The Operating System of The Brain
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:
- Considerations
- Definitions
- Illustrations
- The Operating System of the Brain
- Information
elements naturally rejected by the brain (pains)
- Meditational sense
- Basic Organization of Brain
- Factors affecting information
gathering by an animal
- Conclusions
1. Considerations:
- 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).
- Information
that causes feelings gets stored as long-term explicit memory.
- Brain’s
memory is semi volatile in nature. The information in the memory decays
slowly.
- All
the information considered (observed) by brain is stored in the memory.
Similarly, all the information in the memory is perceived as known.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Repeated
storage of the same information reduces volatility of that 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 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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}
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 like a secret as it
is unexpected in advance).
- 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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.)
- 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.
- 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).
- 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 Main Operating Unit 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 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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):
- 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.
- 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.
- 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):
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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).