Play With Your Brain and AI
The other day my mom told me something around the lines of: “You know, I don’t want to become complacent as I age. I want to be curious, question things and keep learning.” I loved to hear that. This comment has been in the back of my mind ever since. And I believe I’ve some ideas that could help to achieve just that.
Playing with and observing the brain
Experiences are shaped by ourselves and by something external. We tend to believe that experiences are defined by the external element only, but that’s not correct. Both together, ourselves and the external element form an experience. And since for humans the most significant part of the body that defines who we are is the brain, we are solely by being who we are, actively defining our own experiences.
To understand how an experience is defined by something external as well as something internal (the brain for humans) consider these examples: You vs your cat will not have the same experience while eating cat food. An ant vs you will not have the same experience getting stepped on. A rock vs you will not have the same experience while sitting on the couch watching TV. A baby vs you will not have the same experience while reading a physics book. Your Russian friend vs you will not have the same experience while watching a Russian movie. You vs your mom will not have the same experience while watching the news. Your friend with schizophrenia vs you will not have the same experience while sitting in your friends living room. And finally, you after a good night of sleep vs you with a shitty night of sleep, will experience the day in a different way.
The more similar the entities that I compare in these examples become the more similar the experiences. But even yourself, yesterday vs today, are not the same person. Two entities are never the same and therefore an experience is different for everything and everyone.
Learning is a process that is emerging from having experiences.
Since learning emerges from experiences and experiences are defined by something external and the brain, there is two approaches to keep on learning. The most commonly used one is to change the external element. For instance, through reading books, watching the news, having conversations (with AI for example, see what follows), visiting places etc. The other approach that less people are familiar with is to change the internal element directly. To change the brain, to play with the brain.
The brain is the organ that connects what you would define as “you” to the rest of the world. The brain is an organ we don’t know much about just yet. Most things about it’s functioning remain unknown to this day. Neuroscientists and computer scientists become increasingly incentivized to find out more about it. Luckily, there is already enough material that exists that allows us to start playing and experimenting with it, in a completely safe way.
The author of this book, “You, Happier” by Daniel G. Amen introduces completely natural ways (no drugs, nothing dangerous) to start playing and experiencing with improving and changing your brain. Read it and try out some of the stuff yourself. Be patient and you will see how it will enable you to keep learning by literally seeing things through a different lens.
Playing with and interacting with AI applications:
Current AI use cases such as ChatGPT or Claude.ai are tools that can process a huge amount and kind of information and communicate it to us in a comprehensive and tailored way. We should see them as assistants that have studied the fundamentals of a wide variety of well established subjects, including humans, logic, teaching and learning itself. By using these programs, whatever topic or subject you would like, can be explained to you by a third grade teacher or a university professor. Tell it what you prefer and it will do it. It speaks tons of languages, it is awake 24/7 and has all the time in the world for you. It answers instantly and always aims to give you clear answers.
These programs seem almost magical and are a great tools for learning but for now they remain extremely helpful assistants at most. They have flaws and are not 100% accurate all the time. We should use them to drive our curiosity and to learn. But we shouldn’t depend on them to learn.
So if you are someone, that similarly to my mom doesn’t want to become complacent but remain curious and keep learning, I highly recommend to start playing with and observe your brain and to play and interact with AI. I truly believe these approaches are the start to an insightful and exciting future. The future is bright for curious learners.
For the German version, explanations or other questions of this post please ask ChatGPT for help :)