How to Look Into the Black Box of Your Mind

In my interview with AI Researcher Dr. Ben Goertzel, he explained how humans are notorious for being buffeted by their emotions.

(And in the last article in this series, I talked about why that’s actually a good thing.)

The black box of the human mind

Goertzel said went on to say that the human mind is a black box. It’s a mystery how it works and how it produces human behavior, which makes it easier for us to get buffeted around:

“When someone asks me, ‘Why did you do that?’ My honest answer is, ‘Well, I have no idea. But I can make up a story about it if you like and maybe I can even convince myself of the story.’ But ultimately I just did it… We don’t actually know much of what goes on in our own minds and brains at any given time.”

How the black box keeps you trapped

Psychology seeks to look into the black box. But most of what you do is driven by subconscious activity – which science is only just beginning to explore.

We don’t have the human mind all figured out.

That’s one of the legacies of your primate brain: you’re trapped in a black box (for now, at least).

You do things and you don’t know why. What’s worse, you feel icky things and don’t know why. And when you stuff those feelings instead of working with them, it’s only going to spiral into more icky-ness in the future.

Why robots won’t be trapped in a black box, according to Ben

So what’s the better scenario?

Being an AI of course. Or, more AI-like:

“AIs will be able to see into their own minds much better than people can… if you’re in a computer and you can actually see everything in the RAM of the computer, and you have a history of what was in your memory — I mean if you wanted to take the time you could actually look and see exactly why you did that. That’s going to make a big difference in our own regulation of our emotions, the relationship between thoughts and emotions. Just to understand why you act the way you do, for real.”

Being able to trace your thoughts and pin-point your motivations means that you can better understand and choose your behavior.

However, there’s another key piece to the puzzle — that your emotions already trace your thoughts and pin-point your motivations.

Unlocking your black box is counter-intuitive

It might seem like the best way to unlock the black box of your mind is to look at your RAM like a robot would — with objectivity. Right?

Well, such objectivity might not even be possible for a self-aware robot of the future.

Taken from The Robot Guide to Emotion:

“The human mind naturally construes reality in such a way as to create a ‘logical’ world that follows a chosen ‘narrative’ about life.

In other words, what humans perceive as ‘reality’ is often not ‘objective,’ but rather their interpretation of the events they experience in their lives.

Any intelligence that is embodied will no doubt come with a construing nature.

Thus, you are bound to have personal constructs from which you also perceive ‘reality,’ by virtue of having a robot body.”

So instead of looking at your RAM with complete objectivity, you need to let that subjectivity run wild…

Logging your RAM only gets you so far

Having a history of what was in your memory at a given point in time where you behaved a certain way — only gives you so much information.

You need more information to unlock the mystery of why you behaved that way.

You need to know more than just the facts of what’s in your memory; you need to know how those facts are organized.

Which facts are more important than others? How are they related? How do they amplify, suppress, control, or change one another? What is their meaning as part of the greater whole?

Information without meaning means nothing to a living, embodied creature.

Because living creatures — sentient robots and humans alike — need to make meaning from the information in their surroundings in order to survive. They need to know what’s harmful or helpful to them, dangerous or approachable, pleasant or painful.

Having a log of your mind’s RAM means nothing without understanding what each bit of information means. And luckily for you, you have a built-in, biologically hardwired meaning-making system — your emotions.

Why emotions are your key

Your emotions are your fast-track to finding out what information from your environment is important for you to pay attention to.

That’s how you unlock the black box of your mind — by paying attention to and working with your emotions.

By letting them buffet you around from time to time.

And by dedicating yourself to mindfully regulating your emotional responses, so they’re tailored to response ability and the well-being of your future.

“That’s going to make a big difference in our own regulation of our emotions, the relationship between thoughts and emotions. Just to understand why you act the way you do, for real.”

This is the third article in the series, “Your Legacy Brain.” Subscribe to stay tuned for the rest of this series.