Page 49 - Monocle Quarterly Journal Vol 3 Issue 2 Spring

rose by as much as 20% on average, simply by inserting one emotive word into the sentence – even though the subjects had watched precisely the same video.
For neuroscientist David Eagleman, this phenomen- on makes for an interesting investigation into the brain’s function in retaining memories. According to Eagleman,
the importance of storytelling in relation to the way in which humans solve problems, is Austrian-born philosopher Karl Popper – regarded by many as one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers of science. In one of his later books, Knowledge and the Body-Mind Problem: In Defence of Interaction (1995), Popper describes how this storytelling ability of humans is an integral part of what he calls the problem-solving schema. To extend the sphere of our knowledge and understanding, he explains, we as humans instinctively guess at a likely answer to difficult questions, although no empirical rationalisation can be given to support the statement at that time. From this point of assumption, it is then up to us, or those around us, to test the soundness of that story – eventually either proving or disproving the truth of the claim. Through this hypothetical solutioning, we can use our scattered memories and observations as a resource for forward-looking analysis, to predict a likely future outcome despite a lack of currently observable evidence for such a presumption.
When considering the possibilities or limits of arti- ficial intelligence then, it is perhaps this ability to form a story, or to simply lie about the reality of our experiences, that sets us apart from our machine counterparts. For whilst humans and machines can both process the data or experiences inputted into our systems – machines often faring far better than ourselves at this task – we alone can purposely construct an unproven or even false analysis.
The memory of an event,
for example, requires different
groupings of neurons to work together to compose the larger scene – where different groups of
neurons retain different details.
this fallibility of memory is a result of the pressure the neural matrix is put under to hold onto old memories, whilst simultaneously having to constantly experience new external stimuli. The memory of an event, for example, requires different groupings of neurons to work together to compose the larger scene – where different groups of neurons retain different details. Yet, as time passes, each neural group, and indeed each neuron, must begin to multitask in the sense of building new memories whilst attempting to retain old ones. The enemy of memory then, as Eagleman puts it, is not time, but new memories fighting for space in the brain and gradually causing the vividness of the old memories to fade.
One way that we preserve these memories – both Eagleman and Loftus agree – is in the reconstruction of details into abstract stories, or even myth. Memories and their details, are thus, over time, cemented or refuted to form a mental narrative based on the supplementation of new experiences. As many scientists have found, this natural storytelling function of the brain is an important human trait, even if often premised on false memories that are empirically irreconcilable with objective observations. Recent studies have also shown that the ability of children to tell fictional stories, or even explicitly lie, is a strong indicator of healthy social development at an early age – where children who fail to display this trait often struggle to fit in socially and more frequently exhibit delinquent behaviour in the future.
One very influential thinker that has written exten- sively about the importance of lying, or more specifically,
One way that we preserve these memories – both Eagleman and Loftus agree – is in the
THE IMPORTANCE OF LYING
reconstruction of details into abstract stories, or even myth.
The ability to lie is to find meaning in disparate facts, not only so that we are able to store these stories in our brains more effectively from a biological point of view, but also so that we are able to socially integrate and convey this new meaning to our fellow human beings. This quality is not currently a requirement of artificial intelligence, but it may prove to be one of AI’s most telling shortcomings when eventually attempting to measure up to the natural intelligence of the human brain.
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