The following essays serve as informal white papers. Their purpose is to enable a better understanding of the mind/brain model developed by Mind Brain Insights, LLC. This includes being able to map any mental state or process, or combination thereof, through space and time in the brain. These essays are useful to anyone considering collaborating, or working on a project, with Mind Brain Insights, LLC.
A secondary purpose is to shine light on brain myths I argue have stunted the development of brain science. These have obscure an accurate understanding of how brains actually work. To be clear the myths are no one’s fault. They’re the inevitable result of incomplete or suboptimal understanding. Understanding mind, and its brain connection (the mind brain problem) is in its infancy. This results in widespread assumptions (both explicit and implicit) which I argue are misguided. Shedding light on these paves the way for an alternative view of the system to emerge.
The good news is the brain science community has tremendous potential. It possesses a vast amount of vital knowledge, skills and expertise. Cognitive neuroscience for example is critical to functional neuroimaging, and signal decoding. What if this understanding and ability were combined with a correct cognitive ontology (parts list of the mind), mind model (their activity through space and time), and ability to connect this to the brain? This is a third area of exploration of these essays.
The mental states and processes of people, and their neural manifestation, can be a fascinating topic; especially when explored realistically and in all its vivid subjectivity. Brain science has so far only dealt with the tip of the iceberg. In fact, all we perceive, recognize, identify, feel, think, imagine, plan, believe, know, intend, attend to — any aspect of human experience and knowledge — is encompassed by the mind. And incredibly, this is all created or enabled by the human brain.