This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "A Thousand Brains" by Jeff Hawkins. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
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How does your brain process abstract concepts? How does our ability to think abstractly shape our understanding of the world?
In his book A Thousand Brains, neuroscientist Jeff Hawkins seeks to explain our incredible abstract thinking ability. He proposes that our brain uses similar mechanisms for both concrete and abstract thought.
Continue reading to explore the complex mysteries of abstract thinking.
Abstract Thinking Ability
Some mental models pertain to physical spaces and objects, but how does the neocortex create and process ideas about things that we can’t see, taste, or touch? If Hawkins is correct that all your brain’s higher functions emerge from the models and predictions created by cortical columns, then the neocortex’s models and reference frames must extend beyond representations of the physical world to support our abstract thinking ability. These abstract reference frames must be more complex than those for physical objects while also functioning in much the same terms—those of creating, moving, and adjusting models of ideas in the mind.
Hawkins explains how the same basic circuitry that lets us navigate and interact with the world also underlies our capacity for language, mathematics, imagination, and conceptual reasoning. The key lies in the nature of reference frames. While reference frames for physical objects are three-dimensional, reference frames for abstract concepts have multiple dimensions, each representing a different aspect or degree of the feeling or idea. For example, emotions like happiness and sadness can be thought of as having dimensions such as intensity, duration, and type. Concepts such as human rights can be thought of as having boundaries and limits much like the contours of a physical object.
(Shortform note: Hawkins’s suggestion that we model abstract concepts in multidimensional reference frames aligns with research on the cognitive differences between people with opposing political views. Studies show that conservatives tend to focus on dimensions related to safety, stability, and authority, while liberals focus on dimensions of variety and complexity. These divergent reference frames, when applied to the same abstract concepts—such as freedom and democracy—lead to contrasting opinions on political issues. While there are other cognitive mechanisms at work, such as the power of partisan identity, understanding that people think in different reference frames might help improve understanding across political divides.)
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- Why we need updated models for brain research
- How a new theory about human intelligence could be used to advance AI research
- Why human intelligence poses a more immediate threat to the world than AI does
