The first few times we've covered the main function of the brain in detail: prediction, and the simplifications the brain does to make predictions as fast and cheap as possible, and the resulting "brain backdoor." We've said that our self-awareness doesn't really determine our behavior a lot of the time, our self-awareness more often provides us with a simple reason after various desires and emotions trigger behaviors (more often than not an excuse), and serve as news and reports on the results of our internal neuronal network movements. Since our self-awareness cannot determine our behavior many times, what is the value of our self-awareness? Why do we keep making up a reason or an excuse for our actions? The emergence of self-consciousness is related to the social characteristics of human beings. Researchers once compared the brain quality of animals with the number of animal populations and found that in most cases, animals with larger populations have more developed brains and more complex behaviors. For example, gorillas and chimpanzees are close relatives of humans, but chimpanzees have a much more developed brain than gorillas, which is currently speculated to be due to the fact that they are smaller than a male gorilla with several female gorillas. In groups, chimpanzees living in groups have more complex social relationships to deal with and require more cerebral cortex to help them distinguish friend from foe, friendliness from deceit. Humans are also large primates that live in groups. Now there are a large number of people in the world living in densely populated cities. Even in the era of human hunter-gatherers, human beings have never lived in isolation, the kind of isolation and isolation envisioned by Rousseau. The "noble savages" never existed. According to Robin. According to Dunbar's research, early human populations ranged in size from one hundred to one hundred and fifty (this is where the number 150 is called the Dunbar number). The maximum number of people most of us can remember is also 150, and the maximum number of friends that most people interact with frequently in their circle of friends and Facebook is also around 150. The size of human groups requires humans to have larger brains, so that they can remember the intricate social relationships, such as who has an intimate relationship with whom, who is in conflict with whom, etc. If we can't remember these, it will be difficult for us to be in a group. Good survival inside. Our huge brain is created to deal with the complex social relationships in groups, which is why we naturally like to gossip, because gossip can help us better understand the social relationships in groups. We may not be able to remember numbers, but we There is an evolutionary reason for not being able to remember gossip. There are many functions in the human brain that are programmed at birth to cope with the complex social relationships in large groups. To deal with complex social relationships, we must first recognize the face. Modern scientific research has proved that a baby who is just a few days old will be excited when he is shown a photo of a face, but his brain will not respond so strongly when he is shown a photo of an object. Face recognition function, and artificial intelligence to achieve this function requires a lot of data and computing, and sometimes there are errors. There are also mirror neurons in the human brain that help us understand the emotions and thoughts of others. When you see someone smile, your mirror neurons will trigger the same smile on your face, which will then trigger the same emotions in you, so you can understand to each other's emotions. We understand each other's emotions and thoughts by imitating each other's expressions. Some people who take Botox for beauty cannot smile because their facial muscles are stiff, so they also lose the ability to perceive other people's emotions. To live in a group, we not only need to recognize the faces and emotions of others, we also need to be able to control and interpret our own behavior, and you need to have a concept of who you are so that you can relate that self to what others expect from you. Compare. Before you can understand what others expect from you, you must first have an expectation of your own behavior pattern. If we can't explain our behavior, we can't establish our own behavior pattern expectations. Self-awareness constantly makes up a reason for our behavior, and assigns all decision-making power to our self-awareness, so that our self-awareness can build expectations of our own behavior, and then we will observe other people's behavior of our behavior. responses, and based on an understanding of the responses of others to correct their behavior. So I am not who I think I am, nor what you think I am, but what I think you think I am. Only after self-awareness is established will we weave all our experiences into a story and build up expectations about our own behavior patterns. We seldom have clear memories before the age of two, and even some are fragmentary, so why is this so? Because human babies don't become self-aware until they are about two years old, they can pass the self-awareness test (you can put a red dot on the baby's face with lipstick, and then have him/her look in the mirror, if he/she becomes self-aware, will touch the red dots on his face, if he/she is not interested in the red dots, it means that he/she has no self-awareness). Babies who fail the self-awareness test can remember fragments of memory, but without self-awareness, they cannot weave these fragments into a complete story about themselves, and these fragments are only fragments, not part of self-awareness, so Difficult to be read by self-awareness. How can we build self-awareness? In Westworld, Arnold implanted his own voice into her consciousness when she created Dolores, guiding her to build her self-awareness, and this plot has a certain neuroscience basis. The construction of our self-awareness requires input from others, otherwise it is difficult for us to establish a perfect self-awareness. It can be said that our self-awareness is constructed in the process of interaction with others. The importance of interacting with others to the construction of self-awareness is demonstrated through a tragedy. In Romania in the last century, in order to increase the population, Ceausescu wishfully banned women from abortion. A large number of women who could not afford to raise their children sent their children to orphanages, which were overcrowded with babies. Due to the lack of manpower, the children in these orphanages cannot have any interaction with adults except feeding food. These children who have experienced "social deprivation" in their early years generally have various psychological problems when they grow up and cannot integrate into them. group, and generally have the problem of mental retardation. The monkeys that underwent the same "social deprivation" in the lab also had a variety of abnormal behaviors. For humans and other primates to have normal development and behavior, it is not enough to have food and water, but also the care and interaction of others, which is why doctors recommend it for premature babies in incubators. The reason for the massage, interacting with others can make them recover faster. Without others, we cannot develop the sense of self that most people have, as an integrated, coordinated, independent individual existing within a large social group. The process of self-construction does not stop with childhood. even as As adults, we are also constantly developing and articulating our sense of self. We are constantly weaving our everyday actions and predictions about what others think into a story of which we are the protagonists. Philosopher Daniel Dennett said, "Our stories are made up, but in most cases, we don't make up stories, but stories make up us." Indeed, if there were no stories about "self" in So how do we define ourselves? Are we our body? The cells in our body are replaced with new ones every few years, are we still the same? Are we our brains? The network of neurons in our brain is constantly connecting and disconnecting. At what moment does the topology of the network of neurons represent our true self? We are all the memories, desires, Emotions and behaviors, we make up stories out of these memories, desires, emotions and behaviors. Buddhism teaches that "all actions are impermanent, and all dharmas have no self". Many people do not understand what this means. We can feel the existence of "self" every day we live. Why do we say "no self"? "No-self" does not mean that I do not exist, but that "I" is a constructed story, the process and result of a complex interaction between a neural network and the external environment. If you've had any experience with zazen, you know that our story of anticipating the reactions of others and constructing ourselves is a subconscious, automatic act. If you try to empty your mind and focus on your breathing, soon your brain will surface the words and expressions of other people when you talk to them, and you will guess other people's opinions and intentions based on their words and expressions. Your brain also automatically brings up the recent memorable event and weaves it into your "self-story", such as why it happened, how you reacted, and so on. Many people are socially phobic because of this over-developed ability to predict other people's reactions, because every look and expression of others will automatically trigger their infinite reverie, and then they will feel very tired. It's no use telling them not to think too much, it's an automatic behavior of the brain that they can't control. Instead of trying in vain to stop your brain's automatic behavior or simply avoid social interaction, you can learn to meditate to see the predictions and stories that are automatically generated in your brain from a third-person perspective. As you learn to "watch" these thoughts appear and disappear, you You can do it without letting these thoughts bother you. We're not just our bodies, we're not just our brains It is the process and result of the complex interaction between the neuronal network of the brain and the external environment, so what determines our behavior? Is it the genes that control the network of neurons in the brain or the external environment? We will discuss this in detail next time.
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