The Operating System of The Brain

            The Operating System of The Brain       

 Abstract:

The basic driving force of animal (Animals with brains) life on the earth is thirst to be happy and get rid of sadness. Happiness is the state of the brain, when knowing information. Considering ‘loss of information’ and physical pain is sadness. The process of gathering information; rejecting ‘loss of information’ and physical pain is the living in animals. Animals evolved to have thirst for information and thirst to get rid of pain, because that is the only effective way for animals to actively interact with the nature, which is buzzing with information of light, sound, chemical reactions and pressure.

Key Words: Brain, Mind, Information, Operating System, feelings, happiness, sadness.

 

Introduction:

The operating system of the brain operates for gathering information; rejecting ‘loss of information’ and physical pains. This is explained below with illustrations followed by the detailed operating system. 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:

  1. Considerations
  2. Definitions
  3. Illustrations
  4. The Operating System of the Brain
  5. Information elements naturally rejected by the brain (pains)
  6. Meditational sense
  7. Basic Organization of Brain
  8. Factors affecting information gathering by an animal
  9. Conclusions

Appendix

 

1. Considerations:

  1. 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, etc.. Non associative information is referred to as just information in the rest of this article and the information of association is referred to as link. Information and the links are considered by brain together most of the times, but feelings are caused only by information(non-associative). A fruit tastes the same weather you eat it with open eyes (linking to name and shape) or eat it with closed eyes (not knowing what fruit you are eating).
  2. Information that causes feelings gets stored as long-term explicit memory.
  3. Brain’s memory is semi volatile in nature. The information in the memory decays slowly.
  4. All the information considered (observed) by brain is stored in the memory. Similarly, all the information in the memory is perceived as known.
  5. Brain takes time to know/store 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.
  6. Complete storage of any information element takes a lot more time compared to storing majority of the information. For example, remembering a song completely takes a lot more time than just listening to the song a few times and enjoying it. Majority of the enjoyable information in the song is known after listening just a few times. Remembering the song completely requires perfect memorization of both enjoyable sound rhythm and boring words in the song. Remembering the sound rhythm perfectly itself is very time taking.
  7. 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 remembered in a single go. Remembering a mobile number requires dividing the mobile number in to multiple small parts and then arranging/linking the parts one after the other. All of the mobile number can not be conscious in the brain at once.
  8. Brain can build up information (of state and relaxation) based on the existing information, by inter relating or integrating existing information and processing; which is called imagination. Build up process gives happiness and sadness similar to in direct information storage process.
  9. Repeated storage of the same information reduces volatility of that information.
  10. Animals other than Human beings do not have analytical ability and ability to imagine as much as possessed by Human beings.
  11. 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.
  12. 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 volatility) 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 volatility to the tastes of other fruits.

 

 

 

2. Definitions:

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

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

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

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

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.

The Operating System of the Brain: The primary control system (process) implemented in brain.

The functional unit implementing the operating system is called Main Operating Unit (Buddhi in Sanskrit). Mind (Manas in Sanskrit) is a supporting system under the control of Main Operating Unit. Only one of the Main Operating Unit and Mind works at a time as Main Operating Unit and Mind are different functionalities of the same system.

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

E.g.: taste of a sweet, music, etc.

 

 

3. Illustrations:

 

  1. Listening to music:

Music has a different sound pattern with respect to amplitude and frequency 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 it.

 

  1. 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 volatility of memory in the brain. Then the brain seeks to know the complete 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: feeling hungry and got a sweet 

The information about anything in the brain is generally linked with some other information in the brain. The stomach burning 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 and burning pain. This means, brain has tendency to change the normal priority for information under exposure to information sources and stimulation.

 

  1. Feeling Hungry:

Hunger is a pain. To get rid of the burning inside the stomach, which is sadness, animals take food. Taste information of food is another factor for taking food.

 

 

  1. Viewing beautiful images and scenery:

The beauty of an image or scenery depends on the amount of information it has. A 2D circle shape information is easy to grasp and memorize as a circle can be memorized as a 360-degree curve with a fixed rate of turning around a center point. Information of a square shape requires knowing that there are 4 lines, all 4 lines are straight and all lines are arranged at 90 degrees to one another at the edges. A square shape is more beautiful than a circle due to having more information in its shape and requires more time than a circle to grasp the shape information. A rectangle is more beautiful than a square as it has sides of two different lengths and so requires more time than a square to grasp and memorize. A 2D mango shape is even more beautiful as the information of the full shape of a mango can be understood as several small lines continuously arranged end to end at different specific angles to arrive at the mango shape. Memorization of the mango shape information is much more time taking than memorization of the shape information of a rectangle. A rainbow has 7 main colors and innumerous transition colors in between. It is difficult to memorize a rainbow as rainbow has a lot of color and color arrangement information.

 

  1. Playing a video game:

Suppose that a boy got a video game machine as a gift. When he opens it for the first time, he tries to get the state information “I won the first level”. For winning in the first level, he does some effort. If he crosses the first level after some effort, now, he wants to get “I won in the 3rd level” based on understanding of his skills. He again tries for the 3rd level and wins it after some more effort. After winning the 3rd level also, he wants to get much higher level. Like this, he continues to get state information till he finishes all the levels or he gets some other more priority work.

 

 

 

  1. Participating in a running race:

Suppose a participant to be in the 7th rank in the latest running race. The information available regarding the race in the brain of the participant is; “I am in the 10th rank and running race fans recognize that I am in the 10th rank (logically 10th rank is within the scope of the 7th ranker and the participant is conscious that he crossed the lower ranks). I am in the 9th rank and running race fans recognize that I am in the 9th rank. I am in the 8th rank and running race fans recognize that I am in the 8th rank. I am in the 7th rank and running race fans recognize that I am in the 7th rank. I am not in any rank 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 10th rank also is under his scope)”. (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)

His brain does not contain information like “I am in the 4th rank and running race fans recognize that I am in the 4th rank”, “I am in the 5th rank and running race fans recognize that I am in the 5th rank”. So, he wants to get that not existing state information by doing some effort and then participating in this race. The participant any how does not think of the 1st or 2nd rank 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 is 5 and the participant approximately predicts the same, but the race fans do not know his present capability. For expected information: “running race fans recognize that I am in the 5th rank”, he participates in the new race of running.

   

If the participant gets the 5th rank in this race, the brain stores the state information as “fans recognize that I am in the 5th rank”. “Fans recognize that I am in the 5th rank” information addition is happiness.

 

If the participant’s capability has gone down after recent race, and he inevitably participates in this race and gets the 8th rank, it leads to lose of existing state information “fans recognize that I am in the 7th rank”; which is called sadness. Loss of state itself will not cause the sadness. The consideration(consciousness) of the loss of the state information causes sadness. The participant does not actually want the sadness of considering the loss of state information and tries to avoid considering it as much as possible. But, it becomes inevitable to think about the loss at least to some extent while analyzing his actions to plan for future successes (gathering of information). Animals try to consider most of the information when it is being received, but try to avoid considering information as much as possible when it is getting lost.

 

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 does not try to store any information of being in a rank as it is not possible (cannot be stored).

 

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

 

{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}

  1. Winning a car in a game:

Let us assume that a poor person wins in a game for which the prize is a good luxury car; but the car will be given only after 2 months from the day he wins in the game. The person has the information immediately after he knows that he has won the car, “I have a luxury car”.  So, he starts dreaming of “enjoying status of having the luxury car” from the time he wins the car. This dreaming happens because the person actually owns the information to be added, but it is not getting into brain through sense organs immediately. So, he starts dreaming of the owned information. By this way, he adds some part of the total information before actually taking car to hand.

 

  1. Waiting for relatives in the railway station:

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

 

  1. 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)  

 

  1. 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 like a secret as it is unexpected in advance).

 

  1. Knowing a joke:

A joke is a short story with huge density of information from twists.

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 large information (twist) as it is far from the expectations (estimations/imaginations) of the addressee. This is knowing of a large information in a few sentences (dense information). This kind of high-density information reception is happiness.

 

  1. Seeing Stones on a Mountain:

Let us assume that a person Tom 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 approximate shapes and so there is very little new shape information in them. He can draw innumerous different shapes of stones if asked to drawn, because he knows the shapes of majority of the stones. A few stones with odd colors or odd textures or rare shapes like a circular shape are somewhat enjoyable due to the new information in them. There exists the link information of which shape belongs to which stone out of the infinite random shapes of stones known to him. But, knowing mere links is not the goal of the brain and so it is not a happiness. That is why animals memorize links only if it is useful to get information (non-associative).

 

  1. Memorizing paths and mobile phone numbers:

If a person is asked to draw random paths on a paper, he can draw innumerous different paths. The information of all different kinds of paths is already known to him. So, path information is not enjoyable. The path to office and a shop are not enjoyable, but remembering them exactly requires time and effort.

 

A person can tell infinite numbers. A number has no unknown information unless it has a rhythm information as in 527352735273. So, listening to most of the mobile numbers does not give any happiness. Remembering a specific number exactly and linking it to a person is time taking.

  1. Father brings ice cream for children:

Suppose a father brings ice cream for his children while coming from office in the evening. If he informs the children in the morning that he will bring ice cream in the evening, children will be thinking about ice cream and recollecting the past memories of ice cream till evening. If the father brings ice cream without informing in advance, children will express some surprise on seeing the ice cream in the evening. Children will enjoy the taste of the ice cream in the evening equally, whether they were informed about the ice cream in advance or not. Sense information can not be built by imagination like state information. So, children can not enjoy some of the ice cream taste information before eating it, even if they were informed in advance. If they know about ice cream in the evening suddenly, they express some surprise. Since the enjoyment is coming only by eating the ice cream, the expression of surprise is a reaction caused by the brain after knowing that a happiness is coming and surprise itself is not a happiness/enjoyment feeling.

 

  1. Losing a costly mobile phone:

Losing a working mobile phone causes sadness. Losing an already damaged mobile phone does not cause any sadness. So, the sadness from losing a working mobile phone is not because of the link information of the phone being lost. 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.

 

  1. Losing a sweet:

Assume, there was a sweet in the dining room of a person. The person wants to know the taste information of the sweet after reaching home from office. When the person arrived at home and went to pick the sweet, the sweet is actually missing, because some rat took it away unexpectedly. Now the person can buy another sweet and enjoy its taste information. But, buying another sweet means losing some money unexpectedly that would otherwise be useful in getting some joy of state information that was already pre-determined (stored/assumed/imagined/known). So, if the person does not buy another sweet, then he just misses the taste information of the sweet (no sadness). If he buys another sweet and enjoys it, he compensates that joy with the sadness of losing money and reversing the pre-determined state information from some planned joys. The person gets some anger(not sadness) on the rats for causing loss of joy for him.

 

Sense information cannot be built by imagination and cannot be lost (except by memory volatility) like state information and so there cannot be happiness of imagining sense information and there cannot be sadness from sense information itself.

 

  1. Forgetting taste information of a sweet:

If a person had long ago tasted a sweet, he would have forgotten its taste by now and so tries to know its taste again. But, he does not feel sad for losing the taste information by forgetfulness. This is because, the loss of sense information by volatility does not happen consciously.

 

  1. 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 interprets their souls(minds) in his soul to analyze them. So, he feels (storing/loosing the information) the souls of animals or people observed by him or considered by him. But, the observing person wants to add information (feel happy) to his brain. So, 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 interpretation of their souls(minds) in his soul.

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 meditational 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 always be staying with us.

 

  1. Torturing an insect:

Let us consider a boy torturing a big ant and enjoying it. Here, what happens is, the information of “how the ant jumps and moves when tortured” is understood by the boy. The pain of the ant is not felt by the boy. The boy neither understands the dharma/law to not torture insects.  So, he finds information in a suffering insect’s dance and he cannot feel its sadness of pain.

 

  1. 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 in a very big crime and becomes famous, consideration of this causes sadness. 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. Consideration of these lost states information causes sadness. But people do not like sadness. So, the person who becomes famous as a bad person may think/consider very little of the loss of state information to avoid the sadness caused by that loss.

 

4. 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 and twists) from the environment for adding information in to the explicit long term memory. Examples for meta-information elements are: “this fruit tastes good (how exactly is it tasting?)”, “This race participants get ranks (Do I hold a rank?)”, etc.

     (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.)

  1. If an unknown (sense or state or secret) information element is not zero in content, not already stored 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.
  2. 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’ and ‘the obtain-ability of the information’; for attempting (the amount of information that an information element contains 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. The physical pain due to attempt affects the priority in reverse order).

 

     Effective Amount of Information=basic information amount - information amount equivalent of the physical pain occurring in getting the basic information (Physical pain is generally less compared to the basic information)

 

     This prioritization is done by the Main Operating Unit (Buddhi, which implements the operating system) without further analysis. Then Main Operating Unit 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 Main Operating Unit stimulated by the information elements or environment, leading to over or under prioritization; improper analysis by the Mind, due to influence of the Main Operating Unit to adhere to its initial decisions; and incorrect or insufficient analysis by the Mind irrespective of the influence of the Main Operating Unit (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). 

  1. Direct the Mind to plan in detail and work for the information elements according to the priorities.
  2. If a task is being performed by the Main Operating Unit or the Mind, consider new information elements from the environment at regular intervals or when interrupted by an intense sense.
  3. Under the success of an attempt to get the expected information element, the Main Operating Unit adds (knows) that information of sense or state or secret or twist 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. While analyzing the reasons for failure, the brain considers information loss below the existing/assumed level if the lost information is a state information; which is called sadness. Sadness may induce some special actions in the body like crying, tearing, etc, in some animals. Failure to get a sense information cannot cause sadness from the sense information itself, because sense information cannot be built by imagination and cannot reversed like state information. But, failure may cause anger on the reason for failure. Information loss due to volatility of the brain is not considered by the Main Operating Unit as it happens unconsciously. The Main Operating Unit tries to avoid sadness in the future through analyzing the means to avoid sadness by assigning priority to it in the prioritization for information.
  4. Physical pain is always rejected by the Main Operating Unit. When a physical pain signal reaches the Main Operating Unit, the Main Operating Unit considers it as not to be stored (added/known), even if that information is not already stored in the memory either partially or completely.  The Main Operating Unit prioritizes to get rid of (reject) physical pain in the prioritization for information.
  5. The Main Operating Unit directs the mind to build up (imagine/dream) the real sate information from the available information, to boost the amount of information obtainable in the memory.

Imagination provides reinforcement of direct information input to the brain, through data integration/inter-relation techniques of the mind. Imagination happens also to rebuild the lost information. This build up process can be called ‘reinforcement through imagination’.

In the analysis phase of an information element for prioritization and planning to get, there always exists imagination of both addition of information and lose of information.

The imaginary information world is not as strong as the real (direct) information world due to brain’s limitations of memory and ability to inter-relate existing information. So, imagination can provide reinforcement of information, as an alternative to real (direct) information. When there is real (direct) information available, it is preferred.

  1. For getting information or avoiding loss of information, the Mind is directed by the Main Operating Unit 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.

 

5. Information elements naturally rejected by the brain (pains):

  1. The brain rejects to store pain information naturally even if it is not already available in the brain. So, animals try to keep off pain givers.
  2. But, there is possibility that pain givers (objects with information naturally rejected by the brain to store) can be in touch with sense organs and give forced information in to the brain though the brain tries to keep them away. Under continuous pain by any object, the brain tends to ignore that pain and thus not store it; so that the brain can concentrate to get some other information from other objects instead of continuously rejecting continuous pain information. The brain keeps scanning the information environment at some intervals in seek of more/better information. Pain givers also are part of the environment. So, this information search sometimes leads to tasting of pains though the brain does not want them.
  3. Also, the brain cannot neglect strong information signals, which are capable of taking most of the brain’s concentration. So, if some forced pain information intrudes the brain, it cannot ignore it and animals inevitably feel pain in such cases.

6. Meditational sense (interpreted in the best possible manner):

  1. Brain has to live with its own ambience and so brain evolved to enjoy its ambience continuously (by observing the ambience continuously and losing the information of ambience continuously) in the state of no information considered from outside (sense organs). Sense of bliss in meditation is the sense of the neural energy (noise/ambience) information of brain. When this information is sensed, it gets stored because it is sensed. But, this information dries up fast or becomes inaccessible fast while it is stored unlike the information of senses from the sense organs. So, the neural energy (noise/ambience) can be sensed and known continuously as it is fast volatile and so there is always vacuum of neural energy information. So, the meditational bliss can be had continuously throughout the life. (The part of the brain that stores the neural energy sense may have faster volatility than the parts that store the senses from sense organs).
  2. Since this sensible neural energy is feeble, it cannot be identified as long as we consider the external environment. This is similar to that loud sounds can make the weak sounds not easily noticeable by ears.
  3. The lesser (frequency and duration) the brain considers the external senses, the more deep and continuous is the sensibility of its own ambience. Brain can get the continuous information of its ambience when it cuts off the external senses completely.
  4. Love or Friendship support a person (animal) and reduce stress to some extent. Proper understanding of the environment also reduces unnecessary stresses. These are some contexts of meditational sense (delight) in limited levels (discrete sense of meditation) in regular life.
  5. 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 least disturbed (feels as having very little missing information) by green color and the brain of women is least disturbed by pink color. Men enjoy some meditational bliss while watching green color and women enjoy some meditational bliss while watching pinkish colors. Similarly, smooth melodious music detaches people from the external senses and takes in to meditational bliss.

 

7. Basic Organization of the Brain:

The brain can be divided in to three basic functional units. They are

1.     Processing Unit

2.     Memory Unit

3.     Body Control Unit

The Processing Unit works as the Main Operating Unit (Buddhi in Sanskrit) and the Mind (Manas in Sanskrit). The Main Operating Unit and the Mind are undivided functionalities of the single processing unit. The Main Operating Unit generates the key commands (Operating functions) to run the animals. The Mind executes these commands at a lower level under the control of the Main Operating Unit. Since both of these are un-divided functionalities of the single processing unit, the exact functional border between the Main Operating Unit and the Mind is not analyzed here.  

 

The Memory (Only explicit memory is covered in this paper. Implicit memory like walking skill and bicycle riding skill are not covered.) can be sub divided into the Main Memory (explicit long term memory) and the Cache Memory (short-term memory + sensory memory). The Main Memory is slowly volatile and the Cache Memory is fast volatile. Main Memory is popular as the long-term memory of an animal. The Cache Memory is continuously fed with data from the sense organs in parallel. Some of the available data from the main memory also is placed in the short-term memory by the processing unit during thinking/imagination.  It is the Processing Unit which adds information to the Main Memory whether information is received from the sense organs through the Cache memory or information is imagined; as the Processing Unit is the one which seeks information (to store in the Main Memory) and works on information. Out of many data feeds to the Cache Memory, only a little data is processed and stored in the Main Memory. Data in the Cache Memory can be accessed by the Processing Unit until it is volatile. For example, I can recall what an un-thought of low noise was around me just a moment ago. Similarly, in the case of body reflexes we understand the incidents after a moment, taking the incident data from the Cache Memory.

 

The Main operating unit implements the operating system with the 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 non associative information elements before final decisions are taken by the Main Operating Unit to attempt for that information element. But, mind is influenced by the Main Operating Unit to adhere to the initial decisions of the Main Operating Unit.

 

Processing unit thinks serially (i.e., only one thought at a time and a thought has serial analysis of data) and so information addition in to the memory (Main Memory) also happens serially. Thinking/analysis/information is serial, but data is processed in parallel by the processing unit in the process of serial analysis. Processing unit has a fixed speed of serial analysis. [The speed of signals through neurons is constant. All kinds of data get analyzed by a serially thinking unit (processor). So, we cannot think faster or slower. We always think at a constant speed.]. Information addition in to the memory by the Processing Unit also happens at a constant speed (rate) as long as it happens. So, if an information element is high in quantity, it takes proportionately high duration to be stored in the memory and vice versa.

 

The Body control unit controls all organs of the animal body; some of which are completely under the control of this unit and the remaining organs are under the influence of the processing unit (Mind). All the sense organs exist under the influence of the processing unit.

When the Main Operating Unit scans the environment for information, it prioritizes non associative information elements based on information content and tries to get information from information sources. Then, it analyzes non associative information elements through the mind to take final decision on priorities considering the long-term obtain-ability of information.  Linking information or meta information is used by the mind in the process of   analyzing the non-associative information elements.

 

For getting information or avoiding loss of information, the mind is directed by Main Operating Unit 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 volatile state (The person should have enough knowledge. Long-term memory should be good to possess abundant less volatile 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 Main operating unit 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 Main Operating Unit.

 

When the Main Operating Unit identifies a non-associative 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; 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 Main Operating Unit 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 Main Operating Unit and the Main Operating Unit proceeds with its initial decisions. Analytically strong mind uses a little chance given to it by the Main Operating Unit in such circumstances to come up with right decisions.

 

Sometimes, the Mind cannot analyze correctly or sufficiently irrespective of the influence of the Main Operating Unit (with the available information for analysis). In such cases also, inappropriate decisions are taken by the processing unit.

 

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).

 

           Illustrations:

           …………

 

           Arbitrary Decision:

Suppose, a person is advised to reduce eating high calorific food in view of his obesity. Now, that person has decided in emotion not to eat sweets much; but he is not clear whether he really needs to reduce eating of sweets from the present level and by how much amount. He is in the state of “not eating sweets much”, as he decided so. If he minds his self-decision, he feels to know the state information “I am eating sweets well” and so he will break his decision and eat sweets again to know this state information. He will have more tendency than earlier to eat sweets as he wants to know the new state information of ‘eating sweets’, every time he thinks of his decision; independent of weather he really wants to taste them or not; as his decision is not strong enough to overcome the desire for this state information as he does not know how many sweets he has to eat clearly. This arbitrary decision based on insufficient information and through insufficient analysis; taken in hurry, influenced by the Main Operating Unit exemplifies the analytical insufficiencies of the Mind and the influence of the Main Operating Unit on the Mind. A better mind would think of gathering sufficient information and do appropriate analysis for taking decision on eating of sweets.

If the decision of not to eat sweets much was taken after gathering sufficient supporting information and doing appropriate analysis like, “I have to reduce eating sweets by half of what I eat now. Any excess sweets eaten beyond this level cause more problem than the joy of taste they give; as confirmed and explained by the doctors”, it would be better possible to overcome the desire for the state information - ‘I am eating sweets well’ and maintain control over eating of sweets.

 

8. 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 volatility of animal’s brain (a highly volatile brain will forget information quickly and can get it again and again and vice versa. But, high volatility may also reduce the knowledge that is useful in getting information).

 

9. Conclusions:

  1. Happiness is the state of brain, when knowing information. Considering ‘loss of information’ and physical pain is sadness. Animals live for getting information from their environment and they reject ‘loss of information’ and pain. Animals evolved to have thirst for information and thirst to get rid of pain, because that is the only effective way for animals to actively interact with the nature, which is buzzing with information of light, sound, chemical reactions and pressure.
  2. Sense information cannot be built by imagination and cannot be lost (except by memory volatility) like state information and so there cannot be happiness of imagining sense information and there cannot be sadness from sense information itself.
  3. The decisions of the Main Operating Unit (Buddhi) get influenced by the environmental stimulations. The analytical decisions of the Mind (Manas) get influenced by the Main Operating Unit. Also, the Mind may not be able to analyze correctly or sufficiently always irrespective of the influence of the Main Operating Unit.
  4. Meditation is the best way of getting information as the neural energy (noise) information can be sensed continuously (information addition in to the memory happens at a constant rate as long as it happens) in meditation throughout life without regard to the external environment. So, meditating is the happiest way of living. Meditational bliss occurs automatically in peaceful (stress less, not bothered about the environment) state of the processing unit (Mind/Main Operating Unit). Love, friendship and proper understanding of the environment are some contexts in regular life that reduce mental stresses leading to sense of the meditational bliss (delight) in limited levels. The lesser (frequency and duration) the brain considers the external senses, the more deep and continuous is the sensibility of its own ambience. Brain can get the highest(deep and continuous) information of its ambience when it cuts off the external senses completely.
  5. Life has more happiness than sadness for most of the animals, as sadness is the consideration of loss of state information and the loss is mostly less than what is being added, considering that animals have sadness from physical pain for a very little part of their life.

 

Appendix:

Serial Thinking:

A lot of information 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 in to 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 I am seeing the see, standing on the shore; if someone is walking towards me from the side, I notice him because actually my serial concentration keeps roaming on all things surrounding. When I walk, I keep thinking about something, but it is not parallel. I, in between keep an eye on my walking for a fraction of my thought time. But, since the side concentration is very small fraction compared to the main concentration, some people think that some parallel thinking is noticing the things happening aside main focus/concentration.

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 Main Operating unit. 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., information is serial even when data processing is parallel. When I see a picture, I catch a large part of the picture in my mind simultaneously, but I interpret the different parts and designs of the picture one by one. A thought has parallel data processing (without parallel processing, brain cannot even work the way it is doing), but the analysis/interpretation/information is serial. This serial thinking nature is the reason behind serial handling of different thoughts also. So, brain deals only one thought (a set of related objects) at a time and each thought has serial thinking.

If information can be received/lost serially and at a constant rate(due to the fixed processing capacity of a brain), then the amount of happiness/sadness due to an information element is proportionate to the duration of the information reception/loss from that information element. A person can get continuous happiness forever in meditation. So, 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.

There was an experiment to explore a nature of the brain. Some volunteers were asked to raise hand when told to do. All volunteers were found to feel the consciousness to raise hand after a fraction of second that of getting instruction. The delay time was doubted to be unconscious thinking time. But, when a volunteer wants to raise his hand up, actually there exists delay between start of the decision to raise the hand and start of the detailed execution in mind. This can be the memory searching and fetching delay and analysis pickup delay. Volunteers are interpreting the detailed analysis or execution of thought as consciousness, which can be felt more clearly later than the initial phase. So, this experiment cannot be taken as a proof for sub-conscious mind. Reference is....(reference article removed from its original link).