User:Graeme E. Smith/Collections/Model Series/Datamining/What is Intuition

What is Intuition?
This book is about Intuition and how to make it more productive. But Intuition is not as easy a concept as it sounds, the main thing you need to know about intuition, is that it is a memory application that seems almost magical, in that despite working in a field for years scientists have been stymied on many problems for years, and then have gone running down the street naked shouting eureka, eureka, I found it! at the top of their lungs. Geniuses and Women are supposed to be especially capable of having these bursts of knowledge, but in many cases Womens Intuition has turned out to be a case of Jumping to Conclusions instead of a rapid change in the depth of knowledge one has about a certain subject. So what causes these bursts of knowledge, that turn a failure into a sudden success? Ideally we want to be able to harness the effect and use it for our own productivity. We might be willing to forgo the sudden flash of knowledge if we can sustain a higher level of production for instance. That is what this book is going to teach you. How to harness up the mechanisms of Intuition, so you don't need to wait for a hunch to come along to be productive. Don't get me wrong, hunches are nice, but why wait years for one to come along, when you could be using what you know long beforehand?

Memory
In order to understand Intuition we need to understand that memory comes in mainly three flavors, like a Neopolitan Ice Cream. Implicit Memory is silent, we don't know we know it, until it gets added to something else we are doing, then we get an avalanche of detail we didn't know we owned. Declarative Memory on the other hand, is memory we know we know, memory that we can access by topic. In between there is a stage of memory that is not declarative but which we can retrieve from memory for short periods of time. We call this intermediate memory explicit memory, and the main difference between it and Declarative Memory is that Declarative memory has an index that lets it be retrieved by topic. It is the main memory loop that loops through implicit memory, explicit memory, and declarative memory and back to implicit memory, that is the cause of intuition. The last step, which is called consolidation, can last up to 2.5 years after a memory has first been created. Thus, we don't ever Consciously know everything that is in our memory, if only because what we know we know, might be a little bit behind what our minds have learned. The implicit memory is a vast pool of very specific memories that are content addressable but not place code addressable as is required for a demand type memory. As a result the amount of information that we know that we know is limited by the process by which we learn that we know it. Sometimes we have learned lessons at the implicit memory level that do not show up immediately but only show up when a new piece of information is added that causes a change in storage efficiency. The change in storage efficiency causes a cascade in Declarative Memory as new memories are shuffled to fit a new paradigm, and the result is that the structure of the knowledge we know that we know is radically shifted to fit the new paradigm. If you have been working especially hard at a problem and it suddenly shifts like this, the solution can seem to magically jump into your brain, and if you have enough emotionally tied up in it, you might actually make the mistake of running from your bath shouting at the top of your lungs. However It is a good way to get labeled as insane rather than inspired, so I do not recommend it to you. What is important in Intuition is not the vast amount of information that is unconscious, but the reshuffling of knowledge when that one key piece causes us to re-evaluate the way we have stored our memories in the Declarative Memory System. Suddenly a fairly shallow understanding becomes a deeper understanding and productivity soars. Of course having these periods of high productivity intersperced with periods where nothing much is happening, is a good way to get a reputation for inconsistency.

Schizophrenia
Scientists are fairly sure that Intuition has to do with the way that information is shared between the two halves of the brain. This in turn has to do with the commissures that join the two hemispheres of the brain. Unfortunately intuition is closely akin to hallucinations, and often Genius comes with a parallel tendency towards schizophrenia. At first it was thought that schizophrenia was caused by cross talk between the two sides of the brain, and so one of the Commissures, the Corpus Collosum, was operated on. However that had more damaging effects than schizophrenia did, so they quit using the technique. Today scientists are looking at a different definition for the disease involving Dysconnections between different areas of the brain, as a result of Neural Plasticity. The word Dysconnections is not a spelling mistake, but captures the idea that connections are malformed, rather than disconnected. Scientists have actually found evidence of some connections in the brain being reduced in complexity and others increased in complexity as a result they believe, of changes in plasticity caused by changes in Neuro-transmitters dopamine, Serotonin and Acetylcholine. It is interesting to note that some forms of schizophrenia respond to attempts to encourage the subject to keep their mind busy, suggesting that in those cases the exercising of plasticity, can overcome some of the damage caused by the chemical changes in the brain. In any case this book is not about schizophrenia, but about how to make use of the intuition that some people have more of than others, and schizophrenia patients the most until it turns into hallucinations. Dr. Nash a well known tragic case of schizophrenic genius, for instance was known for his wonderful intuitions about mathematics, until he one day began to rave about UFO Abductions. When asked why by a friend after treatment, he stated something like "The UFO stuff came from the same place in my mind that I got the mathematics insights, why wouldn't I trust it?"

Assurance
The main difference between Intuition and Hallucination, between Intuition and Jumping to conclusions, is that Intuition brings with it, an increase in depth of understanding that then tests out to be true. If it doesn't test out to be true, or at least truer than previous, it is a mistaken assumption or a hallucination. The problems with hallucinations are that they often ring truer than reality at the time you experience them, it is only with the result of sober second thought, that you realize that they couldn't be true. The problem with jumping to conclusions is that they usually have some emotional gain to them, which makes you want them to be true, even if they aren't.   Einstein once was quoted as saying "Science is 10% Inspiration and 90% perspiration" suggesting that proving your Inspiration is correct, is much more important than the intuition itself. While science can seem very dry, the fact of the matter is, that it is very good at testing to see how much of an inspiration is true and how much is hallucination. While I don't suggest everyone become a scientist, reality testing after an inspiration, is a very good idea. Even if every other inspiration has been good, you might still have one or two hallucinations to deal with. It's best not to end up in hospital like Dr. Nash did. Having intuition is not a sign of schizophrenia, It is just that many very respected thinkers in the past have had schizophrenia along with their genius. It is because we don't quite understand the nature of intuition that we tend to mistake some hallucinations for intuitions. The main difference is that intuition works in our memory, while hallucinations are supposedly something that works in our perceptions.