View Full Version : What instigates a thought?
What is the process that instigates a thought?
If for instance I suddenly think - "Oh I'll go to the library".
"I'll walk out into the garden".
"I've just remembered it's the day the bin goes out".
Where is the instigator in this process?
What makes a thought just 'pop' into your head?
Can anyone explain?
kittykat 20-09-2003, 22:59 I dont think anyone knows for sure. The brain is a very complex piece of equipment, far better than any computers. I think all we can do is assume. We know there are electrical impulses going on up there joining up all the neurons which make us think and do everything else and we have an idea of which body of neurons deal with which things but dont really understand why or how, especially when it comes to the 'abstract' things like thought.
I actually dont think you ever do just think "Oh I'll go to the library" or "I've just remembered it's the day the bin goes out". I think that these thoughts are triggered my someting else, such as seeing the bin, or thinking about reading (which in itself is trigered by some other input). These inputs 'fire' neurons and make you remember linked details.
You may also find that memories are triggered by things that dont seem linked at all (well i get this sometimes anyway).
If you just stop, close your eyes and try to think of as much informaiton as you can its quite hard, as you will find yourself 'looping' round a specific thought, or following a very well linked chain of thoughts which obviously triggered one another.
Well, thats what i think anyway??? :?
I can help with this one :D
It's an age old question that people have been tackling hehe. Ancient greek philosophers thought that birds represented thoughts flitting around :) Freud thought it was the product of the battles between your inner drives. Behaviourists seem to think that thoughts don't exist (erm...) and most recently, Cognitive Scientists have developed some interesting models.
Imagine your brain.... you have an uncountable number of nerve cells, and each of these nerves has thousands of connections to other nerves, which can excite or inhibit the other nerves depending....
One theory supposes that each cell, or a collection of cells, represents a concept when they are activted. So your Dog cluster could link with "fur" "pet" "4 legs" "has gills" (the first three are excited when Dog is active or vice versa, and the last is an inhibition relationship).
So... all these concepts are in your head... at various degrees of activation, and each has the ability to influence another by exciting it or inhibiting it... and there is some speculation of another area that allows you to search through the activities of the others letting you find opposite concepts, similar ones....
Input from your senses influences this massive net too. So you are at home watching TV.... your body has been releasing hormones to tell you your stomache is empty, and you flick past cooking programs, an ice cream add.... concepts of hunger, sweet, tasty, cold, steak, vegetables are activated and excite the ares responsible for the notion of personal hunger...... Eventually, the node responsible for the concept of personal hunger is activated beyond a threshold point and becomes important enough to act on.
Walk into the kitchen, you see the bin, start cooking, while it's in the oven you stick some stuff in the bin, notice it's full.... the newspaper you were reading says Monday on it..... all of a sudden *click* Bin collection alert is active over a threshold and you decide it is important enough to act on......
Your brain is an ocean of activity, internal states influencing others, external forces directing the currents... the activity rises and ebbs with the highest peaks being prominent as thoughts in your mind :)
1Man&hisBMW 21-09-2003, 01:30 Has anybody ever opened the fridge in the morning to get milk for their breakfast, to realise later in the day when they return home that they put the milk in the cereal cupboard and the Weetabix in the fridge?
1Man&HisBMW
DaBouncer 21-09-2003, 02:07 Can't say I've suffered that fate 1Man.. but I will keep you posted!
1Man&hisBMW 21-09-2003, 02:38 Oh crap, hops its not only me that does it - am I losing my mind at the age for 23..... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
1Man&HisBMW
Originally posted by Lickszz
What is the process that instigates a thought?
If for instance I suddenly think - "Oh I'll go to the library".
"I'll walk out into the garden".
"I've just remembered it's the day the bin goes out".
Where is the instigator in this process?
What makes a thought just 'pop' into your head?
Can anyone explain?
A thought is creation, when an architect draws a new building, that is created from a thought, when an artist paints a picture it is because of that thought it is created.
When Jesus Christ created the Universe it happened because of a thought, a thought is tangible it is solid.
Carlwarker 21-09-2003, 12:25 Originally posted by halevan
...When Jesus Christ created the Universe it happened because of a thought, a thought is tangible it is solid.
So, according to you, any event that reputedly happened in the BC era never actually took place.
Also, according to your Scripture: 'In the beginning was the Word...(John) - not a thought.
ps. to a certain extent I AM being mischievous and playing with 'words' and I am aware of the Trinity doctrine - but that is what it is - a doctrine - not a fact. And there ARE Unitarians...
I suspect that most Christians associate the Creation with God (of the Yahweh variety) - not with Jesus of Nazareth.
On top of that we have all the other Creation myths as well as the secular Big Bang theory - ALL theories and beliefs - NOT facts.
kittykat 21-09-2003, 17:24 Originally posted by 1Man&hisBMW
Oh crap, hops its not only me that does it - am I losing my mind at the age for 23..... nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
1Man&HisBMW
Dont worry i do stuff like that all the time and i have done that many a time. There are times when im surprised when i actually remember things like that for instance when i forget to lock my car and go back to find it is actually locked i feel quite proud. It only becomes a problem really when you start forgetting living things such as leaving the dog locked in a room when you go out and leaving the goldfish inh the sink when youve cleaned their bowl out but other than that nothings ever gone too wrong.
Has anyone ever got into their car and just forgotten how to drive? Or started to write something and forgotten how to? Or even just walked into one room froma nother and totally forgotten why theyre there god that is so annoying you can be going round for ages after wondering why the hell you got up.
1Man&hisBMW 21-09-2003, 20:34 Originally posted by kittykat
Has anyone ever got into their car and just forgotten how to drive? Or started to write something and forgotten how to? Or even just walked into one room froma nother and totally forgotten why theyre there god that is so annoying you can be going round for ages after wondering why the hell you got up.
I have never forgotton how to drive yet :D - thankfully!
BUt I have gone into a room sometimes, forgotton what I went therer for, left the room again, to come back a minute later and get what I originally went in there for.
If I am tired enough in the morning I can come downstairs, fill a bowl up with shreddies and eat them without any sugar whilst gazing at the nutritional information on the box, blurry eyed.
1Man&HisBMW
Carlwarker 21-09-2003, 20:47 Quite a few times, even as a teenager, of going to the fridge or a cupboard, then wondering what the hell I was looking for.
Also, the odd time, of looking for my reading glasses when they were on my forehead, or looking for a pencil when it was in my hand.
tinajones 23-09-2003, 20:11 there was an interesting tv prog that investigated how advertisers come up with ideas. they took 2 of the best, most successful marketing types and drove them in separate taxis across london but on the same route, then placed them in separate identical offices but in the same building and gave them both a brief.
the outcome was seemingly amazing - suprisingly their ideas were strikingly similar.
it turned out the tv producers had set objects up along their journey e.g a man dressed as a bear in the street, objects in the taxi, scripted conversation and comments etc. thus tracing this 'natural' creative process.
thus proving Calidens points.
Originally posted by tinajones
it turned out the tv producers had set objects up along their journey e.g a man dressed as a bear in the street, objects in the taxi, scripted conversation and comments etc. thus tracing this 'natural' creative process.
I've read about that :) It was a good study :) Key objects were a Zoo with really big iron gates, a music shop with a harp outside, the bear...
Both artised drew similar things... what was it they were asked to design again.... something to do with an animal park or something? I know they both head a heavely theme to the designs with a harp, gates and bear hehe.
That was a great example of priming :)
Derren Brown, Mind Control, I think it was
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