I’ve often wondered about calculations that the brain can make without you even realizing it. Take, for example, driving in a car.
Whenever I brake, I can usually determine within a few feet where I’ll stop given my rate of deceleration. I know if I’m braking too hard and I know if I’m not braking hard enough. Now, some may say this is just instinct, but the reality is that this is actually a fairly complicated calculus problem that I’m solving instantaneously in my head.
Experts in poker say that when you’re deciding between two actions which seem equal at the time, say calling or raising, and your instincts tell you to do one over the other, you should trust them. Often times you’ve picked up a clue one way or the other and thrown it into the equation without even realizing it.
So I’m wondering what causes it, or if anyone knows what causes it. How much can the mind do that we’re not giving it credit for?
Sometimes I feel like I’m unconciously counting cards when I play blackjack. Especially when I’m there from the beginning of a shoe. Sometimes I’m just compelled to bet more or less, or pull when I’m not supposed to and it usually works out for the better. I think it’s just random dumb luck, but sometimes I wonder if in the back of my head there’s something going on that’s telling me.
The act of walking on two legs is far more complicated than braking a car. The act of seeing this message board with your eyes and interpreting the different light patterns as letters is even harder. The act of interpreting these patterns as language, and understanding them, and posting a cogent reply is orders of magnitude hard than all the previous tasks.
Apparently the brain is hard-wired for some of these tasks, and braking a car is sufficiently close to something else to be easily learned. Since different areas of the brain have hard-wired sections for certain tasks (such as seeing, talking, moving limbs, etc.) we can do them simultaneously, without consciously thinking about it.
I think the best example I’ve seen is this one. You’re standing in the outfield. The batter hits a pop fly. Without thinking about it, you judge the original direction of the force imparted to the ball, the wind velocity, the effects the spin is having on the ball, and performed several first-order multivariable differential equations so quickly that you’re able to catch a pop fly.
And it hasn’t to do with knowledge of calculus; I suspect your average MLB outfielder couldn’t tell you what calculus was. And I’m certain your average little-league player couldn’t.
As to what actually causes it… as far as I know, we don’t haven’t a clue yet.
Good example. Some years ago I read that a runner trying to catch a ball will, instinctively, run so that the ball appears to the runner to be moving in a straight line, which allows the runner to be in the proper spot for catching it.
Part of what makes these feats seem so amazing is that we mistakenly think of brains as if they were general computational devices. The fact is they are specialized organs, evolved to perform specific tasks which vary from species to species. It’s the reason that some squirrels can remember nearly 10,000 different places where they’ve cached food, or something as simple as a fly can manage something as complex as takeoff and landing. In a sense its like Arjuna34 said, the brain is hard wired for some tasks.
Another factor is that the “subconscious” parts of our brains think much much faster than our conscious parts. So its no surprise that it can arrive at a solution to a problem before we are aware of it.
You are not doinf complicated differential equations you are useing past experience. The first time you braked (that doesn’t sound right but close enought) a car you did not get it right. Then the first time you braked in the snow you did now brake right you skidded. You you were instantaneously solving a differential equation you would have factored in the coeffiecent of friction between the snow and you tires and you would have done it right. This is why the more you drive the better driver you are.
The first time that someone threw a ball for you to catch you proably didn’t catch it. Now you know because you have seen it before that the ball will land in a certain area so you go to that area by that time you can see a better trajectory closer to the end so you adjust.
You are not doing any special gymnastics you are simply calling up past information and using judgment on that.
I think etgaw1 has a point: If the brain is nothing else, it is a pattern-matcher. You subconsciously pick up patterns around you and subconsciously try to fit them with patterns you’ve already seen. If you get a pretty good fit, your reaction can range from deja vu to knowing almost instantly that a wall is going to collapse, for example. Patterns are all around you, in how birds react before a storm and in how far your car goes when you push the breaks that exact amount. You may not be paying any attention at a conscious level, but the same parts of the brain that kept your hominid ancestors alive are. So you file the information and wait for another pattern to match it to. I think this explains a lot of the ‘prescience’ claims sometimes attributed to ESP.
In a lot of these situations, you’re not actually doing the whole calculation in your head initially. Instead, you do a first-order approximation which lets you take an initial action. After taking this action, you judge the new situation, and make another approximation. You repeat this as needed.
For instance, think of catching a ball. You’re pretty good at it, right? But if someone threw a ball straight at you, and your job was to put the glove in the correct position to catch the ball immediately, without further adjustment, you would fail almost ever time. If you were actually doing the problem in your head, it would be an easy task.
Anyways, both SmackFu and etgaw1 have very good points. I guess with SmackFu’s point you can say that you are actually doing the Newton-Raphson method subconciously everytime you do something like that, however, past experience also plays a great role; you are basically doing the calculations based on experience, not numbers.