Comment on Is it possible to learn new things with no external stimuli at all?
naeap@sopuli.xyz 4 weeks agoIf I remember that correctly, the brain mostly interacts with itself and only a little part is new “outside” information
The work we experience is just a construct of our brain and it wouldn’t be stable, if it only relied on external stimuli.
As for example our eyes don’t really take in a full picture, but only small parts, and the brain uses existing models to adapt to the new inputs.
So we’re mostly living in our heads anyway.
hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 4 weeks ago
As far as I remember, these experiments have been done. Like letting people float in luke warm water in complete darkness and depriving them of any sensory input. And that seems to lead to hallucinations, anxiety... And is more a turture method than anything else. I'm not sure if the brain takes permanent damage from that. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't like it.
But sure, the brain is more tightly interconnected within itself, than it is coupled to the outside world. But I think that holds true for lots of complex systems other than the brain. Their thing is to be tightly coupled on the inside and more loosely to the outside. But the whole point of the brain is to be a computer which forms models about the world. That's why evolution gave us a (more advanced) brain. It's kind of pointless without an interactive connection to the world. And not designed for that.