm thinking of it more as a

57:36subjective experience

57:38though my bra okay for me the heart so

57:43you're kind of located here how many

57:45people would would agree with that oh

57:48yeah so qu quite a few of you he so

57:50that's the same same for you here I

57:52don't know more like here oh h h h and

57:56any other places any other places you

57:58can talk about

58:01so yeah yeah

58:04yeah

58:06sorry any other

58:09places outside of my body I don't know

58:12it's not like oh that's not

58:15good no I'm kidding I'm kidding I'm

58:18kidding okay okay so okay so we kind of

58:20got head and heart and you know that's

58:22really kind of historically standard the

58:24Greeks seem to Lo have located the

58:26themselves sort of in their heart you

58:27know and there's some theory that as

58:29people became more intellectualized that

58:31that feeling sort of went up to their

58:33head and maybe before the heart there

58:35was the stomach you know and you know

58:37you might think that you're your stomach

58:38if you were hungry all the time right I

58:40mean you're just not ever hungry so like

58:42why the hell would you think you were

58:43your stomach but you know that's another

58:45way that culture sort of keeps

58:47complexity at Bay you don't even that's

58:50that's almost like a motivational state

58:52that modern people don't even have to

58:54contend with cuz you're never really

58:55hungry I mean how many of you have gone

58:57without food for more than 24

59:00hours oh that's pretty good how many of

59:02you involuntarily went without food for

59:04more than 24 hours oh yeah well that's

59:07that's rough okay how about a

59:10week nobody how about 3

59:14days okay well so you know there's a

59:17couple of people who've gone for

59:18reasonable periods of time without

59:20eating but fundamentally you can tell

59:21we've we kind of got that problem under

59:23control so you don't have to worry too

59:25much about your

59:26about you being your stomach but I'll

59:28tell you if you were starving at some

59:30point that's probably where you'd locate

59:32yourself okay so now you're inside the

59:34body and so let's take a look at how the

59:36Body Works inside so you kind of feel

59:39that you're in your brain most of you

59:41anyways but and you know you kind of

59:43think your brain is in your head but

59:45really that's not right I don't really

59:47understand ever why we kind of decided

59:50that our brains were in our head because

59:52well look at it there's there's the

59:53nervous system it's like it's not in

59:55your head it's distributed through your

59:57whole body there's a lot of it up in

59:59your head but there's the whole spinal

1:00:01cord that's an important thing and then

1:00:03it has all these branching nerves that

1:00:05allow you to move your hands and to feel

1:00:06things and it's like your nervous system

1:00:08is distributed all the way through your

1:00:10body so it's it's not reasonable to

1:00:12think about the way that you operate as

1:00:15you see things with your brain and then

1:00:17you do things now if that's sort of true

1:00:20but there's important ways that it's not

1:00:21true at all and it's important to know

1:00:23the ways that it's not true it helps you

1:00:26understand phenomena that you couldn't

1:00:27otherwise understand so I can give you

1:00:29an example there are people who

1:00:32experience blindness so but it isn't

1:00:34because their eyes get damaged it's

1:00:36because they have brain damage and so it

1:00:38it damages the visual cortex and so

1:00:40that's the higher order higher order

1:00:42part of the brain that's responsible for

1:00:43conscious Vision okay so maybe they get

1:00:46I don't know they get a tumor or they

1:00:47get hit in the head or they get shot or

1:00:49something and then poof they're blind

1:00:52and so then um they tell you they can't

1:00:54see anything and then you say to them

1:00:56okay well that's fine you can't see

1:00:58anything but let's play a game okay I'm

1:01:00going to hold up my left hand or my

1:01:02right hand and you're going to

1:01:03guess about which I'm holding up and so

1:01:06you do this and they go right and you do

1:01:08this and they go left and left left

1:01:12right right and they're right and you

1:01:16tell them you're right and they say well

1:01:17I can't be because I don't see anything

1:01:19so that's one that's blind sight okay so

1:01:22here's another kind of blind sight so

1:01:23you take the same person and you set

1:01:26them in front of a screen and you say

1:01:28well look at the screen and they tell

1:01:29you I told you already I can't see

1:01:31anything and then you flash faces at

1:01:33them and you you you check for changes

1:01:36in the conductivity of their skin

1:01:38because when people react emotionally

1:01:40they sweat a little more a little less

1:01:42and that changes how electricity passes

1:01:44through their skin and so you show them

1:01:46a smiling face and there's not much of a

1:01:48change and you know you show them a um

1:01:50neutral face and there's not much of a

1:01:52change and then you show them like a

1:01:54really aggressive or really afraid face

1:01:56and poof spikes and you do that a number

1:01:59of times and you show them well as soon

1:02:01as I show you a face of someone who's

1:02:02afraid or face of someone who's angry

1:02:05you react to it psychophysiologically

1:02:07you think well how the hell can that

1:02:09happen if they can't see and the answer

1:02:12to that is you don't just see with your

1:02:15vision you see with your body and so one

1:02:18of the things that you'll find for

1:02:20example if you go through Swanson's

1:02:22paper I'll read you a little bit about

1:02:23this later is that most of your sense

1:02:26map onto multiple levels of your nervous

1:02:29system so some of them map right onto

1:02:31your spine and that's good because now

1:02:34and then your eyes should tell your

1:02:35spine to do something before you think

1:02:38because thinking's too slow and so you

1:02:40know you got to understand like way back

1:02:42when we were frogs roughly speaking we

1:02:45had eyes we didn't have much of a brain

1:02:48so like what the hell were the eyes

1:02:50doing it's not like the Frog exactly

1:02:52sees and you might think well how could

1:02:55eyes inform you about the world if you

1:02:57don't exactly see and then you got to

1:02:59kind of think of it in a pedian sense

1:03:01it's

1:03:03like here here's an example you might

1:03:05take an animal like a sponge pretty

1:03:07simple animal and it can open and close

1:03:11pores on the outside of its surface

1:03:14according to different changes in the

1:03:17ocean that surrounds it and so its

1:03:20perception is sort of like the ocean has

1:03:23three states whatever those might be

1:03:25maybe it has 10 I don't know but for the

1:03:27sake of Simplicity we'll say three the

1:03:29ocean manifests itself in three pattern

1:03:32States in pattern State one I do this in

1:03:35pattern state two I do this in pattern

1:03:37state three I do this and so it's direct

1:03:39pattern onto action mapping and so

1:03:42animals can use their eyes just to react

1:03:44with they don't have to see the thing

1:03:47you know because you think you see and

1:03:48then you act but why do that you can

1:03:50just react and you know this already

1:03:52because in a simple way if you put your

1:03:55hand on a hot stove you'll go like this

1:03:58and then you'll feel the pain and what

1:04:00that means is that your body has

1:04:02conserved the relationship between your

1:04:04Sensory neurons and your motor neurons

1:04:06at a spinal level so that you will your

1:04:10perception of the heat is this it's not

1:04:13of the heat it's just mapping a bodily

1:04:17pattern onto a sensory pattern and so a

1:04:21lot of really primitive sensory input is

1:04:24exactly that it's just the sense detects

1:04:26a pattern and with no intermediary of

1:04:29interpretation that pattern is

1:04:31translated into a behavioral output and

1:04:34so there's actually generally the first

1:04:37the simplest cells are sensory motor

1:04:39cells so they do both they map the

1:04:41pattern and they react and then the

1:04:42sensory and the motor cells

1:04:44differentiate and then neural tissue

1:04:47grows inside them and so then what

1:04:49happens is that instead of an outside

1:04:51pattern being mapped immediately onto a

1:04:53behavioral pattern the neural inter

1:04:55mediary says okay this pattern could

1:04:58mean any of these three things and then

1:05:01that neural layer grows and grows and

1:05:04grows until in creatures like us it's

1:05:06like a whopping layer and so we see a

1:05:08pattern and we go that could be this

1:05:09this this this this this this this and

1:05:12then all of those things could be mapped

1:05:13on to this or this or this or this or

1:05:15this so you know it makes us more slower

1:05:18but more flexible and slow can be a

1:05:20problem so like when you're walking down

1:05:21a pathway and a snake appears you don't

1:05:23want to be thinking you know snake

1:05:25rubber hose stick whatever you know

1:05:28because then you're dead because the

1:05:29snake bites you what you want to do is

1:05:31catch the snake out of the corner of

1:05:32your eye and jump up into the air before

1:05:34you even know that you saw a snake and

1:05:37you can do that because your eyes can

1:05:38map right onto your spine and they don't

1:05:40just map right onto your spine they map

1:05:42onto your nervous system at all sorts of

1:05:44levels so for example with the blind

1:05:47sight person who's looking at the face

1:05:50so it's an angry face the eyes are still

1:05:52mapping information onto the amydala and

1:05:55so the AMD changes the psychophysiology

1:05:57you know it says prepare for threat and

1:06:00so the person might feel uneasy but

1:06:02that's a it's weird but that's a form of

1:06:05sight to feel uneasy can be a form of

1:06:08sight

1:06:12so and that that's to say even more

1:06:14clearly that your brain just isn't in

1:06:16your head it's like it's all the way up

1:06:17it's all the way from and this is a nice

1:06:20pan Viewpoint because you know in some

1:06:22sense what P says about children is they

1:06:24sort of organize themselves from the

1:06:26spinal level upwards you know they learn

1:06:28these little sub routines first of all

1:06:30they have a few sub routines those are

1:06:32like built right into the spine and then

1:06:34they start playing with those and

1:06:35chaining them together in flexible ways

1:06:37and they keep doing that you know in

1:06:39more and more complex ways until they're

1:06:41capable of the abstract representation

1:06:44of thought and you can see how this will

1:06:46work as we go through the the nervous

1:06:48system so your brain's in your body in

1:06:52fact there's some evidence and there's

1:06:54more than one kind of nerve system too

1:06:56right there's the central nervous system

1:06:57that allows you to move voluntarily and

1:07:00that you know provides you with sensory

1:07:02feedback some of which you're conscious

1:07:04of there's also the autonomic nervous

1:07:06system that runs your all the complex

1:07:08Machinery that you're too stupid to

1:07:09attend to you know because your

1:07:12Consciousness gets little jobs it

1:07:14doesn't get to run your liver for

1:07:16example you imagine what your life would

1:07:17be like if you were in charge of your

1:07:19liver it's like you'd have been dead

1:07:20years ago cuz what do you know about

1:07:22livers so you have a whole system like

1:07:24the autonomic nervous system which has

1:07:27more neurons than the central nervous

1:07:28system that just runs all that stuff for

1:07:30you which is you know a good thing you

1:07:33then you don't have to pay attention to

1:07:34it so so anyways there's a lot of

1:07:38distribution of neural tissue throughout

1:07:41your body and there's even some evidence

1:07:43that you have a like a second brain of

1:07:45sorts in your solar plexus where you

1:07:48know that's perhaps part of the reason

1:07:50why you really don't like to get hit

1:07:51there but there's a tremendous number of

1:07:53serotonergic neurons for example in your

1:07:55in your midsection and there's

1:07:57increasing evidence that those are

1:07:58associated with things like emotion and

1:08:00mood and

1:08:01so the idea that the brain is here it's

1:08:05like no not not really it's it's a

1:08:09Continuum you know your body is a

1:08:12psychophysiological entity and to

1:08:15separate it into body and mind is like

1:08:18it's not

1:08:20right the other thing that seems to be

1:08:22increasingly clear among say the

1:08:24robotics guys is you can't even be smart

1:08:26unless you have a body and so that's why

1:08:28the advanced advanced intelligence guys

1:08:31are building robots from the bottom up

1:08:34they're doing it just like PJ would have

1:08:36suggested it's like well build some

1:08:37things that can move and then chain

1:08:39those things that can move together so

1:08:40that they can move in more complex ways

1:08:42and then chain them together so they can

1:08:44work in more complex ways and once

1:08:46you've got this thing that can do things

1:08:48then stick a brain on it and that'll

1:08:50then it'll have things it can do with

1:08:52its brain and if you don't do it that

1:08:54way you get something that can't

1:08:56function intelligently it's close to

1:08:58that

1:09:00so so there is the brain and the major

1:09:04one way of dividing it into its major

1:09:07subcomponents is represented there's a

1:09:09variety of ways you can do this you can

1:09:10divide it into hemispheres because it's

1:09:11sort of split down the middle the right

1:09:13hemisphere seems to be kind of

1:09:15specialized for the processing of

1:09:17unknown information and the left seems

1:09:20to be more comfortable working where you

1:09:23know what's going to happen and that

1:09:25left is most generally the linguistic

1:09:27part of the brain although not always

1:09:29it's it's a rough you know what would

1:09:31you call

1:09:32it it's a rough truth there's lots of

1:09:35exceptions the the linguistic system

1:09:38tends to specialize in the left and the

1:09:40left sort of insists that it knows

1:09:42what's going on and the right is always

1:09:45looking out for things that don't fit

1:09:46and sort of convincing the left slowly

1:09:49and sort of under the table to change

1:09:51its viewpoints and that seem a lot of

1:09:53that seems to happen when you're asleep

1:09:54and you're dreaming so the right maybe

1:09:56what's happening when you're dreaming is

1:09:58that during the day your cognitive

1:10:00processes are pretty tight and defined

1:10:02and they better be right because you

1:10:04don't want to be dreaming your

1:10:05schizophrenic dreams in the daytime

1:10:07that's a bad idea so you got to stay

1:10:09kind of focused and and narrow in a way

1:10:12during the day but the problem with that

1:10:14narrowed narrow focus is that you're not

1:10:17paying attention to a lot of things and

1:10:19so it kind of looks like your right

1:10:20hemisphere keeps track of the

1:10:22potentially important things that you're

1:10:24not keeping track of and sort of and

1:10:27then at night your your category system

1:10:29sort of broadens and loosens you can

1:10:31tell that in dreams because they're so

1:10:33weird and that's maybe when the right

1:10:34hemisphere is sort of tapping some new

1:10:37information into the left and playing

1:10:39with how it might be recategorized

1:10:41without completely overwhelming the left

1:10:45because you don't want to just because

1:10:47you learn something new doesn't mean you

1:10:49want to upset yourself totally right so

1:10:51it's a real it's a real complex dynamic

1:10:54between stability and learning and it's

1:10:57conceivable that's why you have two

1:10:58hemispheres so who knows it's a good

1:11:01theory though and and the guy who came

1:11:03up with it fundamentally his name is

1:11:05Goldberg um El Conan Goldberg he was a

1:11:08student of Alexander luras who was a

1:11:10great neuropsychologist so you know it's

1:11:12a credible it's credible idea so here's

1:11:15some

1:11:16rough divisions you've got your

1:11:20cerebellum that cerebellum we don't know

1:11:22what the hell that thing does if you

1:11:24don't have one you get all wobbly but

1:11:26there's more neurons in the cerebellum

1:11:28than there are in the rest of the brain

1:11:30so like is it just making you not wobbly

1:11:33seems like a

1:11:35tremendous devotion of resources to

1:11:37something that's relatively simple so uh

1:11:41alcohol when you're a new Drinker

1:11:43alcohol is really hard on the cerebellum

1:11:44which is why you're you know totally

1:11:47useless in a motor way and you fall down

1:11:49and all those things happen but so

1:11:51that's the cerebellum and we don't know

1:11:52what it does even though it's very

1:11:55complexly branched it kind of looks like

1:11:57a cauliflower and it's just packed full

1:11:58of neurons and then there's the

1:12:00occipital lobe and that kind of use that

1:12:02to see with more or less and then the

1:12:04pride lobe kind of keeps helps you keep

1:12:06track of who who you are from a bodily

1:12:09perspective and sort of where your

1:12:11body's located in space and sort of who

1:12:13you are as an embodied person so for

1:12:16example if you lose the right parietal

1:12:18lobe because you have a stroke then you

1:12:19lose the left side of your body and even

1:12:22more weirdly you lose the left side of

1:12:24every

1:12:26so all of a sudden you can't see the

1:12:27left side of anything and no one can

1:12:29figure out what that's like because say

1:12:31I'm looking at this

1:12:33room and I have this parietal damage if

1:12:36I'm looking at the room do I not see the

1:12:38left side of the room and then if I look

1:12:40at you all of a sudden I don't see your

1:12:41left side like we can't figure that

1:12:44out like the left is gone but then the

1:12:47left is relative to where you happen to

1:12:48be looking I think one of the ways of

1:12:51understanding it is sort of like you

1:12:52know how you clearly can't see anything

1:12:54behind your head head and it's not black

1:12:57where you can't see right it's black if

1:12:59you close your eyes but there's a

1:13:01difference

1:13:02between what you can't see behind your

1:13:04head and the block you see when you

1:13:06close your eyes because the block sort

1:13:07of seems like nothing but compared to

1:13:10what's behind your head it's it's not

1:13:11nothing at all so I think what happens

1:13:13with people who have neglect paranal

1:13:15damage is that that like back part just

1:13:18goes like this and so instead of you

1:13:20know you seeing this much of the world

1:13:22and this being just not there at all as

1:13:24far as vision is concerned it goes like

1:13:26this so then you've only got like a

1:13:29quarter of the world that you're and so

1:13:31people like that sometimes they'll throw

1:13:33their own legs out of bed so they wake

1:13:35up and they think oh my God because they

1:13:37can kind of detect the left but not very

1:13:38well and they're quite freaked out

1:13:40because you know like do you really want

1:13:41to wake up with a leg in bed with you no

1:13:44so they grab it and throw it out and

1:13:45that's not so good because they're

1:13:46attached to it or so they'll eat they'll

1:13:50eat and they only eat half the food on

1:13:51their plate but if you turn the plate

1:13:53then they'll eat half of the half that's

1:13:54left so anyways that's the prial lobe

1:13:57temporal

1:13:59lobe that enables you to hear roughly

1:14:02speaking there's a lot of um memory

1:14:04there too and the frontal lobe well

1:14:07first of all the frontal lobe seems to

1:14:08allow you to make voluntary movements

1:14:12sort of at the at the highest level of

1:14:14abstraction and then the prefrontal

1:14:16cortex which would be right at the front

1:14:18of the yellow there it's sort of like

1:14:21the back part of the of the frontal lobe

1:14:23enables you to make volunt movements but

1:14:25the prefrontal cortex enables you to

1:14:28represent the potential motor movements

1:14:30that you might make before you implement

1:14:32them and so it evolved out of the motor

1:14:35strip during the course of evolution

1:14:36it's sort of like well first you learned

1:14:37how to act voluntarily and then as that

1:14:40grew and it's particularly big in human

1:14:42beings that part was able to divorce

1:14:45actions from your

1:14:47body represent them in an abstract space

1:14:51run them as simulations calculate the

1:14:53outcome and then Implement them or not

1:14:55and you know it's a it's a it's a hit

1:14:57and miss business because lots of you

1:15:00people

1:15:01undoubtedly simulate catastrophic

1:15:03outcomes and then go do whatever it is

1:15:05you were going to do anyways like you

1:15:07know that happens to people all the time

1:15:08say when they're trying to stop drinking

1:15:10or to stop using cocaine or not to Bing

1:15:12eat or so you know your prefrontal

1:15:15cortex can whip up these simulations but

1:15:19other parts of your body can override

1:15:21them quite quite badly so that's sort of

1:15:23roughly the brain at least from you know

1:15:26looking at it from the

1:15:27side and then this is it split down the

1:15:31middle and you can see that it's

1:15:33not precisely two hemispheres all the

1:15:36way

1:15:38down in the middle it's one thing and

1:15:40then it grows these two things like

1:15:42little hat and uh as far as I'm

1:15:46concerned all the important parts of the

1:15:48brain

1:15:49are low down Central old you know

1:15:53because people like to think that well

1:15:55if it evolved a long time ago it's

1:15:57primitive it's like no if it evolved a

1:16:01long time ago it's been around a long

1:16:04time it's really smart that's why you

1:16:07don't run your liver the autonomic

1:16:09nervous system runs it because it's been

1:16:11around for an awful long time and it

1:16:12knows exactly how to do it and so it's

1:16:15really in some sense the new parts of

1:16:16the brains are the brain in many ways

1:16:19are the parts that are primitive so and

1:16:21the the old parts are extremely

1:16:23necessary and sophisticated

1:16:25and so the areas we're going to

1:16:27concentrate on most particularly are

1:16:29well the cortex we've already talked

1:16:31about the cortex is probably

1:16:35responsible people like to think of it

1:16:36as responsible for Consciousness and

1:16:38there there's something about that

1:16:40that's right but it's quite clear that

1:16:43human beings can remain

1:16:45conscious even if they have a

1:16:47substantial amount of damage to the

1:16:49cerebral cortex so Consciousness is a

1:16:51really weird thing we're we're not very

1:16:53good at figuring out it's localized at

1:16:56all cerebral

1:16:59cortex Thalamus the thalamus is the

1:17:02place where all your sensory information

1:17:03comes together so you know when you look

1:17:05at the world it's kind of like a

1:17:07Continuum of experience despite the fact

1:17:09that you have these five different

1:17:11sensory inputs and the thalamus seems to

1:17:13sort of unite all that and then it sends

1:17:16the messages that it amalgamates up to

1:17:19the cortex and the cortex sends them

1:17:20back and the thelus sends them back and

1:17:22there's like this Loop between the

1:17:25thomus and the cortex and maybe that's

1:17:28part of what Consciousness is you know

1:17:29rather than being localized in an area

1:17:32it could easily be a process and you

1:17:34know the fact that Consciousness sort of

1:17:36turns on in the morning which is a very

1:17:38weird thing seems to indicate to me that

1:17:40it it's probably something like that

1:17:42it's a loop it's the looping interaction

1:17:45between brain areas and you know if

1:17:47something's looping like that it gets

1:17:48really weird properties so that's a

1:17:51positive feedback system you know and I

1:17:53don't know if you've ever

1:17:55turned a vid hooked a video camera to a

1:17:57TV and then turned the video camera on

1:17:59the TV you know it starts doing

1:18:01extremely weird things you can get all

1:18:03sorts of unbelievably complex designs

1:18:06and weird phenomena because the TV is

1:18:08recycling its own signal you know so

1:18:10there's this circuit in there that's

1:18:11looping and I suspect Consciousness is

1:18:14something like that the

1:18:17hippocampus the hippocampus is

1:18:20responsible for the movement of

1:18:21short-term information into long-term

1:18:23storage it's a very important part of

1:18:25the brain we'll talk about that more

1:18:26next time the amydala is responsible for

1:18:29a lot of emotional responses and the

1:18:32hypothalamus is responsible for a lot of

1:18:35primordial motivational

1:18:39States and so we'll stop and we'll start

1:18:42with the hypothalamus

1:18:44on Tuesday see you soon

1:18:49[Applause]