My schizophrenia

Schizophrenia means “broken mind.” But what if I get along with my voices? I get 100’s on tests because they retain the information akin to an eidetic memory. It is almost as if I have a support system right inside of my temporal lobes. Sound relaying as entirely true, no hints of a malleable fallacy creaking in the dark. Talk is cheap. Inexpensive, inundated. I am only tormented after I make a mistake, and you have to comprehend that I never make that same mistake again. If it were not for my schizophrenia, I would not be the person that I know and love today.

Of course I did not used to have a relationship built from love. My life was analogous to a Hell. Constant encouragement to wreak havoc not only on myself but also onto others. “Take that pencil. Stab him. Stab yourself.” “Drive into that car.” The resistance was undoubtedly the most arduous trek I have experienced. Nothing can be compared and contrasted. I was thrown to the wolves with no remorse. Parts of me being gnawed on until I died a slow death. The depression I experienced was so terrifying I cannot talk about it. The voices created a dream world for me; fantastical with me as the lead actress. Everyone following a specified plot, waiting for me to say my next line.

Somehow, the end became obscure. Like my tears blurred the manuscript and personally rewrote the lines. A part of me emerged that I had never had the pleasure of meeting. We briefly met glances in the mirror before I broke the glass. I was done having more than one part of myself.  Yet still, I forget what it is like to wake up alone.

Perception and Simulated Evolution

            As humans we do not particularly muse over how we actually perceive the world around us because it is unnecessary to do so. We experience the illusion of seeing images from our eyes, but what the optic nerve truly sends to our brain is a chronology of outlines and ideas about our surroundings. We essentially hallucinate the rest based upon past experiences from cortical memories and expectations that arrive in parallel channels. According to Werblin, we receive sparse hints, edges in space and time.

           A discovery relative to this within the field of Artificial Intelligence is what is called “sparse coding.” It has been found in creating artificial systems that discarding a majority of the input information away and keeping only the most relevant details provides enhanced results. If not, there will be an excess amount of information and the neocortex will be overwhelmed. And there lies an important question, how do we set the parameters that control a pattern recognition system’s functioning? These parameters are called “God parameters” because they are set before the self-organizing system of determining the topology of the veiled Markov models.

          To set these parameters, we use a simulation of evolution. This involves utilizing genetic algorithms, which simulate sexual reproduction and mutations. To begin this drawn out process we have to consider which way to code a solution to a problem and then design and define the parameters that embody the circuit. This list is considered the genetic algorithm. Then we arbitrarily produce thousands of genetic codes. Each code is labeled a simulated organism. Next we evaluate the “organisms” in simulated environments by using a defined method to asses each set of parameters. And finally, whichever organisms are the best solutions are allowed to survive, and the rest are eliminated. This process is continued until a generation or such like amount of organisms has existed and went extinct until the population is limited to the best. A computer is quick enough to make this simulation in a matter of days, rather than hundreds of thousands of years. It is painless to use these methods in the prediction of bacteria growth or evolution of other microorganisms. But yet it is impractical to an extent for intricate organisms such as humans.

Memories part II

The Human Computer

The human brain is similar to that of a computer in myriad of ways. Our brain works in synchrony with each side and is connected by the corpus collosum. Messages are relayed through dendrites, synapses, and so on. This is eerily comparable to how computers work with algorithms. Given a specific set of code, they transcribe various outputs from the central processing unit to numerous registers. Could a certain algorithm turn a computer into something parallel to a human brain? Computers are capable of running any algorithm you could plug in (as long as it follows a strict set of principles), and thus by rule the answer is yes. Conversely, the human brain is vastly different from that of a computer. As von Neumann explained, the brain is awfully slow but extraordinarily paralled. Today’s digital circuits are at least 10 million times quicker than the brain’s electrochemical switches. But still, the redundancy used by the brain to achieve full-bodied invariant results can be simulated in software emulations. The mathematics of this is surprisingly well known, and would not be too far fetched to achieve.

 

Recreating an exact replica of the human brain would be inflexible and impossible to a certain extent. The neural proliferation and pruning that occurs automatically with time in the human brain would be almost infeasible for a computer. Computers are essentially babies when compared to humans; they cannot think for themselves and need constant direction and instruction in order to accomplish any rudimentary task. Thus, there would not be a way to circumvent the issues that come along with involuntary deletion of a certain bit of information that has not been utilized after a definite amount of time. Yet another restriction is that in the human neocortex, there is no system that rules out contradictory ideas. Human thought, as I am sure you have noticed, is innately inconsistent. This is where the recreation of a brain becomes trickier. Would it be a superior idea to model a computer after a biological system that is naturally conflicting? Probably not, but that remains the objective. With all of the errors this aspiration encompasses, the target is not to be perfect because the human brain is certainly not perfect.

It is important to take note that the design of a brain and its totality is much simpler than the design of a single neuron due to the fact that models get easier at a higher level. An entire computer can be reduced down to a few formulas. This is because we can apply one or two formulas to an entire set of principles. This too occurs in the brain. Take facial recognition for example: you can observe why and how we recognize faces without comprehending the chemical relations and actual physics behind the occurrence. 

Memories

We remember in sequences; patterns rendered useless and unintelligible if not committed to implicit and explicit memory locations. Implicit memories are declarative; unconscious motions and behaviors that naturally arise due to constant exposure or repetitive practice. This is why you may experience “highway hypnosis,” for example. Because you have repeated the task of driving to one place many times (or perhaps driving a straight shot on a highway for an extended period of time) it becomes second nature to you and you may drive to a location and not remember the trip there. Thus, the memory had clearly become devoted to your cerebellum for later use. This is vital for your ability to operate on autopilot whilst thinking about other concepts, plans, etc.

 

Explicit memories can be semantic or episodic. Examples of such are facts, events, and concepts. If you have no qualms with memory, you need not tell yourself to remember what you ate for breakfast or your own name. This fact is automatically dedicated to your medial temporal lobe and more specifically in your hippocampus. Without this facility, you would be in a ceaseless state of confusion, making yourself powerless to the world around you. Unfortunately, memory loss is common. From a biopsychological perspective, and according to Ribot’s law, you may suffer from losing recent memories first due to the weaker neural pathways of newer memories. This is applicable to recollection of memories in general and supports the fact that memories dim over time if not accessed.

 

There are no images, videos, or sound recordings in the mind. That is the greatest illusion. It is instinctive to believe that what you can remember is akin to a byte of information on a hard drive, but alas, it is just the opposite. Your memories are composed of a hierarchy of patterns in the neocortex. You are able to recognize such patterns because of your inherent nature to do so. From an evolutionary standpoint, it is indubitably necessary to be able to quickly pick up on minute details and devise subjective opinions, plans, decisions, and so on. This all ties in with your obligatory drive to predict the future in order to ensure your safety and survival. We are relentlessly foretelling future outcomes in order to fashion an aegis surrounding ourselves from possible danger. This expectation harshly manipulates what we actually perceive.

 

The neocortex itself is technically one pattern recognizer high. Within the neocortex are a myriad of redundant factors. Redundant factors are words or images that occur often and are analogous. Take the word cat, for example. Hundreds of recognizers could be firing at once when this word is spoken or viewed. Albeit you do not notice this, because your brain transfigures which form of the word is being used rather than making you decipher it. If the word is spoken, those recognizers will fire, and so on. Not every input pattern has to be present for a recognizer to fire. As long as some parts are activated, you will recognize the pattern nonetheless. This can ensue issues because you can misinterpret words or patterns for something entirely disparate than what they are meant to be. Optical illusions are an example of such.