The individual cognition has uncertainty

[Ziven]

It is just like the Heisenberg uncertainty principle since the individual cognition is the minimum unit in the group cognition process.

 

If we want to know how an individual person thinks, we may suffer some difficulties in accuracy. The more accuracy we want to reach, the more error we will get.

 

Therefore I think the individual behavior is unpredictable.

 

 

[iNow]

Therefore I think the individual behavior is unpredictable.

What if you had access to a real-time high-definition incredibly accurate view of the chemistry taking place in the nervous system of the individual being studied? While achieving 100% accuracy is always a stretch, might not such a high fidelity map of the individuals CNS chemistry and interactions yield noteworthy predictions about their behaviors and choices?

[Ziven]

You are right. If we can measure the chemistry process of the neural pulse accurately, and we can also calculate some suitable parameters of the nonlinear neural network system of an individual’s brain accurately, I think we can “predict” an individual cognitive process at least in theory.

However, you shall mention that the research domain will not restrict in cognitive area. We will involve something associated with matters that are different from the cognitive processes. The problems of matters can be solved by Newton’s laws, relativity theory, and quantum theory. The observers of matters are human.

The researches of cognitive process of human are different from the studies of matters. The observers of cognitive process are also human. It means that the observers and research objects are the same in cognitive researching.

In quantum theory, we know that if the instruments that used to measure the electron’s behavior are photons or electromagnetic wave, the uncertainty principle will take effects. The reason is simple. It is because the interactions between photons and electrons will generate the errors.

If we study the human’s cognitive process, we must ask what he is thinking. When we ask what, it will interference with his thinking process.

Edited November 3, 2012 by Ziven

[iNow]

But we have ways to learn what is happening inside peoples brains without relying on self-report... Without having to ask what they are thinking or feeling.

[Ziven]

I think that you are right. The difficulty is that all of the methods that used to understand what an individual thought without relying on self report are only limited in theories. It is just like hidden variable theory in quantum physics: everything seems reasonable, but conclusions lack of evidence.