
The Unified Theory of the Nervous System
and Behavior
Cognitive Philosophy /Brain Theory by Steven Michael Harris
All of these problems are solved by the discovery of, and the ability to play with, a unique and ancient form of math: the mathematics of the nervous system. To learn this form of math is extremely difficult as it can only be taught indirectly (something like the way Sufi "understanding" is taught). There are almost an infinite number of ways to teach it indirectly, but no way to write up a proof or describe it completely to teach it directly. These different ways to teach it appear to be completely different theories from each other in many cases - appear to be discoveries in themselves - but are actually all implications that arise from the ability to play with this other mathematics and discover how it operates (through clearly being able to use thinking and experience to examine thinking and experience).
This kind of thinking requires an ability to play with a geometrical kind of logic (in a massive number of dimensions) without the use of symbols. (It is not just geometry that is involved. There is a component that is very much like game theory and another component of the puzzle that is something like a contortion of fluid dynamics.)
This is the real "holy grail" of mathematics. (The "holy grail" is not the proving of the Rheiman Hypothesis or other well-respected mathematical puzzle or paradox). This is the mathematics that operates the entire known world of mathematics. It is the mathematics of the mind.
The symbols get in the way.
Take any complicated proof in any field of mathematics dealing with as many different dimensions as have ever been handled in any one mathematical idea. This proof can be published in any size book with any number of required diagrams. It can also be presented in a speech with a PowerPoint demonstration using diagrams and analogies and animation. All of these expressions we have to communicate with each other are very powerful but there is a limitation in these forms of expression that require a contortion of any logic into two-dimensions (even though many dimensions and topics may be discussed). The patterns of language and illustration in a book are still exhibited in a two-dimensional form as print on flat pages. The spoken language is still expressed in a two-dimensional form of a variety of different sounds strung together in a variety of patterns (rhythm being a pattern as well) in a linear form of one sound at a time following another.
We don’t write in three dimensions and we don’t talk in three dimensions. But what we write and say represents many different topics, different dimensions.
The mathematical principal that the nervous system uses to communicate with itself (through a massive network of connections and dimensions) is not possible to communicate between two organisms with the limitations of language (unless a science fiction scenario occurs someday where a large number of nerves are shared between two individuals - or with conjoined twins).
We are taught to let language be the guiding force in our thought. It brings to our awareness and concern many topics we would never concern ourselves with but for the existence of language (and the culture that arises from language). But a capability to greatly expand our thinking ability exists in using the non-language form of thinking that is especially powerful with a grasp of the nature of such thinking.
There are a multitude of various ways to explain this mathematics through its implications and some are better than others. I can explain much of what brings this mathematics forth, some parts are unexplainable but can be figured out by some gifted individuals who have the right kind of ability and instinct, and some parts I can explain only by working with the right professionals someday that can help flesh it out.
It is the genius who is skilled in mathematics that gets closest to finding this form of mathematics by stretching the frontier of all known mathematics in his/her work (albeit with math's limitations of being expressible in two-dimensional form - the only form that makes an idea publishable so a career can be advanced). Some of these talented individuals have a tendency to think without symbols and are able to make discoveries that go outside the boundaries of what is possible using just the discovery that comes from previously known work. Their discoveries would not be known to the world if they did not also have the ability to take these insights and translate them back into a form that can be communicated (a proof). This kind of ability goes beyond language because it is not possible to communicate understandings that are not translatable into a two-dimensional form.
In geometry a massive amount of discovery was (and still is) possible with the examination of forms in two dimensions. But to examine the nature of a greater world and universe, calculations in three-dimensions were needed. Einstein solutions required the examination of a mathematics using four dimensions. The brain goes far beyond four dimensions. It operates like a massive geometrical construction on which every facet and every point of view and every subset (as well as superset) represents a different dimension (with movement adding additional factors and dimensions). I’m not writing about a massive number of different factors but writing about a massive number of different factors that are also different dimensions.
(By the way: one of a number of reasons why there is such a high percentage of neurological impairment, personality disorder and mental illness in the best mathematicians is that there is a massive conflict between the math of the nervous system - which is the real math - and the language-based known mathematics so that stretching the frontiers of this kind of thinking is extremely stressful. In one way it is the person that is impaired in social awareness and language-based thinking that has a chance of being able to think in this way. It is stressful to be able to conceive of a concept that goes beyond language and then convert it into a notation system that is structured like a language.)
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Many of the problems of medicine, biology, psychology and philosophy require an understanding of the basic mathematical principles behind how the nervous system does what it does to achieve function and experience, and that mathematics is not explained using narrowly-focused statistics. Understanding how this math works will be the tool for the discovery of many answers of great importance to humanity. The case for this concept and the offering of an explanation of this kind of math is made in the many essays of this website.
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This website and the podcasts of Everyone's Revolution explain how the brain creates the mind, but many side issues must be resolved in order to teach this material. Once you realize that the "hard problems" are really the first problems to be answered, you then have a tool for changing all of science and medicine by explaining a massive number of discoveries that will fall into line in order to unify the evidence. All of the evidence is good. The interpretations of the evidence are mistaken in many cases. For ten years now there have been new discoveries of evidence that all move in the direction of supporting this theory (or this school of many theories) and its predictions. Quite a few people have started to pay attention to this theory as well.