I agree with most of that. Consciousness is how we make our important decisions.
I don’t think there are ever dozens per second of what we would call decisions. More like one or two or at most ten, even if we scratch the meaning of decision. That’s about how long it takes for the cortical basal ganglia loop to reverberate enough to really activate that representation.
10 is the absolute maximum you’d get on an alpha cycle, but I don’t think it’s plausible that just went alpha cycle is enough for what would really call a decision.
And if we are talking about consciousness, I am going to say I have tried to introspect about this a lot, and I have never caught what would seem like more than two conscious decisions in one second. More like a full second for most decisions, even in action games, and often many seconds per decision when I’m thinking about them.
More like a full second for most decisions, even in action games, and often many seconds per decision when I’m thinking about them.
I mean, I’ve done those FPS reaction time trainer things and I can feel the limit at about 200 ms, which is basically a notice decision and fire decision. I can maybe get a little lower but to do so I feel like I am potentiating actions and then canceling them until the dot pops up and I allow the action to go through. This isn’t the one I’ve used in the past (there were dots that popped on a field and you needed to mouse over to them and click on them).
It has a nice graph that shows a peak for their users at around 200ms.
But that sort of thing “the dot has popped up over here” is a decision of a kind at least and involves the choice of that option over “the dot has not popped up over here.” Whether it is a “conscious decision” is a different matter; we are certainly aware of all the inputs to the decision, but the idea that it is itself a decision is not something we think about most of the time, unless we’re having an esoteric conversation like this.
How much of riding a bike is a decision? You could certainly lose your balance on purpose at basically any moment; you expend some mental effort in keeping yourself balanced. Are those “decisions?” At this point it is semantics.
What is clear is that the thalamus provides the unitary consensus of the mind so that you don’t do things like believe an object is two things at once (unless you’re on some heavy drugs).
Yes, I agree. Conscious decisions that firmly fit the definition take a lot longer.
Oh hey! if you do want to know my theory about decisions, I did write a whole article about it for a “real prestigious scientific” journal: Neural mechanisms of human decision-making
You sound like one of the very few humans who might be interested.
Warning: when I wrote that, I was worried that writing it too clearly or persuasively might give AI developers too many good ideas and shorten timelines. I also had a boss/collaborator with different ideas about how to frame things. So I compromised on partly clear writing about my own carefully thought-out theories, and partly scientifical jargon speak that would get it published in a good journal but interest or elighten almost no one.
I agree with most of that. Consciousness is how we make our important decisions.
I don’t think there are ever dozens per second of what we would call decisions. More like one or two or at most ten, even if we scratch the meaning of decision. That’s about how long it takes for the cortical basal ganglia loop to reverberate enough to really activate that representation.
10 is the absolute maximum you’d get on an alpha cycle, but I don’t think it’s plausible that just went alpha cycle is enough for what would really call a decision.
And if we are talking about consciousness, I am going to say I have tried to introspect about this a lot, and I have never caught what would seem like more than two conscious decisions in one second. More like a full second for most decisions, even in action games, and often many seconds per decision when I’m thinking about them.
I mean, I’ve done those FPS reaction time trainer things and I can feel the limit at about 200 ms, which is basically a notice decision and fire decision. I can maybe get a little lower but to do so I feel like I am potentiating actions and then canceling them until the dot pops up and I allow the action to go through. This isn’t the one I’ve used in the past (there were dots that popped on a field and you needed to mouse over to them and click on them).
https://humanbenchmark.com/tests/reactiontime
It has a nice graph that shows a peak for their users at around 200ms.
But that sort of thing “the dot has popped up over here” is a decision of a kind at least and involves the choice of that option over “the dot has not popped up over here.” Whether it is a “conscious decision” is a different matter; we are certainly aware of all the inputs to the decision, but the idea that it is itself a decision is not something we think about most of the time, unless we’re having an esoteric conversation like this.
How much of riding a bike is a decision? You could certainly lose your balance on purpose at basically any moment; you expend some mental effort in keeping yourself balanced. Are those “decisions?” At this point it is semantics.
What is clear is that the thalamus provides the unitary consensus of the mind so that you don’t do things like believe an object is two things at once (unless you’re on some heavy drugs).
Yes, I agree. Conscious decisions that firmly fit the definition take a lot longer.
Oh hey! if you do want to know my theory about decisions, I did write a whole article about it for a “real prestigious scientific” journal: Neural mechanisms of human decision-making
You sound like one of the very few humans who might be interested.
Warning: when I wrote that, I was worried that writing it too clearly or persuasively might give AI developers too many good ideas and shorten timelines. I also had a boss/collaborator with different ideas about how to frame things. So I compromised on partly clear writing about my own carefully thought-out theories, and partly scientifical jargon speak that would get it published in a good journal but interest or elighten almost no one.
Make of that what you will.