The Promised Land of the Undiscovered Country: Towards Universal Understanding:
By Herb Wiggins, M.D.; Clinical Neurosciences; Discoverer/Creator of the Comparison Process/COMP Model; 14 Mar. 2014
“Invention is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.”–Thomas A. Edison
“Trial and Error is a method of comparisons of outcomes/outputs towards a specific purpose/goal.”
“There is no royal road to geometry.” (We have to do the work.) .
–Archimedes 3rd C. BC
“A rose may grow in the mud. A gem can be found in the dirt.”
“Every advance in physics is preceded by an epistemological advance.”
–A. Einstein
“Compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe.” –A. Einstein
“To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wild flower.”
–William. Blake
“In my Father’s house there are many mansions.” –Jeshua ben Joseph, 1st C. AD
” And would some Power give us the gift
To see ourselves as others see us!” –Robert Burns
“Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Hillel, 1st C. BC and Jeshua ben Joseph, 1st C. AD.
“Those who have eyes and do not see, ears that do not hear, and mouths that do not speak.” —Proverbial
Contents:
1. Introduction
2. Comparison process creates laws, moral, scientific, legal, and the moral consciences, and reads and applies them.
3. Transitivity characteristic of the comparison of comparisons of comparisons and how this identifies comparison process words and cluster of words. Talking about talking, analysis of analysis, thinking about thinking (introspection); etc.
4. The endless repetitions possible with comparison process, La Chansons sans Fin.
4a. Comparison process the origin of most all descriptions and measurements.
5. Ordering, creating and then reading of dictionaries by comparison process
6. Method of comparison for scientific and related work, by Dr. Paul J. Stark
shows ubiquity of the process.
7. Characteristics of the comparison process; hierarchies, taxonomies, classifications, etc. result from. periodic table of the elements also organized by the same process
8. COMP arises from the cortical cell columns(CCC’s) directly mimicking the output/input feedback system of the neurophysiology.
9. Found by AI researchers Friston, Hinton, et. al.
10. Efficiencies, least energy principle and comparison process all related. Compound interest advantages created by comparison process methods.
11. Seizures as direct and clear result of these feedback lops in the cortex. Repetitions of same created by.
12. Origin of Alpha and beta waves and their evidence for the neurophysiology of the comparison process in cortex. Alpha is the comparitor at rest, siting it at 4th and 5th laminations of cortex within the pyramidal cells, there, the excitatory circuit. Beta activity is the controlling, inhibitory circuit/neurochemistry.
13,. Applications of this model to better understand the cognitive deficits of autism spectrum.
14., Balance between the dopamine, catecholamine and the serotonin, GABA inhibitory controls.
15. How and why the comparison process works to model events in existence & efficiently by LEP.
16. Unlimited (infinite) feedback loops & problems in cortex.
17. Habituation, boredom, ennui as manifestations of some feedback loop control (inhibition) methods.
18. OCD as unlimited loop control problem, clearly.
19. Anorexia as dopamine over activity effects.
20. Human consciousness as the result of these feedback loop systems in cortex creating consciousnesses of the many types, sensory, motor, visual, thinking, spatial relationships, etc.
21. Comparison process extension of behaviorism due to not only external reinforcement, but it also mirrors and is accounted for by the internal dopamine boost events which create most human behaviors, which was missed at first.
22. Dopamine enhancement of learning a key point.
23. Narcissistic characteristics are internal dopamine boost reinforcers, the origin of “egosyntonic” effects. Treatment implications.
24. The inherency of least energy principle (LEP) in brain outputs, and how it works.
25. Universality of the comparison process and LEP for translation, decoding of universal rules, etc. The joys, renewel of life and escape from the unlimitted feedback loops of mental illness and hopelessness into the daily joys, discoveries and creativity. It can create universal understanding and integration of customs, laws, languages and cultures.
1. Each of us has had those times in our lives, those mountaintop experiences, holding a newborn child which is yours. Seeing the Vale of the Yosemite at the peak of the spring Merced River runoff, with 3 of the world’s 10 greatest water falls at their maximum flow seen from Glacier Point, & watching water falling nearly a mile deep down the valley’s steep, granite walls, while the thundering voice of Yosemite booms loudly in the distance. That “Eureka” moment of Archimedes. The conversion of Saul of Tarsus to St. Paul on the road to Damascus. Buddha under the Bodi tree and his Enlightenment. & Aristotle’s, “the pleasures of philosophy.” Those times in history and in our own lives, when we thought we were just opening up a door to a small closet, and a whole new world opened up behind that single gateway. When we first learned of the roundness of the world and saw that bright Milky Way, unobscured by city lights and dust, that immeasurable vastness of space. When we learned that logic and math were extremely useful tools. Those times in our lives which changed our futures and the events which changed history before us.
As Daniel Boone arose that one morning just on the other side of the Cumberland Gap, and saw the whole new, undiscovered county of Kentuckee open up before him, with range after green treed hill after range of land as far as his eyes could see. & then Tennessee of the Cherokees and even up to the “Okie from Muskogee”. These are life changing events which make so much difference for each of us.
2. As we compare our acts and those of others to our moral laws; as we compare events in the universe to a similarly created and ordered laws of physics and biology; as we similarly compare what we and other do to the complex legal laws of our societies; and even as we develop and use our moral consciences to compare our actions and those of others to the best outcome results, we see the comparison process acting strongly and omnipresently in our lives. Our customs, the rules of most all households, organizations, schools, companies and businesses, churches, and in most all places where people congregate, show the ubiquity of these rules, regulations, covenants, contracts, and so forth. The ubiquity of the comparison processes in governing and regulating human behaviors world wide.
3. The comparison process can compare a comparison, and compare the comparisons of that comparison to comparing a comparison of a comparison of a comparison, ad lib. As it is found in many comparison process words, the word cluster, such as understanding understanding, comprehending comprehension; remembering remembering, thinking about thinking, .(introspection); creating creativity; analyzing an analysis and then analyzing that analysis; modeling a model and then modeling that model; talking about talking, writing about writing, upwards of 100’s of such unique words. all of these as self consistent, sensible and self-recursive as the parent word. Hundreds of such words which make sense when they are used in this way. Compare this to swimming about swimming, or walking about walking, or driving about driving, which make no sense at all. But teaching about teaching, and learning about learning DO work and thus fall in to the comparison word cluster as well. This is not accident. The comparison process is essential to learning & education.
4. Nor are the many repetition words which we have, such as repeating a repetition and again and again repeating it; or “Play it Again Sam.” Or any of the thousands of words in our dictionaries which show that reiterative processes are very, very widespread in our language, wherein the language itself shows us the basic structures of how our thinking and processing information and even feel and learn.
4a. Comparison process is responsible for virtually all measurement and descriptions.
Language/Math, Description/Measurement, Least Energy Principle and AI
Further, look up in the dictionary for the endless number of words beginning with “re-“. Remember, consider and reconsider, do and redo, iterative, re-iterate and repeat, Etc., There are thousands of these in a single dictionary. Forever and ever, again and again, etc., etc., on and on, etc. These are nearly endless examples in our languages of the feedback loops and their endless use. And re-use!!
5. When we create and read our dictionaries we use the same comparison process of alphabetization to organize it and find words. When finding those words or even placing them in order, we use a trial and error approach, yet another comparison process method. We start with CO, and find the “C” section, and then the “CO and so forth moving down the word listings left to right to find the next letter, until we reach the comparing and the comparative words, and sneak “Comparison” in between. Thus increasing the order of the dictionary and organizing it, forcing a reduction in entropy and obeying at each step, the rule of thermodynamics. It takes energy to organize and order. And also we then want to look up comparison and so we read thru the pages to CO, once again and follow the same T&E rules until we get to “compression” and then we can define the definition of definition. And read about reading.
paragraph 2 et seq.
& in all the city and telephone directories of the world, as in the dictionaries of every language, the same basic process of T&E writing, creating the dictionaries and then reading them is done. & in the thesauri of the world, the similar characteristics, as in the dictionaries of every language, the same basic process of T&E writing, creating the dictionaries and then reading them is done. & in the thesauri of the world, the words matched comparison process by comparison process, and their antonyms by a similar process are both created and read and used. And in every index ever created and every book with chapters and pages, and every encyclopedia, the same process is done again and again. Each and every instance a single piece of evidence of the 100’s of millions of examples which make up those texts. Each solid evidence as our moral, physical, legal laws are evidence in each specific instance, of the use and ubiquitous existence of the comparison process.
And then the countless classifications and Taxonomies. the organized listings of the kingdom, phyla, class, order family, genera, species and varieties of each species. All of that created by the massive use of comparison process of one living system compared to others like it, more or less. Creating the hierarchies of understanding, of classifications, from the living species of the world, to the stars in the galaxies, to the relationship of each language to all known others, and on & on. Most All of it created by a single repeating principle in the human brain, which creates predictive control. Because we can FIND all of those events, organized predictable in those lists, indices, dictionaries, maps, and everything else, too. organized, highly related to with the relationship both specific and innate, and implied. This means better understanding, predictable, controllable and we can add ad lib, as we need and must. These are the massive, unlimited evidences for the use of the comparison process within our minds/brains in our daily lives
Hostadter wrote of analogy as an important part of how we think. However, how is the analogy read, interpreted and created? The analogy word cluster of metaphor, parable, fable, story, Koan, simile, anecdote, story, etc., is a vaster piece of the same evidence. but this is what has been missed. We create and read each of those instances, from the analogies and metaphors of teaching, poetry and language, to the parables of Jeshua to the fabled stories of Aesop and even the instructive myths of the ancient Greeks, which explain to us how we should act and how events work. & most all of them work by the comparison process. Those higher abstractions which guide our moral lives, and guide our scientific methods and the life saving applications in the medical science and specialties, too. This is the ubiquity of the comparison process.
6. Here is a detailed, well established system showing the outcomes of the comparison processes, the method of comparison. Stark shows a massive and highly important aspect of it, as solid, established, substantiated evidence of its omnipresence in our lives, and why the sciences can do what they do. This article shows how it works and “The Promised land…” shows how it’s a basic part of a much larger brain system, our very mental processes, themselves..
http://www.stat.berkeley.edu/~stark/SticiGui/Text/experiments.htm
Previously have written of the comparison process as being the origin/source of the feedback, output/input cycles. Of positive feedback which creates growth and of negative feedback which creates control to self organize our brain/minds.
“Empirical Introspection”; see section 16.
Peruse please sections 10 thru 12.
7. Now, the comparison process can be seen as the mind/brain interface, as written above. It has many characteristics as its the output of the complex system of neurophysiology arising from the 100,000’s cortical cell columns. These characteristics are self reflexiveness, recursivity, self-consistency and repetitive. And from that too, a kind of consistency which underlies our systems of thinking. The comparison process models the universe of events, which also contain consistent, recursive, repetitive events, such as trees, rocks, clouds, the moon, stars and planets, the leaves of grass and of trees and the needles and complex leaves of the conifers, etc. complexity without limit, but with an underlying reiterative, recursive nature.. Where ever we look, even in our own buildings, blocks of housing and businesses, we see the repetitive, re-iterative, recurrences of electrons and protons, atoms, molecules, which the comparison processes in our brains have evolved to carefully model. This very close symmetry between the repetitive, recursive nature of events in our universe also has shaped this outcome of our cortices, the comparison process, yielding recognitions, pattern recognition, outcomes comparisons, trial and error which compares outcomes of methods used to our goals, & which we use most every day, and so forth. Even in the sciences these same universal elements are especially seen.
Taking the periodic table of the elements, we can see the comparison process once again, massively repeatedly at work. Mendeleev found that there were certain common characteristics, consistencies of the elements. He found the alkali metals group of Li, Na, K, Cs, and then postulated a new element eka-Cesium where rubidium and further, francium were eventually found. He saw the noble gases, He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and because such models are fruitful as it is their nature to be, then xenon and radon were found. In the halogen series, he ordered a linear column of fluorine, bromine, iodine, etc. Then the ferrous group metals, the platinum group, the rare earths, and the uranides and transuranides. It was massive comparison processing of the data creating relationships of types, kinds and categories, which we call pattern recognition. All arising from a simple, repeating process in the cortex called the comparison process.
8. But there is more, far, far more and this is the fruitfulness of the comparison process and its creativity. The comparison process very likely mimics and simulates the underlying cortical cell column, neuronal feedback loop system, which takes information, be it ideas/words or sensory, mostly visual inputs, compares it to others to create a primary recognition by calls to Long Term Memory(LTM) & or working memory. & then feeds back that into the processor to find higher and higher levels of organization and order. In doing so it simplifies and organizes events in existence by thermodynamic efficiency of the Least Energy Principle. It also creates predictive control, and so is multiply useful and active.
This is what creates the hierarchies and classifications as well, as allows us to navigate among those same classification models. & because it’s a least energy principle (LEP), it’s also favored by its simplifications and powers of organization to describe a very great deal, with just a little. & stabler besides as LEP methods create that, too.
9. In a “Mother’s Wisdom”
(https://jochesh00.wordpress.com/2015/06/03/a-mothers-wisdom/)
shows 3 more comparison methods of the Least Energy Principle being used and then fed back to create a generalized rule for using LEP with Trial &Error methods working. Then a 3rd more generalized rule which if the system is used more often will give more and faster long term benefit. It’s fruitful, self propagating because of those high, competitive advantages, including most importantly, predictive control, a la Hinton and Friston.
Please peruse paragraph 5 for the meat of the issue “…the repeating principle in brain which creates predictive control”. That is the crux of the issue detailed and explicated in a “Mother’s Wisdom” by 3 three examples above, of unlimited such examples, once again.
Clearly, repeating, efficient methods, which are used the most often, should be the most efficient to maximize benefit. Thus if we use it only once per month, increasing the efficiency is not as useful and cost saving, as a method we use a number of times per day. So once more up and up we go in the hierarchies of creativity, organization, order and thus, knowledge and understanding. How most everything relates to most everything else. What we call knowledge, and can lead to a higher order, moral wisdom and the technologies, too. the outputs, the applications of knowledge.
& a fourth and ever deeper point, is that of the rule of 72 & compound interest. If we gain for example, a 10% benefit compared to another method each time we preferentially use that method, then the benefit compounds according to the rule of 72. Using it a lot is far more beneficial than using it a little bit, because when we compare the two, we get more from more usage of it. This is the major force driving evolution. Previously, it has been though to be survival of the fittest via competition and being more capable of competing and reproducing.
10. In fact, that’s not the only deep analysis. Take for instance a metabolic system which creates energy, such as the chlorophyll cycle in the chloroplast. Those vary in efficiencies according to species. Those which can convert more sunlight into sugars and starches can be compared. And if such a system is working more efficiency, viz., has a higher output over time in a single species, or a variety of a species, when compared, then it will confer a compound interest advantage by that means alone. Further, if there are ANY other metabolic efficiencies in any species compared to its own species or others, that efficiency will compound over the centuries, as well.
The same is true not just of cellular metabolism but the efficiencies of the organs working together, and of the behaviors of the plant, or animal in how it interacts with its environment. A more efficient method of reproduction will result in compound interest growth, which is the insects’ primary means of success and survival. A more efficient method of finding food by ants, such as the travelling salesman problem using pheromones, or in bees using memory systems for finding and harvesting nectar & pollen, will also be such a compound interest effect. Thus in fact, the LEP drives cellular as well as structural & multicellular behaviors in the same way. And those can be measured and compared.
And finally, in the same way, modeling & decoding the universe using a comparison process operating repeatedly in our cortices, which creates predictive control, ALSO creates a compound interest advantage in whatever primate species uses it. So, this accounts for the brains of humans, which can vastly manipulate our environment using our minds, compared to the other animals. And such advantages are clearly apparent in the way we move all others out of their niches and put our own domesticated animals & plants there instead. The comparison processing of our brains, the repeated input of outputs, and inputs yielding outputs, and then re-iterating that input/output cycle, without limit. It acts as a compound interest generator of control and output. This not only drives our evolution, but most all developments of our cultures, our sciences, economics and most everything else, including languages. Thus evolution proceeds in terms of least energy principles. Those favored by compound interest advantages conferred. the western nations successes in physical as well as cultural conquest of the rest of the world because their methods/technologist were a lot better (efficient) due to cultural behaviors. The USA won out with the largest economy in the world by the 1920’s because of the same process of high, efficient utilizing of resources compared to the others.
In the California gold rush, this was very clear. The Latin cultures there of Spain and Mexico KNEW of the gold, but largely ignored it. The English/German cultures of the east coast, south and midwest, took advantage of that vast resource, and built the state of California on the 100’s of millions ounces gold which the Latins had ignored. This created the financial basis of wealth to build California in terms of massive population growth and money to build further, funding the railroads and cities which further expanded the wealth.
Similarly western cultures took coal and oil and developed more efficient and indeed solar independent, efficient systems to economically expand all over the planet, acquiring in time every single nations except for Thailand, which the Japanese first conquered using adopted, western methods. Thus the LEP is very likely the driving force not only for evolution but of cultures and economics and even languages. The most efficient, over the long run, win. Least Energy Rules.
Very likely, as a corollary of the 2nd law that system tend towards maximal energy release & entropy, the LEP should be ensconced as the FOURTH law of thermodynamics because it’s so very important in processes operating in our universe.
This article develops these LEP in ever more detail.
Sadly, most of us were never taught this rule of least energy, and had to figure it out ourselves even though it’s mentioned in the “McGraw/Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology”. Just why that hugely important omission occurred boggles the mind, because it lies so very deeply at the root of human understanding & is so very important in understanding our world, and beyond. It can very likely create systems of universal understanding.
So we have established then least energy principle, complex systems principles(in previous articles) & the comparison process. Now we need to discuss the deeper & deepest implications of the input/output feedback cycles in the cortex from which the comparison process arises.
The self sustaining feedback, input—>output loops of the cortex. Input >COMP> output, the middle symbol being the comparison process.
It’s been stated that the feedback system model can easily be created by the comparison process.
“A Field Trip into the Mind” see section 16
But in fact, the comparison process is a simulation, an emergent phenomenon which reflects the underlying neurophysiology. That physiology is a complex feedback loop, self-sustaining and found ubiquitously in the cortical cell columns. this at once explains and has enormously important consequences and once again explains a lot with a little.
The application of this method to the behaviorist model is at once obvious. Stimulus yields response, a form of the cause yield effects, structure/function relationship, and all endlessly repeating as they are created by the endless comparison processes. This creates depths within depths, the hierarchies, the endless reiterations of the babushkas nested 1 within each other, the reductionist model hierarchies, the nested Chinese boxes & even the nested shrines of Amentutankh (King Tut), nested from the outer canopies to the inner large sarcophagus, the one of gold, & then the next level down, the mask and finally the mummy wrapping, as all nested within each other. Universal methods of comparison processing.
11. Seizures are explained by this method as an unlimited feedback, input/output event as well. It’s long been noted that the tonic-clonic seizures we see arise largely from the cortex which has been damaged in some ways. One spike starts, then begins to entrain those neurons nearby and the classical Jacksonian seizure spreads until very often a tonic/clonic, grand mal seizure is seen. This is at once obviously created by the endless feedback loops of the cortical cell columns which generate the comparison process, without limit. It’s a set up for the regular spiking which is seen there and spreads taking over the cortex for several minutes to quite some time. The basic seizure of spike, spike, spike is simply the endless feedback loops of electrical activity moving through the cortical cell columns, gone dreadfully wrong and creating the repetitive tonic/clonic movements. It’s the natural outcome of the built in cortical feedback loops. and thus TELLS us, giving more solid evidence for the feedback cortical loops within our cortex. It’s yet another manifestation of what gives rise to the comparison process, and this time very dangerous and badly gone wrong. It’s a very subtle, but omnipresent hint about what’s going on in our cortices.
Not only the cortex but other areas of the brain can create seizures, too. And these must naturally be considered MORE built in feedback neuronal connections which create them. Clearly, the model works.
Then comes the spike/wave of petit mal seizures, regular repetitions imitating the regularity created by these feedback systems in our cortical cell columns which creates the endless inputs yielding outputs, again and again. But as these occur in smaller children, it indicates a more immature and earlier form of the feedback loops,which do not find their maturity until ages 12-14, at which time fewer and fewer petit mal/absence attacks are seen. At that time, accordion to Piaget, the child begins to reason logically. In other words the cortex begins to be more able to feed back outcomes of recognition into the CCC’s and created the depths within depths of deeper and deeper understanding, abstraction, logical thinking and the deeper connections and greater power of such abstractions. Thus, once again the petit mal evidences a more immature cortex, & thus mostly disappears when the cortex matures to a higher level of feedback recognitions, creating the understandings of morality, the law, the reasoning & more rational processes maturing within the brain. The emergent quality of higher reasoning, which Piaget has found coming about at the 12-14 y/o time. More in ” Ages of the Brain, Brain Hardwiring” article.
And we see seizures in dogs and other animals as well. Which means they have similar cortical feedback loops of recognitions, which are also susceptible to repeating seizures very similar to ours. These similarities of comparison outcomes explain a LOT with a little, you see?
That photic stimuli create seizures and entrain those susceptible neurons, just like the grand mall/petit mal do as well. and creates with higher rates of stimuli, the grand mal seizures and often only short term spikes and spike waves, which do not always proceed to visible or detectable seizures. The very structure of the cortex feedback, input output loops reflect the nature of the comparison process from which it arises as the lowest common denominator of the brain. And the entrainment of the neurons in cortical evoked responses, VER’s, BAER’s, and P-300 are just more of the same underlying feedback loops.
Thus the comparison process develops at & from the mind brain interface (The Relativity of the Cortex, the Mind Brain Interface article here). of the CCC’s.
This is the point, the comparison process itself mimics, reflects, models and simulates the complex underlying neurophysiology of the feedback systems of the cortex, which creates the similarly input/output work of the comparison processes. It’s not only evidence of it, it arises directly from that. And this allows us to understand further how it comes about and identify ever more specifically what’s going on in the 6 laminar columns of the cortices.
12. The Alpha waves arise in the cortex as resting phenomena all over the cortex of the awake brain. When we think and use our comparison processes by extension, the alpha disappears into complex wave form outputs. Then it once again appears as those areas of cortex rest. This clear cut, 1:1 correspondence between thought and alpha waves shows us where the neurophysiological comparitor very likely is: in the pyramidal layers 4 and 5 of the cortex, wherein the alpha waves also arise. This is where to look for the recognitions and unlimited feedback loops of the comparison processes.
The thalamus creates a generator which drives the alpha waves in the cortex. How does this come about and why does it exist? It’s very clear. The alpha generator of the thalamus is a sort of synchronizing clock which keeps the brain working all together. Thus most all processes in brain are synchronized and can work together.
It’s highly suggested by these evidences that the alpha activity are these feedback loops on idle. And as soon as they are used the alpha is replaced by complex cortical waves which reflect this. In fact the P-300 is consistent with an easy 2-3 alpha wave summation time, too.
But then we just ask, if the alpha waves reflect the comparison process on idle and these circuits of feedback loops when they do work, then what are the beta waves on the EEG? & this is rather easy. In every nervous system there are the inhibitory and the excitatory neurons & their neurochemicals & receptors which modulate and mediate these. Dopamine and the catecholamines, adrenaline & noradrenaline, promote activation. Too much of these can create seizures, which is a critical point. GABA and serotonin calm down these electrical activities. So do the sedatives which create very obvious changes in the EEG. When barbiturates & other soporifics, or indeed ANY kind of sedatives are used, the BETA waves increase in amplitudes, that is, their activity is enhanced, and the person is sedated. This means that beta is likely a reflection of the inhibitory controls meant to keep the alpha and excitatory systems under careful control, too. & indeed, in seizures, GABApentin does exactly that, blocks seizures, again, arising from the over excitability of the cortex. This is no accident & is a critical insight into cortical functions. Thus the EEG reflects not only the comparison process and cortical evoked potentials at work in creating recognitions and pattern recognitions of the hierarchies, but also the beta which demarcates the strength of the controlling, inhibitory influences of GABA, serotonin and likely other endogenous neurochemicals, too. Thus the comparison process arises from the innately structured, 6 laminar levels in the cortex, as the alpha circuits, & is controlled by the systems which create the beta activity to modulate it. This explains very neatly the underlying electrophysiology of the cortex. Again, least energy principle form of the comparison process.
This further shows us where the comparitor in the brain is located, the origin of the comparison process, it’s anatomic center. In levels 4 and 5 of the cortex we find large pyramidal cells, with huge numbers of synaptic connections. That is where the alpha waves are seen, and that is where our thinking is done. Thus, the comparitor structure of the cortex is mostly at levels 4 & 5, and around that site the basic comparison processes are located. Once we figure out what’s going on in the cortex using comparison process thinking, then we can figure out the overall structure/function of the cortex, without having to know the complex neurophysiology and all of the impossible to comprehend complexities of 50-60K neurons in each CCC, all interacting with the others, which create the comparison process. It cuts through the complexity and allows us a simplifying, easy to understand route to what’s going in the cortex. It cuts the Gordian knot of the cortical complexity problem and gives us useful answers. Not only do we then understand the complicated input/output circuits which create the comparison process, which mimics out/input, but also seizures of at least two kinds and more, plus what the alpha and beta waves on EEG’s very likely represent.
13. Let’s apply this briefly to autism. We know that the more severely affected autistic children have severe recognition and cognitive problems. Those by the facts shown above give us part of the answers to the problems of autism. Their cortical cell columns are not normal. This is a fact of neuropathology and is well known. Where levels 4 & 5 are damaged, or the laminar architecture is abnormal there will be severe cognitive deficits, which will severely limit language, social interactions and much else besides, esp. the higher abstractions.
But we know that autistic children can present with a whole spectrum of severity from very severe, to only moderate forms. A simple MRI will show this cortical damage, if done carefully, and further show spottiness of the damage as well. In those cortical areas which have more normal size and cortical structure there will be a relative sparing of abstractive, cognitive deficits. Thus this comparison process model even can help us with autism, how to evaluate it and tell us specifically what to look for AND who is likely to benefit from early therapy and who will not so much. Most of the crucial answers to the likely many origins of autisms lie in the cortex, probably.
14. In a future article, “The Balanced Brain” several examples of this balance between dopamine and serotonin in many normal as well as pathological conditions will be shown and further explicated. It’s a very deep understanding of how the cortex works, as well, and greatly simplifies our understanding of the complex neurochemistry & neurophysiology of the cortex, which likely arise NOT upon the absolute levels of neurochemicals, but upon the comparative Balance of those activities of neurochemicals & receptors. Thus, the “Balanced Brain”.
15. Comparison process works because it takes and finds from inputs those identical, matching, very similar events, and puts them together as a recognition. Finding several events which have thus been tied together simplifies the model. Much is ordered and understood with less. So the model is least energy, saves time, energy, and resources and thus is LEP, more stable and capable of greater simplicity and power than other methods. & this advantage compounds both additively & as simple interest, creating a growth advantage by compound interest, and thus is also stabler too, because it’s more efficient. This then gives a deeper explanation of how the comparison process succeeds and works so well.
In addition since the universe is very likely all connected at the deepest quantum level, (Depths within Depths),
The comparison process models and tries to find those connections to once again simplify down most everything. & it succeeds incredibly well. It defrags the system, taking the various pieces of common methods, processes, & events, then links them together, and thus comprehends the whole much better. Just like a defragging program on a hard disc restructures the hard disc to greater and faster and higher efficiency of use, & takes far, far less time to run, too.
The comparison process is thus an immense simplifier of huge amounts of data by its very nature and is LEP as well. Again, it matches the repetitive occurrence of similar events by putting them together, clouds, trees, grasses, leaves, storms, stars, etc., in the end creating a LEP organization and hierarchies of understanding. This is how the complex self-sustaining, feedback loops of the cortex becomes mind, by inputs of the output to find the regularities & stabilities, the pattern recognitions, the associations & the relationships of events. & is the relativity of the cortex. Simple, yet complex. Simple yet very, very deep and without limits as far as we humans are concerned. That single, repeating process in the cortex which creates understanding via recognition of similarities and matches. The Comparison Process, which arises at the interface of the cortical cell columns and the mind.
16. Let us look further at more brain pathologies and find yet again, these input/output loops in the cortex. From our work with computers we know that those processing systems can get into unlimited feedback loops which can shut down the system. Programmers know this, and often have ways to prevent these loops from arising. Human seizures are also very likely such loops, as those are shut down by GABA and serotonin, and perhaps other systems. & then the person goes to sleep afterwards in the post-ictal state, due to over driving of the cortical cell columns and depletion of dopamine, plus much higher inhibitory neurochemical activities, which usual take about 20′ or so to restore to normal levels, very likely also. & the person wakes up after the seizure. But are there other evidence of these unlimited feedback loops in the brain going awry?
We know the human brain can prevent such unlimited loops from arising using inhibitory circuits, their biochemistries. We see perseverations in the manias, dementias, etc. This once again, is an unlimited loop arising & creating pathological consequences. Perseverations are repetitions of behavior such as words, actions, and so forth, which occur again and again. We also see these in rocking of the mentally ill, and the displacement activities of the habits of personality disorders. So there they are again. They are NOT least energy, as they are meaningless & worthless to the survival of the organism. So those are similarly depressed in normal people, too.
17. Consider habituation, a well known mental condition where we get bored with the same inputs and begin to ignore them and turn our attentions to other activities. Habituation is thus, very likely, yet another inhibitory circuitry/neurochemical event in brain meant to prevent those unlimited loops from arising. Boredom, ennui, and this kind of of “I need to do something else” are very likely evidences of this sort of brain mechanism to prevent the occurrences of unlimited loops, again by using inhibitory neurochemicals & physiology.
In the manias and psychoses, however we see that habituation is not there enough. Those so afflicted simply cannot easily get used to inputs, and so cannot habituate. But when GABA is increased, the lack of habituations stop due to the inhibitory effects of same. The sedations of the dopamine blockers also do this, tool. And as has been recently found, a faulty & weakened GABA inhibition found genetically in the manias and psychoses, creates this very problem. Complex system outputs, again. The inability to habituate & block repetitive, unlimited loops indicates faulty inhibitory circuitry.
OCD’s are much the same. In these conditions we see repetitive, very injurious and worthless repeats of the same behaviors. open and closing doors, sprucing before a mirror, endlessly, saying the same phrases over and over again, and so forth. These repeated complex behaviors are, not surprisingly, controlled fairly well using the SSRI’s which increase serotonin, which again, inhibits the dopamine circuitry which drive these repetitive acts. It blocks the unlimited feedback loops the OCD;’s get into. And indeed OCD patients often complain about those “Loops” they get into. This again showing deeper self insights into the cortical cell columns’ predisposition to get into those same input/output feedback loops which normally create recognitions, but in pathological conditions create worthless, repeated behaviors. So, once again, the input/output model of cortical cell functions gives greater understanding not only of normal processes, but seizures, perseveration, obsessive compulsive disorders and very likely much, much more, too.
19, Anorexia can also be more easily and better understood using this model. Essentially, we know that nicotine, dopamine and the catecholamines and their analogs pharmacologically decrease appetite to eat. Anorexia is simply a highly pathological excess of dopamine, being repeatedly created by LTM sustained behaviors. Nausea at the thought of eating is simply related to dopamine reinforcement, because the catecholamines can create nausea, until this becomes a learned behavior, thus promoting and sustaining the behavior. DA blockers can thus be used to stop much of the nausea, as they are powerful anti-nauseants, and thus limit the excess DA boost these behaviors induce. Then repeated rerouting of pathological memory tracings and habits by desensitizing training of the synaptically enhanced pathways can steadily reduce such bad actions. But understanding that anorexia is a self reinforcing, DA mediated in part, plus synaptically stabilized is going on, will go far in terms of actual treatment of the anorexias, too. More in “Ages of the Brain….”.
20. It’s very tempting at this point to bring in the idea of what human consciousness may consist of using this model. We know via carbon monoxide poisoning, which in some cases only damages the cortex, but leaves most of the rest of the brain intact, that those persons are simply gone in terms of personality, language, thinking, memory, and often have cortical blindness and the inability to move or sense what’s going on except for spinal reflexes. Essentially, when the cortex is damaged by hypoxia, the consciousness is gone. This clearly establishes the consciousness of personalities, abstractive functions, many emotions, and well as the sensations, etc., in the final common pathways of the cortex. The rest of the brain may be nearly normal, but the person is not there any more.
So this established to a good degree of likelihood, we can state that the feedback loops of the cortex are where the many functions of consciousness come from. And that thus, the collective CCC’s are the seat of working, practical awareness, language, indeed most of those traits of consciousness we evaluate and measure by clinical examination and which are necessary for normal human mental functions. The feedback loops of consciousness and the mental processes are in the cortex, as is the comparitor in the CCC’s which gives rise to the comparison process and the outputs of consciousness.
21. Let us further consider how this applies and extends the behaviorist approaches to human mental functions, i.e., outputs. Essentially, they use classical conditioning and operant conditioning to explain behaviors, education & learning. Wisely, they considered 90 years ago the brain as a “black box” which was then largely impervious to understanding. But our more modern discoveries and methods of investigation using fMRI, MEG, and related tools, plus the findings of advanced neurophysiology have rolled back & made moot quite a lot of this “black box” problem.
In addition their stimulus yields response tool is used. And the reinforcing of behaviors until they become learned are critical. But let us extend the behaviorist model. Previously they believed that it was only external reinforcements which created learning and such. The reinforcement of food, and other positive reinforcements promoted behaviors. We know that drugs such as amphetamines, opiates, cocaine, even nicotine and the dimethylxanthines (caffeine, etc.)can create dopamine induced reinforcements of behaviors, called addictions, although they are often associated with serious systemic effects and even death.
But the external reinforcement of drugs alone, shows us something ever more deeply. As has been shown in “The Emotional continuum”,
and in “The Spark of Life….”
there exists a very significant INTERNAL reinforcement which is creating and sustaining behaviors, as well. & it IS the dopamine boost, which has been explored in quite some details by the above articles, among others. The dopamine boost self-reinforces learning activities by applying positive reinforcement of dopamine & good feelings to drive learning, curiosity, the emotions, even love, humor, and other behaviors. This internally arising dopamine boost from the cortex was simply missed by the behaviorist movement, because it ignored the black box’s internal activities. But with all due respect, they got the idea of reinforcements correct. Those are ALSO working inside the cortex as the dopamine boost!! And when combined with the dopamine boost, which is at the heart of reinforcing behaviors from both internal and external sources, the behaviorist model is both extended and becomes a more powerful instrument in understanding human motivations, behaviors, learning and so forth.
21. Dopamine even enhances learning as can easily be shown. Whenever we have one of those threatening or even mountaintop experiences, there is a huge amount of dopamine given off. Can recall to this day what happened 50 years ago when a young woman hit my car’s left fender in a parking lot. The flight or fight response of adrenal release of adrenaline, cortisol and dopamine produced that heightened awareness and “slow down” so often felt and experienced. That thrill, and the episodes was many times reinforced until synaptic lay down of protein occurred and the long term memory was created of that event. I can’t forget that single episode even to this day. But all the other events around it that day, have long since fled from my LTM, in contrast. The same boost effect was the case with a visit to Yosemite for the first time at Glacier Point. This was the time of the spring melt off of snow, increasing water runoff to power the many marvelous waterfalls in the valley, as noted in the first part of this article. Those episodes are burned into our LTM by the dopamine release which clearly, observably & actually enhances memory and recall of such events.
Thus by incorporating the dopamine boost and reinforcements into our methods of understanding behaviors, we extend them and learn ever more about what is going on. The external reinforcers are but reflections of that deeper, internalized dopamine system operating/created by our cortical cell columns which create our creativity, our learning, and the self reinforcements of repeated dopamine boosts which continue to create stable personality behaviors such as love, hatreds, likes and dislikes and most of the rest. This is a natural extensions of behaviorism, which got it right, but as most of our models do, was not complete. & these small additions simply acknowledge the essential correctness of the behaviorist model by extending it much further and deeper in many respects. using the internalized dopamine boost as the method.
Memory traces of the cortex first found by wilder Penfield are the evidences of sustained, brain hardwired feedback cycles occurring widely in brain. Memories, habits, behaviors. the positive feedback cycle of feeling good with increased even too much dopamine, which is the additive potential of cocaine, amphetamine, opiates, etc., are also solid evidences of it.
23. Let us consider narcissism, which is generally what we used to call “spoiled brats”, who behave with a stable personality structure which is very self centered, often exploitation, and often an essential part of sociopathic behaviors, where they cannot understand much at all how other people feel. They are obvious to the damage and insults they give to others as well. Such behaviors are called “egosyntonic”, which means they tend to reinforce themselves and are very, very hard to unlearn, much less have the person develop insights about those disorders. And how does this disorder come about? Because of the dopamine boost they get whenever they are sarcastic, rude, facetious, and highly critical of others. They get a superior sense of self-worth from the boost by doing such internal, mental processes. The dopamine boost is thus likely the origin of the self sustaining, egocentric, egosyntonic activities, and how these drive the narcissistic person to ignore and be highly critical of others by using such methods.
If they become aware by some method which creates insight, that they are doing such acts, then those can be largely prevented. If dopamine blockers are also used, these will also tend to decrease the boost’s effects and over time may abolish the behaviors. But since those are synaptically created and enhanced in LTM, they are unlikely to be easily changed, unless those synaptic connections are also rerouted, disconnected or disrupted by some means. More on this kind of treatment for such stable personality disorders will be found in the coming article on “Ages of the Brain; the Synaptic Hardwiring of the Brain”.
But it’s clear that this model of the internalized dopamine boost which reinforces drug seeking behaviors, & repeated narcissistic behaviors can be specifically identified and treated, which can result in improvements, though not as complete in many ways as we’d like. These insights are comparison process mediated both in discovering how these disorders specifically work in each individual and by identifying them can create the means to break down those behaviors over time, esp. if in young children. There are other ways of doing it, by inducing the boost for more mature and self-effacing methods, but those are also covered in the “Ages of the Brain….”.
24. To bring this article to a close, it’s necessary to once more revisit the multiplicit capabilities of the comparison process and its also universally applicable method, the Least Energy Principle. The comparison process can be used to compare almost everything against most everything else. It’s thus a universal tool, a kind of universal mental process or logic to be used to understand, decode, translate and widely simplify, above all, making sense of events not only within us, but outside of us. It helps us understand how mind arises from the cortical neurophysiology. It also shows us how the universe outside of us operates to a very high degree of comprehension.That the comparison process can provide this kind of universal understanding, both within us and outside of us, is unprecedented, as well. The Logic of it is clear.
25. The LEP can also be applied to customs, language, laws, indeed most all of our methods to see which methods work best, doing the most with the least in terms of our goals. Thus, all languages are translated via the comparison process, and it creates universal understandings, too. Even when we meet as we must in time likely do, other space faring species or intelligences, we can use comparison of events in existence to build up a common translation of our languages or representational systems into the other’s. Thus literally, it creates methods of universal understanding, not only for comprehending the many species of our world, but of all worlds, universe wide. “Depths within Depths” shows this extra-ordinary commonality of our universe, because the laws of chemistry, physics and gravity/mass, & space/time are observed everywhere to be the same.
These are the ways out of the endless loops of mental illnesses, delusions, and traps of body and spirit. This marks the Exit” sign of red and white from the mind traps of the idealisms, the external addictions of drugs, videos and sex, the meaningless and emptinesses of boredom and even ennui, and loss of Joie de Vivre. It shows how to end both the internalized, addictions, the endless feedback loops of the mind traps, This points the way to endless joy and the Spark of Life and Soul of Wit. It shows how every day can be another day of joy and wonderment, of discovery and creation. Indeed it’s the wellspring of Joy and creativity, the inspiring dopamine boost.
For those trapped in the endless wheels, repetitions and circles of life so widely noted in Sanskrit, These are the ways out of poverty, meaninglessness and emptiness. Here are the doors to the way out, to unlimited creativity, discovery, and joys. Everyday reinforcing itself, self sustaining life and the pleasure of philosophy, as well. As we interact each day with other persons & events in the universe, we learn more, discover, and derive pleasure from our interactions, constantly renewing that which is built into our very brains/minds, and then learning more, which then repeats the dopamine boosts and inspirations and goodness throughout our lives.
Thus the adoption of the comparison process models and methods can potentially create not only universal and unifying understanding upon our own planet, but ever more with most all intelligences and races everywhere in this universe. This is the ultimate and unlimited Promised Land of the Undiscovered Country, the comparison process of unlimited methods & complex system methods create unlimited comprehensions and decoding methods, which can create universal understanding wherever properly and intelligently & wisely used.
Thus, “La Chanson sans Fin, Universelle”.
La Chanson Sans Fin 