Thinking Beyond Science

The human brain doesn’t passively take in experience like a recorder; instead, it constantly works over the sensory data it receives – and the fruit of that mental labor is new versions of the world.

The basic cognitive software of brains – which drinks in the milieu and procreates new versions – gives rise to everything that surrounds us: streetlights, nations, symphonies, laws, sonnets, prosthetic arms, smartphones, ceiling fans, skyscrapers, boats, kites, laptops, ketchup bottles, auto-driving cars. And this mental software gives rise to tomorrow, in the form of self-healing cement, moving buildings, carbon-fiber violins, biodegradable cars, nano spacecraft and the chronic refashioning of the future.

Repetition suppression. When your brain gets used to something, it displays less and less of a response each time it sees it. Imagine, for example, that you come across a new object – say, a self-driving car. The first time you see it, your brain shows a large response. It’s absorbing something new and registering it. The second time you see it, your brain shows slightly less response. It doesn’t care quite as much about it, because it’s not quite as novel. The third time: less response again. The fourth time: even less.

‘The more familiar something is, the less neural energy we spend on it. This is why the first time you drive to your new place of work, it seems to take a long time. On the second day, the drive feels a little shorter. After a while, getting to work takes almost no time at all. The world wears off as it becomes familiar; the foreground becomes the background.

Navigating the world is a difficult job that requires moving around and using a lot of brainpower – an energy-expensive endeavor. When we make correct predictions, that saves energy. When you know that edible bugs can be found beneath certain types of rocks, it saves turning over all the rocks. The better we predict, the less energy it costs us. Repetition makes us more confident in our forecasts and more efficient in our actions.

The better we understand something, the less effort we put into thinking about it.

Familiarity breeds indifference. Repetition suppression sets in and our attention wanes. This is why marriage needs to be constantly rekindled.

This is why you’ll only laugh so many times at the same joke. This is why – no matter how much you enjoyed watching the World Series – you aren’t going to be satisfied watching that same game over and over.

Although predictability is reassuring, the brain strives to incorporate new facts into its model of the world. It always seeks novelty. The brain gets excited when it updates.

It’s never two guys who walk into a bar – it’s always three. Why? Because the first guy sets things up, and the second guy establishes the pattern. This is the shortest possible path for the third guy to break the pattern by sidestepping the brain’s prediction. In other words, humor arises from the violation of expectations. If you were to tell the joke to a robot it would simply listen to what each of the three guys does, but presumably it wouldn’t find the joke funny. The joke only works because the brain always tries to predict, and the punchline knocks it off balance.

Source : The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World by David Eagleman, Anthony Brandt

Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34146662-the-runaway-species

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