Sensation, the quantum realm, problem solving

Life, death, consciousness. I find myself contemplating all of these things frequently, but especially when flying. Today I’m ruminating on simulation theory. With the exponential growth of AI recently it seems more and more plausible that existence as a whole could be manufactured. Then comes the classic question… would it matter if it is a simulation? My experiences, sensations and memories are all real and meaningful to me, due to the associated emotions. If there were no emotions I would probably be impartial to…everything. So regardless, it’s comforting to think that even if simulation theory is true, it might not matter because I’m still having seemingly real experiences.

Back in 2014 I was halfway through college. It was a real developmental period in my life, with regular experiences of discovery, doubt and confusion. One night, trying to get a grasp on where my life was going, I started to try to understand emotion on a physiological level. 20 years of living and I’d never really thought about it, just took it for granted. It’s a chemical reaction right? Well, sort of, but more fundamentally I realized, it/they (emotions) are electrical interactions and energy exchange. These chemical reactions of emotion are essentially the transfer of energy and electricity at variable magnitudes. Our sensory experiences are fundamentally electrical signals as well, which are interpreted by the brain to craft a representation of our body and our environment. Our eyes don’t see. Our ears don’t hear. Our skin doesn’t feel. The brain “does” all of these things based on the raw electrical data coming from these sensory organs. Everything around us and everything we interact with is a manufactured representation created by the brain. From a quantum perspective, we aren’t even sure if anything can exist without our conscious observation.

In “The Brain That Changes Itself”, Norman Doidge MD discusses the plasticity of the brain and how lost sensory function can be restored and rerouted to new areas of the brain. In “Deep”, James Nestor tells a story of a man who is fully blind but can mountain bike by using echolocation (like a dolphin or bat) to construct a visual understanding of the world. In “Take Off Your Glasses and See”, Liberman shares a story of a girl under anesthesia who could recall all the details of the operating room she was in, after the fact. She was congenitally blind.

I think we often underestimate the ability of the human brain and its adaptive potential. One of my patients last week (a 90 year-old retired psychiatrist) called me “the incurable optimist”, referring to my attitude toward her prognosis. I think an optimistic mindset is important, but I think the value in that perspective is that it implies a respect for the human potential. All this to say, if you’re feeling like you’re at a dead-end with a problem, recognize that there’s probably a deeper level of complexity to the issue at hand, than you might have thought initially. Which means there’s probably undiscovered potential and unconsidered opportunities when it comes to solving your problem.

Thanks for reading my airplane thoughts.

Chris