[FRIAM] multitasking

[Prof David West]

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
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