

The Brain vs the Mind - bennesvig
http://bennesvig.com/the-brain-vs-the-mind/

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zoba
What is talking about are called more technically called second order desires.
(<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higher-order_volition>)

From his example he "wants cheese cake" but he "wants to want to focus on his
work" and instead he is "wanting cheesecake". Wikipedia gives the good example
of the drug addict who "wants drugs" but he "wants to not want drugs".

Its very close to the ideas of self control and willpower.

Second order desires are important in artificial intelligence as most AI only
has 1st order desires (e.g. 'make a plan of actions to accomplish something').
Second order desires can be used as a controller for 1st order AI processes,
and are therefore very powerful (think about a real time system that can know
when it has spent too much time planning, and needs to use whatever its
current best plan is).

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ramy_d
I found your post much more informative than the original article. His work vs
cheesecake seems to be an issue of discipline vs temptation, and to be honest,
something we all face with various amounts of success (especially considering
how popular home-grown projects are in this community)

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AndrewDucker
The problems a lot of people have with self-control stem from the way they
deal with the split.

If you think of the brain as something to be controlled then you will run out
of energy very quickly. You can't hold it in place.

If you think of it as an animal to be trained, then you can slowly alter its
behaviour until it does what you want.

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disgruntledphd2
Its funny that a hundred years ago, this article would have been the mind
versus the body. Apart from highlighting a particularly interesting form of
dualism (with which I have some sympathy), this article shows how much neuro-
science has altered our perceptions of ourselves.

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overgard
I think as far as models of the brain goes, this one is somewhat useful and
popular, but basically wrong. This book outlines a model that I think is a lot
more accurate (as reviewed on Less Wrong):
<http://lesswrong.com/lw/6yh/consistently_inconsistent/>

