4 ms·

Who told them that we have any kind of "parallel threads of consciousness" to run "chekers" for these "rational heuristics" or "pattern matchers" on an input s

Who told them that we have any kind of "parallel threads of consciousness" to run "chekers" for these "rational heuristics" or "pattern matchers" on an input stream? Another variety of "multitasking" nonsense. On paper it is all logical and "rational". Now try to run this in your mind in so-called state of "flow". Don't have a flow? That means you don't have your attention focused. All the classic attention experiments, like that one with gorilla, reveal limitations and "single-threadness" of our minds. It seems that the only kind of parallel tasks a human mind could run is one "conscious" with many "subconscious" - 1:N threads, or 0:N ;) Btw, pthreads (and, perhaps, lock-based sharing in general) is a flawed concept in the first place. Imagine a deadlock with breathing or race-condition with heart rate.

analog31 12y ago
This is just an amusing aside: Where I work, we sometimes have these sessions conducted by outside consultants. At one such session, after an introduction about how we can be fooled by our expectations, we were shown the gorilla video. When the trainer asked if we noticed something unusual in the video, all but one or two of us raised our hands. We had all seen the gorilla video. So I think the gorilla video actually teaches a new concept, which is that you should assume that the people you are dealing with have the same access to information as you have unless you have a reason to believe that it's a secret.
- dschiptsov 12y ago
  For me, the concept was that we are filtering out most of what happens in the shared environment (in order to not being overwhelmed), that our mental mechanisms are rather imperfect (most of people are absolutely sure that they have flawless tools, and the entire universe is completely comprehensible) and that different people could have incompatible inner representations of the very same phenomena. Btw, the flawed mental apparatus as a reason to hypothetical inability to comprehend "the true nature of reality" is one of the basic premises of thousands years old Indian philosophy, which emphasizes subjectivity.
  - analog31 12y ago
    Agreed. That was the concept until the video went viral.
Symmetry 12y ago
Certainly all of this would be completely impractical if it required a "parallel thread of consciousness" (where did you get that phrase). Thankfully recognizing situations isn't something that has to take conscious attention. If I'm walking down the street and someone I pass is wearing a gorilla costume that fact will be promoted to my conscious attention by other parts of my brain without me having to consciously think to myself "is this a gorilla" whenever I see someone. The idea here is to train yourself to notice when, say, you're confused the same way you'd notice a gorilla costume and only then deal with the issue consciously. Of course automatic recognition isn't perfect as the video you're referring to shows. But recognizing something most of the time is far superior to never recognizing it. And I think a better model for the human brain is a hard core with a single thread embedded in a much larger FPGA fabric that can issue it interrupts. Only a tiny fraction of the sense data that enters our brain actually impinged on our conscious awareness and the directives that our consciousness issues such as "pick up that cup" are multiplied hugely in complexity as they are translated into precisely calibrated exertion rates for dozens of separate muscles over time.
- dschiptsov 12y ago
  > Thankfully recognizing situations isn't something that has to take conscious attention. Should I explain how all these rush or "pressure" based sales techniques work and how they are trying exploit and manipulate "too narrow window of attention" of a customer?

analog31 12y ago

This is just an amusing aside: Where I work, we sometimes have these sessions conducted by outside consultants. At one such session, after an introduction about how we can be fooled by our expectations, we were shown the gorilla video. When the trainer asked if we noticed something unusual in the video, all but one or two of us raised our hands. We had all seen the gorilla video. So I think the gorilla video actually teaches a new concept, which is that you should assume that the people you are dealing with have the same access to information as you have unless you have a reason to believe that it's a secret.

dschiptsov 12y ago
For me, the concept was that we are filtering out most of what happens in the shared environment (in order to not being overwhelmed), that our mental mechanisms are rather imperfect (most of people are absolutely sure that they have flawless tools, and the entire universe is completely comprehensible) and that different people could have incompatible inner representations of the very same phenomena. Btw, the flawed mental apparatus as a reason to hypothetical inability to comprehend "the true nature of reality" is one of the basic premises of thousands years old Indian philosophy, which emphasizes subjectivity.
- analog31 12y ago
  Agreed. That was the concept until the video went viral.

Symmetry 12y ago

Certainly all of this would be completely impractical if it required a "parallel thread of consciousness" (where did you get that phrase). Thankfully recognizing situations isn't something that has to take conscious attention. If I'm walking down the street and someone I pass is wearing a gorilla costume that fact will be promoted to my conscious attention by other parts of my brain without me having to consciously think to myself "is this a gorilla" whenever I see someone. The idea here is to train yourself to notice when, say, you're confused the same way you'd notice a gorilla costume and only then deal with the issue consciously. Of course automatic recognition isn't perfect as the video you're referring to shows. But recognizing something most of the time is far superior to never recognizing it. And I think a better model for the human brain is a hard core with a single thread embedded in a much larger FPGA fabric that can issue it interrupts. Only a tiny fraction of the sense data that enters our brain actually impinged on our conscious awareness and the directives that our consciousness issues such as "pick up that cup" are multiplied hugely in complexity as they are translated into precisely calibrated exertion rates for dozens of separate muscles over time.

dschiptsov 12y ago
> Thankfully recognizing situations isn't something that has to take conscious attention. Should I explain how all these rush or "pressure" based sales techniques work and how they are trying exploit and manipulate "too narrow window of attention" of a customer?