I drive a lot, and sometimes I just “scare” back into reality and I realize I wasn’t even paying attention the last few seconds, and it feels weird. Why and how does this happen?
In: 2885
There is a state of mind called “alpha state” we go into this for around 10 minutes of every hour, generally it happens when we don’t really need to think too hard such as walking the same routes or stacking the same shelf etc.
Also when we do the tasks or walk routes that we do on a regular basis we can only see about knee height up to eye height, this is why so many trips happen on routine journeys but maybe something has changed.
So for example, if you park your car in the same spot and walk the same route to your desk every day, the likely hood is that if one day someone left a pallet or pot hole in the ground you’d maybe walk along “day dreaming/or alpha state” and trip over it, and vice versa if it’s always been there you’d maybe not necessarily “see” it but mentally you know it’s there and you’d avoid it even while not paying attention.
This happens so often to me when doing routine drives like to and from work, and if I decide to stop somewhere and grab something after work, it has to be close or I have to just enter it into the GPS, otherwise I’ll be almost home and then remember, “Oh crap! I wanted to stop at [X] on the way home!”
This is a link to a slightly related thing, it’s about the automated neural paths and the forced ones we try to make. The brain tries to send as much as it can to the toddler part of the brain, and saves the high energy consuming rational you for complex and new tasks, so our brain going on auto pilot happens to conserve energy use in the brain by using the toddler exclusively somethings causing a sort of auto pilot where we lose track of time.
I always read about this phenomenon, but it never happens to me. Like, I literally never go on autopilot, even when I am walking or driving a route I’ve done many times before.
Am I a freak? Or are there other weirdos out there too scared of Big Autopilot Mind to speak up?
When you do something over and over you are essentially strengthening the neural pathways involved every time you do it. Eventually, the action becomes automatic whether you pay attention or not, and sometimes if you try to think about it you’ll actually fuck it up.
Which raises some interesting questions in the vein of philosophy of mind. The more you do something the less conscious you become of doing it, as if there’s some higher order consciousness that is as unconscious as the subconscious.
There is a concept in behavioural science according to which we function with a system 1, which involves unconscious or automatic things, and a system 2, which requires our active attention.
For example when you take a walk to clear your thoughts, system 1 handles the walking part, which frees resources for system 2 to process your thoughts. Let’s say you were to trip on a rock, your body would hold your thoughts and bring the walking part to your system 2 so you can make an attempt to avoid falling.
One could say that when you learn something by practice, like some of the tasks that are involved in driving a car, you are gradually transferring them from system 1 to system 2.
Pretty much you brain has done something enough that it can do it without specific thought. This is called system 1 which includes stuff like breathing and walking (typically). Things become part of system one through practice and repetition. When things are not on autopilot there a part of system 2 which is just the tasks that our brain has to specifically focus on. My response is pretty much entirely based on Kahnemans “Thinking Fast and Slow”
I read somewhere a while back that driving is one of the only complicated tasks we can perform automatically. Something to do with it being high risk that it happens so successfully
All those lights that I just passed, were they green?
“I realize I wasn’t paying attention the last few seconds.”
Yes you were. To use old terminology, the TV was running, but the VCR wasn’t recording. Your brain filters out tons of useless information throughout the day, because intently focusing on everything and committing it all to long term memory would be wasteful and exhausting.
I drive a lot, and sometimes I just “scare” back into reality and I realize I wasn’t even paying attention the last few seconds, and it feels weird. Why and how does this happen?
In: 2885
There is a state of mind called “alpha state” we go into this for around 10 minutes of every hour, generally it happens when we don’t really need to think too hard such as walking the same routes or stacking the same shelf etc.
Also when we do the tasks or walk routes that we do on a regular basis we can only see about knee height up to eye height, this is why so many trips happen on routine journeys but maybe something has changed.
So for example, if you park your car in the same spot and walk the same route to your desk every day, the likely hood is that if one day someone left a pallet or pot hole in the ground you’d maybe walk along “day dreaming/or alpha state” and trip over it, and vice versa if it’s always been there you’d maybe not necessarily “see” it but mentally you know it’s there and you’d avoid it even while not paying attention.
This happens so often to me when doing routine drives like to and from work, and if I decide to stop somewhere and grab something after work, it has to be close or I have to just enter it into the GPS, otherwise I’ll be almost home and then remember, “Oh crap! I wanted to stop at [X] on the way home!”
This is a link to a slightly related thing, it’s about the automated neural paths and the forced ones we try to make. The brain tries to send as much as it can to the toddler part of the brain, and saves the high energy consuming rational you for complex and new tasks, so our brain going on auto pilot happens to conserve energy use in the brain by using the toddler exclusively somethings causing a sort of auto pilot where we lose track of time.
I always read about this phenomenon, but it never happens to me. Like, I literally never go on autopilot, even when I am walking or driving a route I’ve done many times before.
Am I a freak? Or are there other weirdos out there too scared of Big Autopilot Mind to speak up?
When you do something over and over you are essentially strengthening the neural pathways involved every time you do it. Eventually, the action becomes automatic whether you pay attention or not, and sometimes if you try to think about it you’ll actually fuck it up.
Which raises some interesting questions in the vein of philosophy of mind. The more you do something the less conscious you become of doing it, as if there’s some higher order consciousness that is as unconscious as the subconscious.
There is a concept in behavioural science according to which we function with a system 1, which involves unconscious or automatic things, and a system 2, which requires our active attention.
For example when you take a walk to clear your thoughts, system 1 handles the walking part, which frees resources for system 2 to process your thoughts. Let’s say you were to trip on a rock, your body would hold your thoughts and bring the walking part to your system 2 so you can make an attempt to avoid falling.
One could say that when you learn something by practice, like some of the tasks that are involved in driving a car, you are gradually transferring them from system 1 to system 2.
Pretty much you brain has done something enough that it can do it without specific thought. This is called system 1 which includes stuff like breathing and walking (typically). Things become part of system one through practice and repetition. When things are not on autopilot there a part of system 2 which is just the tasks that our brain has to specifically focus on. My response is pretty much entirely based on Kahnemans “Thinking Fast and Slow”
I read somewhere a while back that driving is one of the only complicated tasks we can perform automatically. Something to do with it being high risk that it happens so successfully
All those lights that I just passed, were they green?
“I realize I wasn’t paying attention the last few seconds.”
Yes you were. To use old terminology, the TV was running, but the VCR wasn’t recording. Your brain filters out tons of useless information throughout the day, because intently focusing on everything and committing it all to long term memory would be wasteful and exhausting.
Latest Answers