Chapter 28 abstract?too hard for our brains

Is 70 better than 50?Of course, you don’t need to think too much about this problem, because 7 is on the right of 5, so all numbers starting with 7 are to the right of numbers starting with 5.This idea is ingrained in our brains.For another example, -7 is to the left of -5, so it is smaller than -5.After reading this, you probably won't want to read any more, especially if you're a mathematician, because this is too much bullshit.How can numbers have a position, and how can they have left and right?This is actually a way to show the size, an abstract expression, and the theme of this article is related to abstraction.

Numbers are too abstract for our brains to cause problems.We learned to count in school.When counting, first count to 5 and then to 7.So 7 is bigger.In fact, it is no different from memorizing a poem. Numbers have no specific meaning, and our brains find numbers difficult to process.What the brain wants to see are concrete things, but those abstract numbers that cannot be grasped or pinched cannot be seen.The symbols written on the paper, such as 7 and 5, are indeed visible, but just like that, the size relationship between 7 and 5 is still invisible.So, the brain exerts its imagination on these numbers and lines them up in a virtual world.As a result, an interesting thing happened. Everyone arranged the numbers in order from left to right.You might say, "Yeah, 5 is to the left of 7 in my head! I thought I was the only one thinking that!" No, that's the fun part of exploring human behavior and the brain One is that there are countless universalities in the world.If your order happens to be reversed, from right to left, don't be discouraged, because there are always a few exceptions, which are the characteristics of living things.

In this way, a kind of imagination related to numbers is implanted in our brains, arranged in a row from left to right.I use "implanted," which means, not necessarily genetic.We don't know to what extent people can learn this kind of imagination, and how it has anything to do with the order in which we write from left to right.What I want to know is whether people who write from right to left, such as Arabs, imagine the sequence of numbers in reverse order.What's more, this kind of spatial imagination varies from person to person, and it needs to be explored through research.As far as I am concerned, when I see a series of numbers from 0 to 10, the length of the sequence is relativized later on, and the distance between 10 and 100 is no larger than that between 0 and 10. 1000, a little further to the right, but not far.Maybe you are not interested in my personal situation, but I don't know the situation of others.But I also want to add that when the number exceeds a million, the sequence in my mind turns into a sequence from right to left!And they will form a new queue, which has been queued in that virtual world.But I guess your imagination should be different.Since no one has done this yet, I'm curious to see what your virtual world and sequence look like.How do numbers big and small line up in your head?However, this is not what we are going to talk about now. The important thing is that people control abstract things by making an orderly space.Our mental world is better at dealing with concrete things like cards than abstract concepts, even if they are imagined.

Let's start with another story.In the 1970s, someone conducted an experiment in which people who participated in the experiment had to choose one of four pairs of pantyhose pants lined up on a table.In fact, the four pairs of pantyhose were exactly the same, but the people who participated in the experiment didn't know it.It turned out that they all tended to the one on the far right.In fact, there are many such left-right sequences in our brains, much more than we expected. Although we are proud of our ability to think rationally, we think that we can use it to conceive the most complex structures based on abstract things, such as language, mathematics, art, etc.Yet there are plenty of examples where our brains still have trouble processing abstract concepts. One example has to do with detecting lies in others.In the latest evolutionary psychology study, researchers are increasingly concerned about the importance of lying in the evolution of human behavior.When it comes to social networking, no other species is more sophisticated than humans.Since our ancestors have lived in groups, cooperation is at the heart of it, and it remains so today.Every member of the group contributes to a greater or lesser extent, so that the interests of the whole group can rise, which is much more effective than if everyone is busy in their own way.Afterwards, everyone benefits from the collective good.However, during this period, there must be some people who did not participate in labor, but picked the fruits of collective labor by lying.So our ancestors had an increasingly sophisticated system for recognizing lies in others.The fewer liars in the group, the greater the benefits of cooperation.Such systems are the subject of scientists' latest research, which also includes my second example of the human brain's difficulty processing abstract concepts.

In this example, four cards are placed on the table.The cards have numbers on one side and letters on the other.The experiment stipulates that each letter has a matching number.The cards on the table said a and b, and also 2 and 3.So at least which cards must be turned over to know whether there are any cards that do not meet the above rules?You can go play this little game after a while.But I can tell you right now that most people are giving the wrong answer, and this is actually a very simple question, once we put it in the context of social context.Here's the situation: By regulation, only adults are allowed to drink in bars.At this time, there were four people sitting on the bar counter, the first one was drinking water, the second one was drinking beer, the third one was obviously underage, and the fourth one was an old man.If you're an inspector, and you're checking that a bar is abiding by the rules, what is the least number of people sitting at the bar that you're checking?The method is very simple, you only need to verify the age of the person drinking beer, water, anyone can drink; and the liquid in the cup of the minor, as for the old man, there is no problem.In fact, this is exactly the same puzzle as that experiment, but it is much easier to solve than the abstract card information.From this we conclude that people are able to solve difficult problems socially, but not so well with abstract forms.

Let me give one last example.Our brains have many special areas responsible for specific tasks.Some areas are used to direct the movement, and some can process the information that people see and hear separately.There is another area where words and language come from, Wernicke's area.When we say a word, such as "apple", Wernicke's area will create the word in advance.And when we want to read a word on paper, that is, use language through abstract symbols, the brain encounters difficulties.At this time, the brain will send the symbol on the paper, that is, the word "apple", to an area where the word "apple" is visually analyzed, and then transmitted to the area responsible for hearing. .In other words, the brain must first hear the pronunciation of the word "apple", and then send the corresponding words to the language center to form language.For hundreds of thousands of years, humans have invented language through hearing, but the symbols on paper, that is, symbolic language, have only appeared for thousands of years.Such a short period of time is not enough time for the brain to carve out a separate area for this.Therefore, before we understand the specific content, we must first hear the corresponding words.

What am I trying to explain?These examples clearly show that the human brain developed at different rates over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.On the one hand, our ancestors relied on more and more wisdom to make tools and use them professionally, so manufacturing industry also developed.The brain has become more and more complex, at least in the way it works, and has created more and more achievements, making the culture, etiquette and science of modern man reach the pinnacle, and these can only be achieved through the use of abstract concepts. It is what the eyes cannot see, the ears cannot hear, and the hands cannot grasp.The use of abstract concepts is a very important pole vault in human evolution.However, those abstract concepts have not yet gained a place in the human brain and do not have their own operating mechanism.There is no, or rather, very little programming in our neurons that gives numbers a place.On the surface, our brains can handle abstraction, but we still need some ancient mechanisms that have existed for hundreds of thousands of years to help.The speed of evolution can be fast or slow, and so is the development of the human spirit.

Regardless of whether we talk about evolution or whether there is a virtual number sequence, 70 is greater than 50, and we don't have to worry about it anymore.For centuries, people have used the series of numbers to build buildings, launch rockets, and decipher genes.But, again, this is an interesting fossil of the human brain that betrays a strange evolutionary process.Interesting?