Making sense of sensations

I spend a lot of time scanning the external environment for new stuff and trying to link it to what is already in my mindbrain. In the past this was limited to words and ideas but, more recently, it includes moods and feelings.

I enjoy the hunt for new cognitive prey - both rabbits (facts and hypotheses – the small stuff) and elephants (concepts and paradigms – the big picture)

For some reason I was not satisfied with my family conditioning and wider enculturation. So, from my early years, I was on the lookout for ‘better ways to be human’. I have lived and worked in six countries so there has been exposure to different cultures. My conclusion is that there is no one-size-fits-all cultural solution to the human condition – there is ongoing churn and flux.

And we are Homo linguisticus; we talk. There are short and pithy aspects of language that may or may not be rigidly defined ie words, phrases, sound bites and slogans. Here for example are some items that have held my attention in recent weeks:

• Nouns - epigenetics, hegemony, evolution, moods, feelings, life, embryology, neuroscience, flow, flourishing, focus, commonweal, consciousness, attention, reality
• Word pairs (adjective and noun) - evolutionary psychology, elegant power, cultural relativism, brain scanning, working hypothesis, neural plasticity, good work, decent work, frontal cortex, free will, self conscious, attention centre, real reality
• Catchy phrases (they close lazy minds) – atoms are indivisible; heavier than air machines cannot fly; a woman’s place is in the home; little children should be seen but not heard; behind every great man there is a great woman; there is no free lunch; the only constant thing is change.

Even when it might be thought of as resting, the mindbrain is busy trying to identify patterns and agents. Fresh inputs from the sense organs are churned up with memories such that judgments of like, dislike or neutral can be made and reactions and responses put in place. Most of this activity is in the unconscious but sometimes elements are passed to the attention centre where ‘I’ can be conscious of them.

As a human being I can be conscious of consciousness.  ‘I’ can have thoughts and feelings that change the physical and chemical structure of the mindbrain and this can create behaviours that change the structure of my kitchen sink or of the planet – for better or for worse.

And there can be attachment to views – either for or against.  I have habits and routines. I have a tendency to position myself in ruts. This might be seen as functional and even desirable in a relatively stable environment. But, if carried too far, this conservative tendency would reduce flexibility to dangerously low levels. This might be why an apparent lack of change generates ‘boredom’ and the search for novelty.

SO - there are words, phrases, sound bites and slogans. There are also speeches and lengthy written articles and books. And, these days, there are ICT social networks and online, electronic memories in Google and Wikipedia. These can deal with things, events and issues that are close bye (parochial) or far away (cosmopolitan) in both time and space. We have now evolved to the stage of being able to contemplate the infinitely and eternally large or small (Big History from quantum to cosmos).

AND - all of the above ideas (rabbits and elephants) are being churned continually in the unconscious flux which is my messy mindbrain trying to make sense of the sensations from my sense organs.