This may seem like a strange question. The phrase that comes into my head all of the time is "Driven by Desire." Sounds like the title of a book I will write.
When I ask, "What is driving me?" I'm really asking myself to think about what my actions tell me about what I seem to be desiring.
At this point your eyes may glaze over and you may say to me, "Melissa! Too many words!"
Please let me parse that convoluted sentence a bit in light of Michael Graziano's proposal, explicated in his book, Consciousness and the Social Brain. His proposal is basically that consciousness is nothing more than information that we give ourselves about what our brain is prioritizing at the moment. He calls it an attention schema: A rough summary of what our unconscious brain has elevated enough that we have become aware of its activity.
It is helpful at this point to have some sense of the way the brain works. The human brain is calculated to contain about 86 billion neurons. To state it simply, the neurons have the potential to connect with one another, not just in one to one connections, but in many-to-many relationships. Furthermore, the connections may excite or inhibit. Each connection is analogous to a "0" or "1" connection, like a "no" or "yes" vote. But some "yes" votes may say "Go!" while the other "yes" votes say "No!"
Dr. Idan Segev of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem likens the brain to an "input-output electrical device." This picture from the 2013 Coursera course, "Synapses, Neurons, and Brains, gives a sense.
When I ask, "What is driving me?" I'm really asking myself to think about what my actions tell me about what I seem to be desiring.
At this point your eyes may glaze over and you may say to me, "Melissa! Too many words!"
Please let me parse that convoluted sentence a bit in light of Michael Graziano's proposal, explicated in his book, Consciousness and the Social Brain. His proposal is basically that consciousness is nothing more than information that we give ourselves about what our brain is prioritizing at the moment. He calls it an attention schema: A rough summary of what our unconscious brain has elevated enough that we have become aware of its activity.
It is helpful at this point to have some sense of the way the brain works. The human brain is calculated to contain about 86 billion neurons. To state it simply, the neurons have the potential to connect with one another, not just in one to one connections, but in many-to-many relationships. Furthermore, the connections may excite or inhibit. Each connection is analogous to a "0" or "1" connection, like a "no" or "yes" vote. But some "yes" votes may say "Go!" while the other "yes" votes say "No!"
Dr. Idan Segev of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem likens the brain to an "input-output electrical device." This picture from the 2013 Coursera course, "Synapses, Neurons, and Brains, gives a sense.
What Graziano proposes based on years of studying neurological processes is that with enough excitation, which translates to "electrical spikes", the activity of our brain reaches our conscious awareness. When we pay attention to what we are aware, that is, when we describe to ourselves what we are currently aware of, this is consciousness reflecting upon itself. We are generating a positive feedback loop.
In Graziano's understanding, consciousness is information about what our brains are doing. The curious thing is that as we become aware of what our brains are doing, we are able to change what they are doing! At least at the superficial level. We can't change the deep level directly, because we don't have conscious access to it! The deep level, in my proposal, is our desire. I am driven by my desire.
Now the big question becomes: "What is it that I desire?" The immediate second question is, "Do I want to desire the thing(s) that I seem to be desiring? What do I really desire?"
How one goes about aligning one's rational desires to one's unconscious desires will have to be the subject of another post. For me, the short answer is, "Through imagination." Followed by some decisive self-discipline.
What is your experience?
In Graziano's understanding, consciousness is information about what our brains are doing. The curious thing is that as we become aware of what our brains are doing, we are able to change what they are doing! At least at the superficial level. We can't change the deep level directly, because we don't have conscious access to it! The deep level, in my proposal, is our desire. I am driven by my desire.
Now the big question becomes: "What is it that I desire?" The immediate second question is, "Do I want to desire the thing(s) that I seem to be desiring? What do I really desire?"
How one goes about aligning one's rational desires to one's unconscious desires will have to be the subject of another post. For me, the short answer is, "Through imagination." Followed by some decisive self-discipline.
What is your experience?