Your brain doesn't plan ahead—it improvises brilliantly.
New #MITResearch overturns decades of cognitive science: We're not "rational economists" mapping entire environments. We're strategic improvisers building just enough, just in time.
The paradox: 4-item working memory vs. thousands of environmental details. How do we function?
Discussion
Loading...
The breakthrough experiment tested memory for:
* High-impact obstacles (changed outcomes)
* "Useless" obstacles (hit constantly but irrelevant to goals)
Traditional theory predicted: remember important, forget useless.
Results: We remembered useless obstacles PERFECTLY—because we bumped into them.
We process collisions, not consequences. We're experience-oriented, not result-oriented machines.
This explains:
* Obsessing over argument details
* Why robots freeze in cluttered spaces
* Why you remember friction more than outcomes
* Why you don't need a complete life plan
#CognitiveScience #Neuroscience
The brain uses 20% of body energy. Precalculating everything = metabolically impossible. We evolved to use the world as external memory.
Step, look, encode. Repeat. That's the human algorithm.
🎧 Listen: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2405788/episodes/18636177
📖 Read: https://helioxpodcast.substack.com/publish/post/187105038
Available for Broadcast on PRX https://exchange.prx.org/p/606558
⏱️ The Brilliant Laziness of Being Human: Why Your Brain Refuses to Plan Ahead (And That's Actually Perfect) - Heliox: Where Evidence Meets Empathy 🇨🇦
Buzzsprout