Points from the Videos about Human Capabilities
- The cortex, or "new brain," (also called the neocortex) modulates our reactions and responses to our sensory experiences. This "human thinking cap" contains the basis for our verbal abilities to think, plan, read, write, imagine, etc. All of our knowledge, memory, and processing of sensory inputs (other than smell), reside in the cortex.
- Since birth, your brain develops its complex structures in response to the outside environments that you experience. The neural connections which will ultimately determine how you will respond to your experiences are shaped and molded by your specific environments as you grow and develop.
- The relatively-large neocortex is the primary characteristic that makes humans unique from other species.
- Neurons, or nerve cells, form and structure spatial and temporal (sequenced, ordered) patterns that results in your sensory experiences. These experiences are based on your "model of the world" that your brain has created.
- Your brain: 1) discovers causes in the world; 2) infers from new or unfamiliar patterns; 3) predicts the future in terms of expectations; 4) creates or initiates motor behavior.
- The firing of neurons in all their complexity of connections and networks, structured in spatial and temporal patterns, represents the "currency" of the brain. Hawkins: "Your perception of the world is really a fabrication of your model of the world. You don't really see light or sound. You perceive it because your model says this is the way the world is, and those patterns invoke the model."
To varying degrees, we each have common human capabilities and limitations: we have imperfect sensing capabilities; nervous systems that can mislead and misinform us; physiological and cognitive limitations. In this respect we are all "in the same boat," yet individually we are each unique human beings with different-sized and types of paddles, so to speak. If we don't acknowledge our common, and unique, abilities and limitations, we will misunderstand our perceptions of the world around us.
Jeff Hawkins Videos Christof Koch Videos V.S. Ramachandran Videos
