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