The deep caverns of the unconscious:

★It doesn’t matter if your conscious awareness is involved or not. And?

most of the time it’s not. Most of the time you are not aware of the?

decisions being made on your behalf.

Consciousness gets involved when the ★unexpected happens, when

we need to work out what to do next. Although the brain tries to tick

along as long as possible on autopilot, it’s not always possible in a

world that throws curveballs(曲線球).

We mostly walk around in our own mental worlds, passing strangers in the

street without registering any details about them. But when something

challenges our unconscious expectations, conscious attention comes

online to try to build a rapid model of what’s happening.

★But consciousness isn’t just about reacting to surprises. It also plays

a vital role in settling conflict within the brain. It can play the role of

arbiter仲裁者 of the billions of interacting elements, subsystems and?

burnt-in processes. It can make plans and set goals for the system as a whole.

When an organization reaches sufficient size and complexity, it needs a?

CEO to stay above the daily details and to craft the long-view of the company.

A CEO is a company’s most abstract view of itself.

In terms of the brain, consciousness is a way for billions of cells to see

themselves as a unified whole, a way for a complex system to hold up a

mirror to itself.

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This titanic complexity leaves us with just enough insight to

understand a simple fact: our lives are steered操縱 by forces far beyond our

capacity for awareness or control.

Sometimes you decide selfishly, sometimes generously, sometimes

impulsively, and sometimes with the long-view in mind. ★We are complex?

creatures because we are composed of many drives, all of which want to?

be in control.

The brain has no pain receptors

The brain is a machine built from conflict:

the key business of brains is to predict. And to do this reasonably well,

we need to continually learn about the world from our every experience.

Drug addiction is a problem for millions of people. But prisons

aren’t the place to solve the problem. Equipped with an understanding

of how human brains actually make decisions, we can develop new

approaches beyond punishment.

willpower isn’t something that we just exercise – it’s something we deplete.

An important technique is to train them to pause and consider the future

outcome of any choice they might make – encouraging them to run simulations

of what might happen – thereby strengthening neural connections that can

override the immediate gratification of impulses.

Poor impulse control is a hallmark characteristic of the majority多數(shù) of

criminals in the prison system. The temptation in the now overrides any

consideration of the future.

Without the ability to weigh alternatives, we would be hostages to our most

basic drives. We wouldn’t be able to wisely navigate the now, or plan our?

future lives.

You are a collection of many competing drives. By understanding how?

choices battle it out in the brain, we can learn to

make better decisions for ourselves, and for our society.

Normal brain function depends on the social web around us. Our neurons?

require other people’s neurons to thrive and survive.

Half of us is other people:

★★★assess 評(píng)估

When you’re trying to understand what I’m feeling, you try on my

facial expression. You don’t mean to do it – it happens rapidly and

unconsciously – but that automatic mirroring of my expression gives

you a rapid estimate of what I’m likely to be feeling.

★The pain matrix is crucial to how we connect with others. If you

watch somebody else get stabbed, most of your pain matrix becomes activated.

★★★In other words, watching someone else in pain and being in pain?

use the same neural machinery. This is the basis of empathy.

When you see another person suffer, you can try to tell yourself that?

it’s their issue, not yours – but neurons

deep in your brain can’t tell the difference.

To empathize with another person is to literally feel their pain.

You run a compelling simulation of what it would be like if you were in that

situation.

Our capacity for this is why stories – like movies and novels

–——are so absorbing and so pervasive無(wú)處不在的 across human culture.