KNOWLEDGE: The Operating System of The Brain

The operating system of THE brain (Buddhi)

Author: Veera Raghavaiah Kancharla

Abstract:

Animals have thirst for information. Happiness is the state of the brain when knowing new or decayed (forgotten) information. The state of being thirsty (not knowing information) due to analytical thinking or lack of information availability is sadness. Physical pain or a strong interrupting sense (like a very strong smell or taste) also distracts the brain from knowing any information and thus causes sadness. Animal brains get some happiness from the reception of the information of the brain noise (general bliss) in the absence of interruptions and distractions. Animals evolved to have thirst for information, because that is the only effective way for animals to actively interact with the nature for survival, which is buzzing with information of light, sound, chemical reactions and pressure. Animals evolved to have general bliss so that animals do not hook on to less dense link information, which is abundant in the vicinity of the animals. Also, general bliss is not as rich in information density as many information elements coming through the sense organs. This makes animals to interact with the nature actively for information rich sources and thus increases the chances of survival. The process of gathering information and rejecting physical pain and strong interruptions is the living in animals.

Key Words: Brain, Mind, Buddhi, Information, Operating System, Feelings, Happiness, Sadness, Pain, Meditation.

Introduction:

Animals have thirst for information (Information is what brain can interpret and memorize from the data reaching the brain). Happiness is the state of the brain when knowing new or decayed (forgotten) information (This is a completely new understanding unlike the old mis-understanding that happiness and memorization are different processes). Information that causes feelings gets stored as either short-term memory or long-term explicit memory. Animals know about the information availability in the environment from the meta information (This also is information, but usually less dense and so less enjoyable. Example for a meta-information element: “Sweets in a shop at XYZ location taste good. We already know that new information is found in different places. The link information of one of the known paths to a shop with tasty sweets is given here.). The state of being thirsty (not knowing information) due to analytical thinking or lack of information availability is sadness. Physical pain or a strong interrupting sense (like a very strong smell or taste) also distracts the brain from knowing any information and thus causes sadness. The operating system of the brain (Buddhi in Sanskrit) operates for gathering information and rejecting physical pain and strong interruptions. This is explained below with illustrations followed by the detailed operating system description. The basic organization of the brain by which the operating system is realized and functional; and the factors affecting information gathering by an animal are explained towards the end.

Index:

References

1. Considerations (available knowledge of the brain):

Brain receives or considers two kinds of information from the nature. One is non-associative information like taste, sound, smell, image, etc.; and the other is information of association(link) like the fruit is linked to tree, light is linked to the Sun, students are linked to roll numbers, etc.. The information of association is referred to as link in the rest of this article. Non-associative Information and the links are considered by brain together most of the times.
The information in the long-term explicit memory of the brain naturally decays slowly. The information in the short-term memory decays very fast.
The interpretation by the Brain from the data it receives from the environment is known as information. All the information considered (observed) by brain is stored in the memory (short-term and then long-term explicit memory depending on the repetitions of learning). Similarly, all the information in the memory is perceived as known.
Brain takes time to know/store/learn information. It cannot know all the available information instantly. For example, the taste of a fruit is known completely only after eating it for some duration. Complete taste information of a fruit cannot be perceived in the first bite.
Complete storage/memorization of any information element takes a lot more time compared to storing majority of the information. For example, the roll number of a student (associating a known number to a student) can be memorized decently in just a couple of repetitions of learning. But, perfect memorization of the roll number of the student requires several repetitions of learning until the memory is formed firmly (memory solidification).
Brain has a limit to the amount of information it can process at a time due to the size limit of sensory and temporary memories. For example, a two-digit number can be memorized in a single go. Memorizing a mobile phone number requires dividing the mobile phone number in to multiple small parts and then arranging/linking the parts one after the other over time sequence. All of the mobile number can not be conscious in the brain at once.
Brain can imagine and build up some information of a state (like winning in a game) based on the confidence, even before the state is really achieved. Information build up from imagination gives happiness similar to in real information storage. Sense information like an unknown taste information cannot be imagined.
Repeated learning (storage) or repeated recalling of the same information (memory) solidifies the memory (information).
Animals other than Human beings do not have analytical ability and ability to imagine as much as possessed by Human beings.
All the good feelings an animal gets are happy feelings and all the bad feelings an animal gets are Sadness. Worry, cry, feel of physical pain, etc. are sadness in different occasions or levels. Happiness, feeling humor, feeling taste of a food, listening to liked music, meditational sense, etc. are happiness in different occasions or levels. Hatred, anger, selfishness, love, surprise etc. are not feelings; but understandings or behaviors in the process of getting happiness or getting rid of sadness.
Differences in the level of feelings between animals (including humans) for the same received information is due to the differences in the physiologies, genes, environmental influences, etc. of animals. For example, person A and person B both find mangoes tasty, but person A feels mangoes as the tastiest fruits while person B feels mangoes as tasty but not the tastiest. The brain of person A could be losing the specific taste information of mangoes faster (memory decay) than person B after eating them and so could be finding them as very tasty every time due to the vacuum of taste information of mangoes. The same person A might have slower memory decay to the tastes of other fruits.
Animals and people have general bliss. The bliss is noticeable when a person is mentally relaxed. Severe analytical thinking or physical pain or a strong interrupting sense (like a loud sound, strong smell of fish, extremely bitter food) deprives the brain of the general bliss (happiness from the reception of the information of the brain noise).
Brain does not enjoy physical pain and strong interrupting senses. A person may enjoy a little bitter taste in a food. An extremely bitter food is not enjoyable and at the same time the extreme bitterness prevents the brain from thinking about anything else. Similarly, strong smell of a fish is not enjoyable and it also prevents the brain from thinking about anything else.

2. Definitions:

Sense: The information directly received by the brain through sense organs.

E.g.: Taste of a fruit sensed through tongue, Sound from drums sensed through ears, etc.

State: The state of an animal with respect to its environment, by way of its abilities or actions.

Some state information requires crossing challenges and some state information does not require crossing challenges. State is not understood or not so good understood by animal brains as by human brains due to differences in analytical abilities, memories and other reasons.

E.g.: Being the leader of a group, being achiever of a medal, climbing a tree as a challenge, playing a video game, having economic status, having social status, etc..

The Operating System of the Brain: The primary control system (process) in the brain. This is the driving force of living. This is known as Buddhi in Sanskrit and majority of the other Indian languages. Mind (Manas in Sanskrit and majority of the other Indian languages) is a supporting system under the control of the Buddhi. Buddhi and Mind are different functionalities in one processing system.

Information element: Distinct information from a source or ‘an information’.

E.g.: taste of a sweet, music, crossing a sub level in a video game, etc.

3. Illustrations:

Listening to the sounds of birds:

The sounds of some birds have a rare timbre. So, people like to listen to those sounds to know the timbre information of those sounds. When listening to the rare sound of a bird for the first time, brain understands that there is a lot of new information in the sound (knows the meta information that the sound has a lot of new information), but can memorize/recall only some information of the sound after the first listening (learning). Since the brain understood that there is a lot more remaining information in the sound but it is able to recall only some of the information, brain tries to keep listening to the sound of the bird until knowing majority of the sound information of the bird (until knowing the meta information that there is no much additional information being memorized with each additional listening).

Listening to music:

Music has a different sound pattern (of different frequencies, amplitudes, their sequential arrangement and repetition) from that of the general sounds reaching the ear from ambience. The sound pattern information of the general sounds from ambience is well known to the brain. But, the music pattern information is new to it. So, people like to listen to music till they know most of it.

Eating a sweet:

Case1: Sweet has not been eaten for many days

When a sweet is not tasted for many days, the information regarding the taste of the sweet is lost in the brain to some extent, because of decay of the long-term explicit memory in the brain. Then the brain seeks to know the majority of the information of the taste of the sweet. So, the brain starts analyzing ways to taste the sweet. If it gets that sweet, knows its taste information.

Case2: Sweet just eaten up to satisfaction

The information is already stored. So, no more sweet is needed for the taste information. So, the brain stops analyzing ways to get the taste information of the sweet. If the tongue yet provides the already existing information to the brain regarding that sweet, the brain ignores that information and tries to switch to getting some other unknown information by priority.

Case3: Got a new sweet when stomach is already full

Eating when stomach is already full causes stomach pain. So, people may eat a very little of the new sweet to load majority of the taste information or they may not eat at all as the sadness from the stomach pain may dominate the joy from the taste information of the sweet.

Case4: feeling a little hungry and got a sweet

The information about anything in the brain is generally linked with some other information/memory in the brain. The stomach mild burning sensation increases forced attention to the stomach and so consideration of food which is related to the stomach. This concentrated consideration of food leads to the concentrated consideration of the taste information of food and leads to more effort to get food than it should be for the amount of taste information. This means, brain has tendency to change the normal priority for information under exposure to information sources and stimulation.

Watching beautiful images and scenery:

The beauty of an image or scenery depends on the amount of new information it has. A 2D square shape has straight sides, parallel opposite sides, equal length sides, opposing corners, etc. information that is a little rare and thus causes happiness on watching the square shape. A 2D mango shape is somewhat peculiar in the nature with the bottom turning to a side and thus has a rare shape information that causes happiness. A rainbow has 7 main colors and innumerous transition colors in between. It is a little difficult to memorize a rainbow as a rainbow has a lot of color and color arrangement information and thus causes happiness on watching it.

Playing a video game:

Suppose that a boy got a new video game as a birthday gift. When he opens it for the first time, he tries to get the state information “I crossed several sub/minute challenges in the first level and also I won the first level in the video game”. Usually, a single level of a video game has several sub/minute challenges to cross and thus gives a new state information element on crossing each of those sub/minute challenges. This makes each level of a video game a potential contributor of a lot of new state information (For example, a single level of a Temple-run game has several sub challenges like taking sharp turns and jumping over hurdles before finishing the level successfully). For winning in the first level, he does some effort. If he crosses the first level after some effort, then he wants to get the state information from the second level. Like this, he tries to get the state information from all the succeeding levels or he gets some other more priority work. The boy does not necessarily remember all of the state information from the video game in the long term. He may forget the sub challenges crossed in each level of the video game as soon as a level in the game is finished or even before a level in the is finished. The joy comes only from loading information and does not require long-term memorization. The music and images in a video game can be additional contributors of new information.

Eagerness to disobey:

Suppose that a mother of a child draws a line on the floor and asks her child to not cross the line and warns of a minor punishment if the line is crossed. This new restriction gives scope to a new state information of having crossed the line. The child shows eagerness to cross the line as the crossing of the line gives new state information and thus some joy. Disobeying usually involves some risk of punishment and so disobeying is challenging.

Winning a car in a lottery:

Let us assume that a poor person wins a lottery for which the prize is a good luxury car; but the car will be given only after 2 months from the day he wins the lottery. The person has the information immediately after he knows that he has won the car, “I have a luxury car”. So, he starts enjoying the status of having the luxury car from the time he wins the car (data) due to the confidence that he will get the car for sure in about 2 months. This information build up from the data happens because the person actually owns/has the information to be added, although the situational sensory data of actual owning of the car did not happen immediately. By this way, he adds some part of the total information before actually taking car to hand. The status information is comprised of multiple information elements from being above many other people in the society.

Participating in a contest with some confidence of winning:

Suppose that a person attends a weightlifting challenge in a recreation club, to lift a weight of 30 kg with a single hand. Before trying to lift the weight, suppose that the person has some confidence (expectation) that he can lift the weight with a single hand. That means, he loaded some of the information (partial memorization) of the state of being able to lift the weight, even before trying to lift the weight. Here, the information is loaded only partially in to his brain based on the past experiences and rough estimation by the person with partial confidence (People usually have some level of prior confidence/expectation in all types of challenges. Confidence depends on the prior experiences and the knowledge of the circumstances of a challenge). This partial memory (state information of having lifted the weight) keeps fading away and the person keeps recalling his past experiences and analyzing the current circumstances to reload the partial state information until the actual attempt to lift the weight. Only a real lifting of the weight gives real situational information at the time of lifting, to form a strong memory of having lifted the weight. So, if the person actually lifts the weight in the contest, he loads the full information (perfect memorization) of the state of having lifted the weight.

Losing a contest:

Suppose that a person attends a weightlifting challenge in a recreation club, to lift a weight of 30 kg with a single hand. Before trying to lift the weight, suppose that the person has some confidence (expectation) that he can lift the weight with a single hand. That means, he loaded some of the information of the state of being able to lift the weight, even before trying to lift the weight. Suppose that the person is actually not able to lift the weight with a single hand when he tries to lift the weight and loses the contest (loss and failure are words used in language and they are data to convey the absence of win and success. A person who does not participate in the contest has no new/additional state information with respect to the contest, same as the person who loses the contest). He now firmly memorizes the current state as having not won the contest due to the actual situational evidence of having not won the contest. The previously partially memorized state information of winning the contest due to some confidence immediately starts fading away in the memory with time due to the absence of data to remind the win in the contest. He also has no new/additional state information to load in to the brain from the contest. He starts thinking and analyzing deeply in hunt for the same or different information in the future. The thinking deprives the brain of the general bliss (local information of the brain noise) also (Brain can either load information or think at a time. Brain cannot do both simultaneously). The brain becomes thirsty with little information to load and this is perceived as sadness.

Participating in a running race:

Suppose a participant to be in the 7^th rank in the latest running race that is conducted frequently in a locality. The information available regarding the race in the brain of the participant is: I am in the 7^th rank in the running race and running race fans recognize that I am in the 7^th rank. “I am in the 8^th rank in the running race and running race fans recognize that I am in the 8^th rank (logically 8^th rank is within the scope of the 7^th ranker and the participant is conscious that he crossed the lower ranks). I am in the 9^th rank in the running race and running race fans recognize that I am in the 9^th rank. I am in the 10^th rank in the running race and running race fans recognize that I am in the 10^th rank. I am not in any rank in the running race and fans recognize that (logically; not having any rank is true while he holds a rank; because not having any rank is under his scope. i.e., not having the 10^th rank also is under his scope)”. I run faster than many people in the society. The information of recognition by the running race fans is huge as it is made up of the information of recognition by each of the running race fans. The information of the state of being faster runner than many people in the society also is made up of a lot of information elements. This abundant information would keep the participant happy for a good amount of time, to the extent that he can interpret/perceive.

His brain does not contain information like “I am in the 4^th rank in the running race and running race fans recognize that I am in the 4^th rank”, “I am in the 5^th rank in the running race and running race fans recognize that I am in the 5^th rank”. So, he wants to get that not existing state information by doing some effort and then participating in this race. Suppose that the participant does not think of the 1^st or 2^nd rank for now as it is not possible for him obviously. He does some effort to improve his abilities to get new state information and now his actual rank capability (very confident) is 5 and the participant loads the state information of being in the 5^th rank in to his brain, but the race fans do not know his present capability. For expected information: “running race fans recognize that I am in the 5^th rank in the running race”, he participates in the new race of running. He is less confident to get the 4^th rank based on the available data and experiences and so he loads partial state information (weak memorization due to less consideration and limited supporting data to think of and remind the 4^th rank) of being in 4^th rank. He is even lesser confident of getting 3^rd rank and so loads even weaker state information (weaker memorization due to very little data to think of and remind the 3^rd rank) of being in the 3^rd rank in to his brain.

If the participant gets the 5^th rank in this race, his brain loads the new state information “fans recognize that I am in the 5^th rank in the running race”. “Fans recognize that I am in the 5^th rank in the running race” information addition is happiness. The state information of 6^th rank is also obviously loaded as it is within the scope of the 5^th rank.

If the participant gets the 4^th rank in this race, his brain loads the reaming state information of “I am in the 4^th rank” on top of the previously loaded partial state information and makes a firm memory. He also loads the new state information “fans recognize that I am in the 4^th rank in the running race”. The state information of 5^th and 6^th ranks also is obviously loaded as they are within the scope of the 4^th rank.

If the participant gets the 3^rd rank in this race, his brain loads almost new (full) state information “I am in the 3^rd rank”. He also loads the new state information “fans recognize that I am in the 3^rd rank in the running race”. The state information of 4^th, 5^th and 6^th ranks also is obviously loaded as they are within the scope of the 3^rd rank.

If the participant gets the 8^th rank due to unexpected competition from the opponents, he makes a firm memory of having got the 8^th rank based on the actual circumstances of the race completion. He also has no new state information to load in to the brain from the contest. He starts thinking and analyzing deeply to improve the rank in the future. The thinking deprives the brain of the general bliss (local information of the brain noise) also. The brain becomes thirsty with little information to load and this is perceived as sadness. The previously known state information “I am in the 7^th rank in the running race and running race fans recognize that I am in the 7^th rank” fades away in the memory of the participant with time due to no reminding data to consider the 7^th rank.

If the person (brain) cannot at all expect in winning any race (suppose he is a person with disability or general person, who cannot compete in a race), then he (brain) does not try to know any information of being in a rank as it is not possible (cannot be received and stored).

Getting the first rank for the participant gives more happiness than getting the 5^th or the 6^th rank when he was in the 7^th rank in last race; because getting of 6^th rank adds just one additional state to the getting of the 7^th rank. But, “I am recognized in the 1^st rank” adds information of all states associated with ranks 1to 6.

{The rank numbers (like 1,2,3…10) are only used/memorized for easy reference to the actual rank. The existence of a rank or position in a race or competition is independent of the notations like numbers or alphabets, etc.. For example, in a three persons’ competition of persons A, B and C; we can express that A wins in a position ahead of B and C without using any number or alphabet to refer to his/her position.}

{There is possibility of doubt that why a participant can’t imagine him-self to be having whatever rank he wants instead of practically trying for it. This does not happen because every possible state information element is logically already stored in imaginary world of a person; which means, in imaginary world, already person holds whatever rank he wants. So only practical information is not stored in the brain and so a participant tries for practical information}

Wishing fall of economic status of relatives:

If known people like relatives fall in economic status and go below the self status, it means the relative raise of self status (new state information). So, people wish the fall of status of known people to a level below the self status to get the new status information regarding the self. Even if people wish the raise of status of other people with low status, they wish that others should not match or cross the self status.

Knowing a Secret:

A secret is an unknown information. Brain tries to know the secrets to get the unavailable information.

For e.g.; trying to know the atmosphere of Saturn (even if this knowledge is known to not benefit us in other ways than just knowing it)

Knowing a story:

Instead of knowing a story by some author, we can create a story by ourselves. But, our self-created story is what we imagine as we want. So, the self-created story is readily available in the self-imagination (self). So, there is no story information unknown from the self-imagination. The story information by some author is not known unless we know it by reading or listening or watching.

The content of a story is interpreted in the same way as a real situation by the brain. So, we feel by the information of a story (imagination) in the same way as in a real situation. A story could consist of state information, relaxation/peaceful moments, secrets and twists (a twist is a new information as it is unexpected in advance and very novel in the context of the twist).

Knowing a joke:

A joke is a short story with huge density of information from twists. A twist is a new information as it is unexpected in advance and very novel in the context of the twist. Knowing the novel information from the context in the joke causes happiness.

A joke example:

I found a way to earn money easily without doing any work or business or having property. I will tell you if you give me 1000 bucks.

Explanation:

After knowing the first sentence, the addressee expects to know a decent detailed logic to earn money easily. But, the addresser is actually asking 1000 bucks to get money for himself in the second sentence. This is far from what the addressee expects after getting the first sentence. So, the second sentence is a very novel information (twist) as it is far from the expectations (estimations/imaginations) of the addressee. This is knowing of a large amount of information in a few sentences (dense information). This kind of high-density information reception from jokes is happiness.

Waiting for relatives in the railway station:

In this case, the waiting person feels to do something to get some new or decayed information till his relatives come (time pass). Since he knows some means of getting information, he tries for them, like eating peanuts or reading jokes in a paper instead of being idle. This is because brain always keeps trying to get some new or decayed (forgotten) information.

Attending a huge entertainment show with number tags:

Suppose that a person attends a huge entertainment show by buying a ticket. The show organizers issue tokens with serial numbers to the spectators at the entrance of the show for the purpose of managing the spectators. The person attending the show knows the numbers already from the school days. The person finds it interesting (mild joy) to know that the show has numbers associated to the spectators. Here, the new information is the information of association(link) between the number system and the spectators at the show, which is strange to him.

Participating in both swimming and running competitions:

Suppose that a person is physically fit enough for both swimming and running competitions. He participates in a swimming competition first and wins at some level and enjoys the state information of winning in swimming. Now although he knows the concept of winning, he participates in the running race also to get the winning state information in the running race. Here, the new state information of winning in a competition can also be interpreted as making a new association (link information) of the known concept of winning to a certain competition. A new association is formed only by winning in a new(different) competition through participation.

Seeing Stones on a Mountain:

Let us assume that a small boy Tom who did not see stones before goes to a mountain with full of stones with random shapes. When Tom finds the first stone, he curiously knows its shape. When he finds the second stone, he knows its shape. After seeing a few stones, he understands the shapes of majority of the stones. When he sees any more stones, he does not think of knowing their shapes, because he knows their shapes and so there is very little new shape information in them. He can draw innumerous different shapes of stones if asked to draw, because he knows the shapes of the majority of the stones now. After some time, suppose that he finds a few stones with odd colors or odd textures or rare shapes like a circular shape. Those stones are somewhat enjoyable due to the new information in them.

There exists the link information of which known stone shape is in which known place (let us consider only large stones in this case, since small stones of all known shapes can be found in every known place). The boy already knows that the group of known shapes are linked (information of association) to the group of known places. That means, all known shapes are linked moderately (some confidence level) to all known places (many to many relation) initially in his consciousness. Decent memorization (short-term memory) of the certain place of the stone of a certain shape on top of the previously known information requires only a couple of repetitions of learning and thus gives a little joy. So, the boy observes the locations of stones of different shapes with a little curiosity only if it does not consume much time to gather this link information. Now, if the boy wants to perfectly memorize the certain place of the stone of a certain shape, it requires several repetitions of learning (memorization) of the association between that shape and place until the memory is formed firmly (memory solidification). The remaining link information goes down towards zero gradually with each repetition of learning (memorization). The last few repetitions have hardly any information, but those repetitions are inevitable to memorize the link perfectly. The overall new information density (information received for a unit of time spent in memorization) of such perfect memorizations is very little. Brain loses the more enjoyable general bliss at the cost of such perfect memorizations. So, brain does not like perfect memorizations. Animals memorize links perfectly only on the need basis while hunting for other information.

Memorizing a song:

Memorizing the lyrics of a song involves linking the known words or sentences corresponding to the context in the song sequentially over time. People listen to the lyrics curiously once or twice until decent memorization (short-term memorization and subsequently a little long-term memorization) of the lyrics, which is a little joy. Memorizing the lyrics of a song perfectly (solid long-term memorization) takes a lot more time (listening several times) than memorizing the lyrics roughly after listening to the song just a few times. So, perfect memorization of lyrics in a song is not enjoyable for the singers. Majority of the enjoyable information in a song comes from the rhythm in the song. So, listening to a song is enjoyable to the listeners mainly due to the rhythm in it. Memorizing the rhythm perfectly also is very time taking and so, brain loses interest in listening to a song after listening to it a few times.

Memorizing paths:

If a person is asked to draw random paths on a paper, he can draw innumerous different paths as a different combinations of lefts and rights. The information of all different possible paths is already known to him. Remembering the path to office (or a shop) involves linking one of the known paths perfectly to the office (or a shop). If the path is complex, it is not enjoyable to memorize it perfectly.

Memorizing phone numbers of people:

A typical person can tell infinite numbers. Listening to a number has no unknown information unless it has a rhythm information as in 527352735273. Memorizing a specific phone number of a specific known person requires dividing the specific phone number into multiple small well known numbers and then linking the parts one after the other over time sequence and memorizing the overall phone number. Then the specific phone number has to be linked to the specific known person. People curiously notice or listen to the mobile phone numbers of people once or twice if that information is available effortlessly. Perfect memorization requires several repetitions of learning (memorization) with very little additional information with each learning. Perfect memorization is time taking with low density new information at the cost of general bliss of brain. So, it is not enjoyable to memorize the mobile phone numbers of people perfectly.

Olympic running race rank number vs jersey number:

The Olympic running race rank number of a participant is a reference number to the enormous amount of state information carried by that rank. An Olympic running race Gold medal winner gets the state information elements of being faster runner than every individual person on the Earth, without repeated learning (rapid loading of information elements without memorizing them permanently) of any of those information elements. He also gets the enormous amount of dense state information of a large number of individual people on the earth knowing his win. The jersey number of a participant in the Olympic running race has only the single information element of what known number is linked to the participant. So, the Olympic running race win in the 1^st rank gives enormous amount of happiness. People notice the jersey number once or twice curiously if it is visible effortlessly, due to the limited (single) link information carried by it. Permanent memorization of the jersey number at the cost of losing more information rich general bliss and other dense information while memorizing the jersey number firmly is not preferred by anyone.

Doing a software job:

Some jobs like a software job involve a lot of analytical thinking and perfect memorization (memory solidification) of a lot of information including link information (a lot of low density information). That is why these jobs are not much enjoyable as they deprive the brain of the general bliss and other dense information and keep it thirsty.

Losing a costly mobile phone:

Losing a working mobile phone causes sadness. Losing an already damaged mobile phone does not cause any sadness. Losing things is a known (habituated) information. So, the sadness from losing a working mobile phone is not because of the minor link information of the phone being lost (linking losing to a phone). The majority of the sadness is due to the cost involved in buying a similar replacement phone as not expected in advance. The thought of buying a replacement phone brings the thought of losing some money unexpectedly and causes consideration of loss of some other pre-determined(stored/felt/known/imagined) state information like buying a new jewel or a new dress or a new video gaming console, etc. due to the money being spent for the replacement phone. The deep thought and analysis deprives the brain of the general bliss and thus keeps the brain thirsty for information (sadness).

Feeling very hungry:

Hunger is a pain. To get rid of the burning sensation inside the stomach, which distracts the brain from knowing any information including the general bliss (local information of the brain noise) and keeps the brain thirsty (sadness), animals take food. Taste information of food is another factor for taking food.

Torturing an insect:

Let us consider a small boy torturing an ant and enjoying it. Here, what happens is, the information of “how the ant jumps and moves peculiarly when tortured” is understood (known) by the boy. It is not possible to imagine and feel the actual pain of others unlike the feeling of state information of others. But it is possible to recall a little of the self-pain and the state of sadness during a self-pain in the past on observing the painful situation of others. This ability to relate builds up with experience and age and leads to the sense of dharma (law) that if I torture others, others also can torture me. The sense of dharma prevents people from torturing others in the nature. The small boy does not understand the dharma (law) to not torture insects due to his small age. So, he finds enjoyable information in a suffering insect’s peculiar movements.

Supporting own team in a game:

In a multinational game, the winning state information of the team of a country directly affects the state information of all the people who associate themselves with that country, because a team represents a whole country. People cannot feel state information about others as much as they feel about themselves (feeling about self or self-team is easier than feeling about others who are usually not attached to self continuously). So, people enjoy/prefer the win of the self or a team of a self associated country more than the win of others or a team of another country.

Loving animals, friends and country:

When a person observes environment in search of information, he looks at animals and people and observes what they are doing. He works for the happiness of the observed animals and people; which is in fact an effort to add information into his own brain through observation of the state information and general bliss of others. State information of others can be felt, but the sense information cannot be felt. Feeling of a new state information of others requires only understanding that state. For example, a person can feel the state of a new winning in a competition by his friend, but he cannot imagine and feel the taste information of a new food eaten by his friend. Many people give tasty food (sense information) to others, because themselves got tasty food from others in the past or want tasty food in the future from others if themselves become unable to earn tasty food by themselves (This is adherence to dharma/law).

Love also removes stress and gives relaxation to others from support to others; and the same relaxation can be felt by self, which is a state of general bliss.

(Interpretation of others’ feelings is not as effective as understanding of self-feelings. This is because of the limited ability of the brain to analyze others’ feelings from the observation, which varies among animals and person to person; and lesser stimulation coming from others’ information environment than from self, as others will not be attached to self continuously.)

Becoming famous as a bad person:

Generally, majority of the people think of themselves as being in the state of a good person or an average person by character. They also have a little state information that a few others are aware of their state. This is a naturally occurring default state of character to most of the people by birth. A person becoming famous as a very good person (better than most other people) adds the state information of being very good and the state information of many others being aware of his goodness. Thus, becoming famous as a very good person causes a lot of happiness. If a person gets convicted of a very big crime and becomes famous, that person loses the state of being in about middle state in the world with respect to character. He loses all states until the bottom states with respect to character. He also loses all states till bottom states in the minds of other people aware of him. Although the previously known state information cannot be erased from the brain, consideration of the loss of states causes ignoring the previously known state information and forgetting (stop associating the states to self) over time. Sadness comes from thinking and analyzing to regain the state information and thus depriving the brain of the general bliss and other joys while thinking.

Feeling sad for the death of a family member:

The concept of death is not a new information for grown up people. The news of death of a family member only gives the link information of a specific date/day of death out of several already partially linked dates/days, which is a very small new information. Death of a family member mainly causes the consciousness of loss of support for self and thus pushes people in to thinking and loss of general bliss. Also, people miss the chance to observe the bliss of a person and feel that bliss if a person is dead. Also, if a person is contributor of several kinds of enjoyments (care taker like a parent), death of such person leads to severe thinking and thus deprives the brain of the general bliss and other enjoyments while thinking. The amount of sadness that people feel for the death of a person depends on the awareness of the amount of care given by the dead person when that person was alive. This sadness extremely dominates the miniscule link information of the specific date/day of death.

Enjoying bullying:

Some people can interpret bullying as the fall of status of others. Fall of status of others causes the relative raise of the status of the self and gives happiness from the new state information.

Music with large intervals of rhythm:

Music with large intervals of rhythm is not much enjoyable due to the limited short-term memory of people. The short-term memory cannot recognize/perceive the repetition (rhythm) information if the interval of a rhythm is lengthy. So, music is enjoyable well only if the rhythm interval is within a maximum of a few seconds.

4. General bliss (Meditational sense) (interpreted in the best reasonable manner):

Animals evolved to have general bliss so that animals do not hook on to less dense (less enjoyable) link information (For example, which specific known stone shape is in which specific known place), which is abundant in the vicinity of the animals. Also, general bliss is not as rich in information density as many information elements (especially non-associative information) coming through the sense organs. This makes animals to interact with the nature actively for information rich sources and thus increases the chances of survival.
General bliss or the denser sense of bliss in meditation is very probably the sense of the neural energy (noise/ambience) information of the brain sensed by some specific part of the brain. When this information is sensed, it gets stored in some specific location of the brain, because it is sensed as an information element. Animals do not get bored of general bliss, which means that this information dries up very fast (fast decay) while it is stored unlike the information of senses from the sense organs which has relatively slow decay. So, the neural energy (noise/ambience) can be sensed and known continuously as it is very fast decaying and so there is always good vacuum of neural energy information. So, the general bliss or meditational bliss can be had continuously throughout the life in the absence of interruptions and distractions.
Since this sensible neural energy is feeble, it cannot be felt as long as we consider the relatively intense external environment. This is similar to that loud sounds can make the weak sounds not easily noticeable by ears.
People tell that they get intense joy in deep meditation. That means, the information density from meditational bliss is higher than general bliss and on par with the new non-associative information coming through the sense organs, in the near complete absence of interruptions, distractions and other thoughts.
Love or Friendship support a person (animal) and reduce mental stress (thinking) to some extent. Proper understanding of the environment and life also can reduce unnecessary mental stress. Reduced mental stress gives scope for general bliss. These are some contexts of general bliss in limited levels (discrete and moderately information dense general bliss amidst general discrete thinking and gathering of other information) in regular life.
Different animals are exposed to different information/influences of the nature more and so evolved to tolerate them more. For example, men roam for more time in the forests to gather food and women spend more time taking care of the children. So, the brain of men is less sensitive (Does not find much information and does not get disturbed) to green color and the brain of women is less sensitive to pink color. Men enjoy some general bliss while watching green color and women enjoy some general bliss while watching pinkish colors. Similarly, very smooth melodious music detaches people from the external senses and takes in to general bliss.

5. The Operating System of the Brain:

1. Get all the possible meta-information (generally link information) of information elements (‘all possible senses of objects’, states, secrets, twists and general bliss) from the environment for adding information into the memory. Example for a meta-information element: “Sweets in a shop at XYZ location taste good (We already know that new information is found in different places/paths. The link information of one of the known paths for a shop with tasty sweets is given here.)”

(Animals other than humans have limitations in analyzing and dreaming. So, they do not understand or well understand states and some secrets. They are weaker in analyzing the world for information.)

If an unknown (sense or state or secret) information element is not zero in content, not already stored (memorized) completely or partially in the brain and possible to be stored (obtainable); prioritize that information element for attempting to get the information. Else, neglect for storage.
Give priorities to different unknown information elements based on ‘the right time for getting the information’, ‘the effective amount of information obtainable per unit period of attempt’, ‘the information density (information per unit of information loading time)’ and ‘the obtain-ability of the information’; for attempting (the amount of information that an information element contains, information density and the obtain-ability of that information affects the priority in direct order; and total time needed for obtaining affects the priority in reverse order.)

Effective Amount of Information=basic information amount – information including general bliss missed due to physical pain or a strong interrupting sense occurring in getting the basic information (information missed due to physical pain or a strong interrupting sense is generally less compared to the basic information)

This prioritization is done by the operating system (buddhi) without further analysis. Then buddhi directs the mind to analyze the information sources and environment deeply and reprioritize the information elements considering the effective information (effect on the other information elements) obtainable in the long run.

(All this prioritization can happen with the buddhi stimulated by the information elements or environment, leading to over or under prioritization; improper analysis by the mind, due to influence of the buddhi to adhere to its initial decisions; and incorrect or insufficient analysis by the mind irrespective of the influence of the buddhi (with the available information for analysis). So, the average information obtained after attempts can be less than what could be obtained under the absence of these limitations).

Direct the mind to plan in detail and work for the information elements according to the priorities.
If a task is being performed by the buddhi or the mind, consider new information elements from the environment at regular intervals or when interrupted by an intense sense.
Under the success of an attempt to get the expected information element, the buddhi adds (knows) that information of sense or state or secret or twist or general bliss in to the memory, which is called happiness (While adding information, sometimes brain may activate body organs in different ways in different animals; which are like the body actions we see when a person is feeling happy of sense or state or secret or twist information). Failure/partial failure to get the expected information through an attempt can lead to analysis of the reasons for failure or thinking and analyzing deeply in hunt for the same or different information in the future; which is called sadness. Sadness may induce some special actions in the body like crying, tearing, etc., in some animals.
Brain does not enjoy physical pain and strong interrupting senses. Brain does not (cannot) consider the information in physical pain and strong interrupting senses for enjoyment. Physical pain and strong interrupting senses are always rejected by buddhi. Buddhi prioritizes to get rid of (reject) physical pain and strong interrupting senses in the prioritization for information.
For getting information or avoiding lack of information, the mind is directed by the buddhi to invent new means through imagination and analyzing if the objects in the imagination can be used to get information or avoid some loss of information and how, which is called the creativity of the Mind.

6. Basic Organization of the Processing in Brain (mostly available knowledge):

The buddhi and the mind are undivided functionalities of the processing in brain. The buddhi generates the key commands (Operating functions) to run the animals. The mind executes these commands at a lower level under the control of the buddhi. Since both of these are un-divided functionalities of the processing functionality, the exact functional border between the buddhi and the mind is not analyzed here.

The buddhi takes help from the mind. Additional analysis; building up new information based on the existing information, which is called imagination or dreaming or abstraction; innovation also happen in the mind. All these abilities aid in getting information or avoiding loss of information. The Mind analyses information elements before final decisions are taken by the buddhi to attempt for that information element. But, mind is influenced by the buddhi to adhere to the initial decisions (wishful thinking/biased thinking) of the buddhi.

For getting information or avoiding loss of information, the mind is directed by buddhi to invent new means; through imagination and analyzing if the objects in the imagination can be used to get information or avoid some loss of information and how, which is called creativity of mind. Good creativity needs enough information in the memory in less decayed state (The person should have enough knowledge. Long-term memory should be good to possess abundant less decayed information over long run) and good short-term memory to use the information in the memory in imagination and analysis process effectively. Forgetfulness affects analysis and so creativity.

The buddhi can undergo stimulation from environment or information elements under high visibility of the information elements, leading to over prioritization (sometimes lower prioritization) for those elements by the buddhi.

When the buddhi identifies an information element and decides to get it, then it influences the Mind to do restricted analysis of that information element in favor of getting that information (wishful thinking/biased thinking); deviating from the fact based correct logical analysis. How this happens is as follows. The job of the Mind is analyzing all the aspects pertaining to an information element to make a final decision on the priority, feasibility, consequences and worth of getting that information element. The analyzed aspects within the capacity limits of the mind are all combinations of assumptions, ‘available facts’ and ‘things of imagination’ that can be related to the information element. But, the buddhi influences the mind in such a way that the Mind is pulled back (cut short) from analyzing the aspects that will prohibit the obtainment of an information element and the Mind is freely allowed to analyze the aspects that support getting of the information element. Sometimes the Mind does a little or no analysis under the influence of the buddhi and the buddhi proceeds with its initial decisions. Analytically strong mind uses a little chance given to it by the buddhi in such circumstances to come up with right decisions.

Sometimes, the mind cannot analyze correctly or sufficiently irrespective of the influence of the buddhi (with the available information for analysis). In such cases also, inappropriate decisions are taken by the processing functionality.

Short-term memory, knowledge (long-term memory enables to have good knowledge) and forgetfulness affect analysis. If some information that can help to make right decisions is readily available in the memory (knowledge), it helps in the decision-making process when needed. Having knowledge of what to do, when and how depends on observation, analytical ability and availability of corresponding knowledge sources (books, environment, etc).

Serial Thinking:

A lot of data reaches brain in parallel through sense organs. But, only one of them receives concentration. For example, when I am in deep concentration on my book, I do not observe normal sounds, people walking, etc. happening around me. When I am not concentrating deeply into something, I easily notice all the things happening. If I had parallel observation, I should notice the things around me always in the same level. So, what may look like happening in parallel is actually happening serially. In this case, I have the sense of things happening around while having deep concentration on book also, but for a too short time and so I do not have good knowledge of them. When there is no much urge to concentrate on book, I spend more time for other things also in between.

When we are thinking / minding about some specific thing, we come out of concentration in two ways. One way is, brain automatically stops concentration after regular focus intervals by its nature and traverses other items in its consideration in a brief traverse interval. The frequency of focus intervals an item gets depends on the priority of that item as decided by the buddhi. The processing in the brain is a repeating cycle of focus and traverse periods. Second way is interruption. When I am typing here, I noticed the loud sound of TV just because that TV sound loudness has ability to forcefully interrupt, using the interrupting mechanisms of brain for strong inputs. So, what is running in parallel here is an interruption mechanism, but not the main thinking itself. This interruption mechanism runs as a co-process of the main thinking.

When I want to drink water, my brain processes the data of glass, water and drinking along with many other things. At any instant, there is only one thought / information element. In each thought element, many data objects are processed together (parallel processing of data, like water and glass imagined together). Interpretation or analysis happens only serially (a series of related thought elements. First notice thirst, then relate thirst to a memory of water satisfying thirst, relate it next to water in a glass, etc.). I.e., thinking is serial even when data processing is parallel. So, brain processes only one thought (a set of related objects) at a time.

The received information density can vary between different information elements (depending on the amount of parallel data processing in each thought and other causes like sensitivity to different information elements) and also between the repetitions of learning of a single information element.

Since information can be received (thought) serially, then the amount of happiness due to an information element is proportionate to the duration of the information reception from that information element to quench the thirst for information and the density of the information element. So, if a person can get continuous top happiness forever in deep meditation, meditational bliss is the best happiness and meditation is the best source of happiness.

Sub-conscious mind:

The existence of sub-conscious or unconscious mind does not have firm proof. For example, if you are struggling for an idea in your work, the chances of getting a good idea are better when you take a break and then return to work than when you continuously keep thinking for an idea in the work environment. This could be, as a break takes a man out of a single dimensional thinking on the problem, or the brain regained thinking ability after some rest from serious thinking. There need not necessarily be an unconscious process running during a work break. Its existence can not be proven with the available data. Even if it exists, it works as a sub process or co-process of the conscious thinking.

7. Factors affecting information gathering by an animal:

The total amount of information (happiness) an animal can get in its life depends on the availability of information in the environment for the animal, natural disasters, unexpected environmental conditions, animal’s ability to get information, wisdom, and other mental aspects of the animal, getting a disease naturally and decaying nature of animal’s long-term explicit memory (a fast decaying brain memory will forget information quickly and can get it again and again and vice versa. But, fast decay may also reduce the knowledge that is useful in getting information).

8. Conclusions:

1. Animals have thirst for information. Happiness is the state of the brain when knowing new or decayed (forgotten) information. The state of being thirsty (not knowing information) due to analytical thinking or lack of information availability is sadness.

2. Physical pain or a strong interrupting sense (like a very strong smell or taste) distracts the brain from knowing any information and thus causes sadness. Brain does not (cannot) consider the information in physical pain and strong interrupting senses for enjoyment.

3. Animals evolved to have thirst for information, because that is the only effective way for animals to actively interact with the nature for survival, which is buzzing with information of light, sound, chemical reactions and pressure. The process of gathering information and rejecting physical pain and strong interruptions is the living in animals.

4. Animal brains get some happiness from the reception of the information of the brain noise (general bliss) in the absence of interruptions and distractions. Animals evolved to have general bliss so that animals do not hook on to less dense (less enjoyable) link information (For example, which specific known stone shape is in which specific known place), which is abundant in the vicinity of the animals. Also, general bliss is not as rich in information density as many information elements (especially non-associate information) coming through the sense organs. This makes animals to interact with the nature actively for information rich sources and thus increases the chances of survival.

5. The decisions of the buddhi get influenced by the environmental stimulations. The analytical decisions of the mind (Manas) get influenced by buddhi. Also, mind may not be able to analyze correctly or sufficiently sometimes irrespective of the influence of buddhi.

6. The information density from meditational bliss is higher than general bliss and on par with the new non-associative information coming through the sense organs, in the near complete absence of interruptions, distractions and other thoughts. So, Meditation is the best way of quenching the thirst for information as the meditational bliss can be had continuously throughout the life in the absence of interruptions and distractions. So, meditating is the happiest way of living.

References:

1. Social rejection shares somatosensory representations with physical pain (https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1102693108) (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21444827)

Links

The Operating System of The Brain