| Emotions are nerve impulses. | | | | However, mastering a skill needed attention. |
| The feel of paper and the flush of shame. Feelings | | | | Landmarks had to be identified and remembered. |
| and emotions are relayed as nerve impulses. Nerve | | | | Attention increased cortical activity. Those |
| endings or sensors report on feelings from tissues all | | | | combinations of context were recorded by the drive |
| over the body. These sensations include sharp pain, | | | | channel. The IA concept suggested that learning |
| burning pain, cool or warm temperature, itching, muscle | | | | involved memory at lower levels. The cortex laboured |
| contraction, joint movements, soft touch, mechanical | | | | to teach the drive channel. The memories of the drive |
| stress, tickling, flushing, hunger and thirst. Electrical | | | | channel neurons later responded appropriately, without |
| excitation of certain parts of the temporal lobe, cause | | | | cortical intervention. |
| intense fear to be produced in patients. Excitation of | | | | Largely unconscious drives. |
| other parts caused feelings of isolation, loneliness, | | | | The drive channel initially learned by recording context. |
| disgust, or even pleasure. The mind differentiated finely | | | | That was when you first learned to drive a car. As the |
| between these nerve impulses - to feel tired, hungry or | | | | mind learned, combinations of contextual memories |
| much else. But, how could the pleasant, or | | | | were encoded into the memories of drive channel |
| unpleasant quality of nerve impulses be explained? | | | | neurons. Over the years, millions more contexts would |
| Why should the universal experience of pain be | | | | be added. Shortcuts, early lane changes, responses to |
| wretched and pleasure agreeable? What kind of code | | | | traffic snarls. Because the channel neurons |
| could the mind use to differentiate between nice and | | | | remembered, it was no longer necessary to highlight a |
| awful? The book, The Intuitive Algorithm (IA), explains | | | | landmark through attention. Increased firing was not |
| how mere nerve impulses could achieve this. That | | | | needed to indicate context. Normal perceptions were |
| view is founded on the crucial IA evidence that instant | | | | adequate. The channel remembered and managed |
| pattern recognition — intuition - could underpin | | | | habitual activities. The studies supported the view of a |
| the processes of the mind. | | | | drive channel which acted through learned memories. |
| A seamless pattern recognition system. | | | | But those memories had inherited components also. |
| Over the ages, science had speculated on the nature | | | | Those components also responded to feelings and |
| of human intelligence. The IA concept was a new | | | | emotions. |
| view. That the wisdom of the mind relied on the | | | | The historic basis of drives. |
| massive memories of nerve cells for combinations. | | | | Purposeful drives had antecedents from the beginnings |
| The mind used intuition, a pattern recognition process. It | | | | of life. The Hydra was a primeval example of such a |
| was a logical elimination routine, which could instantly | | | | mechanism. It was a branched tubular animal. A netlike |
| sift a single contextual answer from its immense | | | | arrangement of neurons was interposed between its |
| knowledge base. It was this process, which enabled | | | | outside and its internal digestive cavity. A stimulus |
| you to reach into your pocket and identify a key. Just | | | | applied to any part of its body resulted in contraction |
| by touch. Nerve cells could finely differentiate between | | | | or bending of its tubular body and its tentacles. The |
| combinations of sensations to recognize objects and | | | | Hydra moved about with this simple nerve net, varied |
| events. Recognition was enabled by a combinatorial | | | | its length and used its tentacles to push food particles |
| coding process by neurons. Such a recognition | | | | into its mouth. Occasional strong contractions of the |
| process was recently accepted by science and a | | | | whole animal served to expel indigestible material from |
| Nobel Prize acknowledged that discovery in 2004. So, | | | | the same orifice. From the beginnings of history, nature |
| at the input end, kaleidoscopic combinations of millions | | | | had devised ongoing drives, which enabled essential |
| of sensations were received. From these, the mind | | | | activities - to move about, swallow, or expel food. |
| instantly recognized events. Recognized events | | | | Across millions of years, more sophisticated feelings |
| triggered contextual feelings. Feelings triggered allied | | | | and emotions developed. Inherited memories |
| drives. Drives fired sequences of remembered muscle | | | | generated a far wider range of drives to meet the |
| movements. The circuit closed. All this was enabled by | | | | needs of these emotions. Drives to teach the young, |
| massive memories in neurons and, intuition. 100 billion | | | | to lie in the grass, or to play on the field. But the |
| nerve cells recognized events and delivered motor | | | | essentials remained. Drives to seek out and accept, or |
| output, within a bare span of 20 milliseconds. The time | | | | to avoid and escape. |
| between the shadow and the scream. So, from input | | | | The agreeable and disagreeable quality. |
| to output, the mind was a seamless pattern recognition | | | | Medical texts reported that the pleasure emotion was |
| system. | | | | triggered from the septal areas of the brain for rats. |
| Intelligent drives. | | | | The animals were observed when they were able to |
| The current feeling dictated purpose at the highest | | | | self stimulate themselves, by pressing a lever, through |
| levels. A hierarchy of intelligences followed through. At | | | | electrodes implanted in the septal area. They continued |
| the second level, learned movements were inserted. | | | | pressing the lever till they were exhausted, preferring |
| At the lowest level, fine motor coordination delivered | | | | the effect of stimulation to normally pleasurable |
| the final output — whether a spoken word, or a | | | | activities such as consuming food. The pleasure |
| written line. A feeling expressed a purpose. A feeling | | | | emotion impelled the animal to repeatedly seek that |
| of fear could dictate an escape drive, whose purpose | | | | stimulus. On the other hand, pain was felt in two |
| was to achieve safety. That demanded instant | | | | waves, separated by an interval of a few tenths of a |
| responses, varying across species. A deer bounded | | | | second. The first was sharp and localized. The second |
| away. A bird took flight. A fish swam off. While the | | | | wave was diffuse and still more disagreeable. So, also, |
| activities of running, flying and swimming differed, they | | | | after an operation called lobotomy, the presence of |
| achieved the same objective of escaping. Such | | | | pain was no longer distressing to the patient who |
| activities could not be stupid. Escape was hardly | | | | would say that the pain was still there, but it did not |
| possible by heading into the predator. Increasing the | | | | hurt. Pain was divided into a sensation and a |
| distance from danger demanded uncommon | | | | disagreeable element. That element was, in reality, a |
| cleverness. That objective could even be achieved by | | | | drive to avoid the stimulus. |
| slipping into a safe sanctuary, inaccessible to the | | | | Pleasant and unpleasant drives. |
| predator. Like the underside of a rock. The system | | | | The primitive Hydra, moved about, swallowed, or |
| received intelligent contributions down to the lowest | | | | spewed out food. Its drives worked to approach, |
| levels. Purpose was expressed as feelings at the | | | | accept, reject, or escape. Millenniums later, the control |
| highest level and remembered drives operated at | | | | systems were more sophisticated. But, humans |
| lower levels. | | | | traveled the seas, enjoyed delicious meals and |
| A drive, which assembled combinatorial memories of | | | | occasionally became sea sick. Pleasant emotions |
| context | | | | generated a drive to approach and accept. The rat |
| The nerve cell memories, which powered these | | | | kept pressing the lever. Such emotions made you feel |
| intelligences were both inherited and acquired. The IA | | | | good. Unpleasant emotions generated a drive to |
| concept of nerve cell memories was supported by | | | | escape, or reject the stimulus. The second wave of |
| research. The study of cortical activity, while learning | | | | pain was a drive triggered by cortical recognition of |
| skills, presented a mystery to science. PET scans | | | | pain. That feeling triggered a drive to escape. That |
| revealed that as a person learned a skill, cortical | | | | drive was disagreeable. It made you want to run |
| activity was initially high. But, with learning, it gradually | | | | away. When the drive was disconnected in lobotomy, |
| reduced. Why did practiced effort require less cortical | | | | pain became just a sensation. Drives affected peace |
| activity? Why should practice need less neural | | | | of mind. The IA concept of a drive channel explains |
| interactions? Surely, highly skilled activities should have | | | | those subtle attributes of pain and pleasure. |
| more neural traffic? Science remained in the dark. | | | | |