[FRIAM] multitasking

[Prof David West]

glen is good at triggers — this one more of an observational one.

The mind/brain seems to require massive multi-tasking / parallel processing to function at all. I base this statement on long ago experiments at Macalester's psych department with a sensory deprivation tank - a real one, not the ones they use in spas for relaxation. The mind/brain "panics" absent massive multi-channel sensory inputs ‚ the five senses plus other channels. North Korea used this kind of sensory deprivation as torture. The experiments we did would never get past a research board today because they were very dangerous and used human subjects including me.

Sensory deprivation with LSD was a whole different thing. I could not do more than five-minutes in true sensory deprivation tank but spent many an hour tripping in one.

davew

On Tue, Jun 1, 2021, at 4:01 PM, uǝlƃ ☤>$ wrote:
> Yes. When someone in a casual circle talks about multi-tasking, it's 
> conscious-focus-of-attention tasks they seem to mean. One might even 
> argue *that* conception of multi-tasking is a self-contradiction. You 
> can't both focus and not focus. It begs us to ask what all these words 
> actually mean ... which is why there's always *that guy* who has to 
> jump in and man-splain everything to everyone.
> 
> When I used to run, I preferred rough terrain precisely because I can 
> multi-task in Dave's sense. In fact, providing my body with the more 
> complex task of running on and in between obstacles actually freed up 
> my mind to think more clearly. Running on pavement never actually put 
> me in the "flow". And running, say, around the track at the local high 
> school was just pure torture.
> 
> But, all said and done, I'm happy for the *triggering*. It stimulates 
> the vagus nerve! >8^D
> 
> On 6/1/21 2:04 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> > I think it is understood that multitasking is slow thinking, not the stuff in the metaphorical FPGA.   Some people have weird and esoteric things in their FPGAs. 
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > *From:* Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> *On Behalf Of *Prof David West
> > *Sent:* Tuesday, June 1, 2021 2:00 PM
> > *To:* friam at redfish.com
> > *Subject:* [FRIAM] multitasking
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > I am putting this in another thread so it will be easier to ignore.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > In another thread, glen's post included the sentence —/"At last week's salon, we broached the (false) concept of multitasking in humans, ..."/
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > This was a trigger. a big one, hence the hyberbolic rant that follows.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Humans not only can, but do, multitask all the time and any "research" that "proves" otherwise is BS.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > If, *and only if*, you define cognition in such a limited way that you can apply the metaphor/model (e.g. context switching) of a serial computer is it possible to demonstrate an inability to multi-task.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > The fact that you can think, write, talk, breathe, ride a bicycle, and admire a sunset simultaneously — and similar examples — must be defined away as somehow not multi-tasking.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > One of the more fascinating altered-state experiences I have enjoyed many times is watching — quite literally a visualization albeit an internal one — a plethora of generative mental processes occuring concurrently, along with "sifting," "winnowing," and "sorting" processes. Using a technique akin to directed lucid dreaming, I posed a mental problem — explaining to another member of FRIAM a specific theory of complexity and aesthetics — before taking the stimulant.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > The resulting experience was akin to watching fonts (pun intentional) of words and phrases spew forth onto a "page" where they circled and danced around each other seeking "connections" until coalescing into cogent sentences which I could then type into the computer. Each "font" was a generative process focusing on one aspect of a context of relevant context and experience, without losing sight of the whole; all of which were operating concurrently. A plethora of cognitive
> > 
> > multi-tasking.
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > Far more mundane, in a controlled psychological experiment in a lab ad Macalester, I was able to put a simple jigsaw puzzle together while maintaining an alpha wave generating "Zen mediation."
> > 
> >  
> > 
> > davew
> 
> 
> -- 
> ☤>$ uǝlƃ
> 
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