Re:Advanced Situational Awareness [pdf]
by jvanderbot on Tuesday May 11, 2021 @04:51PM
(#27123353)
There are some crazy experiments involving brain injury or brain surgery patients that lost control of their limbs temporarily, including solving problems involving physical manipulation completely outside their conscious recognition when the vocal centers of the brain are isolated.
It's almost terrifying how only a small part of the brain can vocalize, but all parts of the brain are communicating and "thinking". My takeaway is that we observe ourselves and tell stories about it, but have much less real free will than we think.
I was in the bathroom early one morning and found myself staring blank-brained at my eyes in the mirror. Kind of like that sense you get when you suddenly realize you're looking into an open refrigerator, I knew I had just walked in there for some reason but it wasn't coming to me. Meds? No. Shower? I don't think so. Shave? ... ... *pokes out chin* ... man I'm looking a little rough ... and just then, as I start getting distracted with the unkempt dude in the mirror, my right arm raises without any provocation and *angrily* mimes brushing my teeth. Like three.hard.rakes across the grill and then back down.
As soon as that happened it's like someone unclicked pause in my brain and everything flooded back. Brushing my teeth! So I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste and as I'm dosing it up with a fresh blob I think wait...what the fuck was that? It was like my arm was possessed and tired of me being an idiot lol.